The governmental and non-governmental approaches to maintain medium and long-term disaster resilience after a mega-disaster

Abstract

After the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004, the Government of Aceh started to promote disaster risk reduction and to build disaster resilience in order to address the current challenges in disaster risk mitigation in Aceh Province, Indonesia. One of the remarkable changes in the disaster management setting following the Indian Ocean Tsunami 2004 was the establishment of disaster risk management institutions and laws at the national, sub-national and local levels in Indonesia. The rationale of this study emanates from the emerging problems faced by the local government in maintaining disaster resilience after the rehabilitation and reconstruction phase ended in 2010 in Aceh following the mega-disaster. This study will focus on the concept of resilience within Aceh's disaster management agenda and how the government of Aceh developed organizational and political capacities to become "a resilient province ". <br /> After the interventions and engagement of various international and national organizations in the rehabilitation and reconstruction phases in Aceh, it remains unclear whether and how local and provincial institutions are able to maintain and strengthen disaster resilience in the medium- and long-term, and whether resilience issues are implemented and integrated also six and ten years after the Tsunami event in medium and long-term development plans. This thesis will enhance the knowledge about post-disaster resilience building by focusing on medium and long-term resilience building processes, analysis of key tools and strategies to maintain resilience and challenges in multi-actor collaboration. <br /> The PhD thesis focuses on different strategies to build resilience after the crisis of the Indian Ocean tsunami, particularly comparing strategies and tools conducted by governmental and non-governmental actors and to develop an evaluation framework for the process of building disaster resilience. This research aims to provide in-depth knowledge and systematize the knowledge about how the disaster resilience concept is translated into different policies and long-term development plans and examines which legal tools or measures have been used to promote disaster resilience. In this regard, the PhD research also aims to assess how different stakeholders and local actors are involved in disaster resilience, particularly in the learning and implementation of specific DRR measures to build disaster resilience. <br /> The dissertation is based on a mixed-methods approach in three case study areas in Aceh Province (Banda Aceh, Sabang, and Aceh Jaya). The content analysis of the existing policy document aims to identify the use of the "disaster resilience" concept by actors. In addition, the semi-structured expert interviews were conducted with members of local government agencies and non-governmental organizations involved in disaster risk reduction and tsunami resilience building efforts in order to explore how they judge the opportunities and limitations to promote resilience after disasters through the different strategies and measures. The aim of these interviews was to elicit information about the key informant's perspectives and reflections on the process of building disaster resilience in the province of Aceh. Next to the document analysis and expert interviews, a household survey was conducted to explore how households have increased their resilience and how they evaluate different strategies and the implementation process of other formal and informal actors. <br /> The interviews revealed that integration of the resilience concept is still weak, meaning that the local government struggles to integrate the tsunami resilience concept in the current development agenda and respective plans. Challenges in communication and coordination between agencies and with local actors were identified. In addition, the lack of trust among the local actors and a lack of leadership by the local government in governing and promoting disaster resilience are seen as major obstacles in the implementation of resilience building after the mega-disaster. Interestingly, the study shows that cultural and religious aspects are not seen as major obstacles, but rather as an opportunity to also encourage informal actors to promote resilience, even though the level of coordination between these organizations and formal governmental institutions seem to still be weak. <br /> The household survey underscored that many people are aware of various strategies and approaches that aim to build disaster resilience, such as the implementation of evacuation plans, vertical evacuation shelters, and an early warning system. The evidence suggests that the community has sufficient knowledge and experience to respond to disaster events, however, many of the strategies discussed had not sufficiently considering the specific community needs that the people interviewed mentioned. As such, the effectiveness of these strategies is insufficient. <br /> In addition, it is important to define more specific goals and a common understanding of disaster resilience that connects the concept to the spatial specific conditions in the region and that allow to measure progress towards disaster resilience. Finally, the sustainability of approaches, tools, and institutions is an issue that needs to receive more attention, if building disaster resilience is more than just a short-term exercise after a disaster.