4. DESIGNING RESPONSE

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1 4.1. Criteria for ACF Intervention 4. DESIGNING RESPONSE An effective intervention implies for ACF to fill in existing gaps. Therefore, the following questions should guide the process of response designing: What does ACF do well in comparison to others actors? What are the people s needs in the aftermath of emergencies which have not been wellcovered in the last emergencies and which ACF should consider better? What scenarios of intervention would be the most efficient for ACF, balancing costs with coverage of needs and positioning vis-à-vis other humanitarian actors? ACF will only deploy its resources in case of medium and big scale disasters. For small scale disasters, local capacity is sufficient: government, civil society and n Red Cross groups over the country have been able to respond well and quickly to most of the needs. Moreover, the government of has now the lead on humanitarian programming within the framework of the Jakarta commitment signed in This means that it is difficult for humanitarian agencies to intervene when there is no request from the government for international assistance. However, even if not requested, intervention is possible if (i) the actor is pre-positioned (agencies already having a presence in this area or in the country) and (ii) it possesses an official agreement from the provincial authorities. ACF is likely to have added value in very remote areas, for several reasons: (i) ACF has expertise in humanitarian programs for vulnerable populations in rural areas i.e. ACF is likely to identify their needs better and quicker than for urban or pre-urban populations (although exceptions to this rule are known); (ii) Agencies will deploy quick and big in easily accessible locations as past experiences have showed, but many more will struggle to deploy in remote islands; (iii) ACF has already intervened in the past in remote islands such as Maluku or Papua and could quickly restore links with former staff in these locations (if the emergency roaster is well maintained). In addition, ACF can and should also respond to humanitarian needs in urban areas, especially in the field of Wash in urban contexts. Indeed, this field has somehow been neglected or mishandled in past emergencies and ACF has comparatively well performed. Vulnerability Community resilience and vulnerability levels differ across. Disaster threats are different (Eastern being more exposed to slow onset disasters for example, whereas coastal areas west of the archipelago are more exposed to rapid onset disasters). Moreover, since local capacities and vulnerabilities also differ very much, the impact of disasters on local populations will be very different from one area to another. For example, local populations in Eastern are more vulnerable than people in Western : provinces such as NTB, NTT, Maluku or Papua rank last in terms of poverty rates, HDI (Human Development Index), etc. They will likely be hit harder by disasters, and their coping mechanisms will likely be fewer or more quickly exhausted or rapidly detrimental to their household food security (sale of assets). For this reason, ACF should consider sending an assessment team quick if one of these provinces is hit by a disaster, since needs are likely to be great, poorly covered and of a more lasting kind than in wealthier areas.

2 4.2. Programme Strategies Here is an overview on ACF s capacity to respond to emergency in. Technical departments In, ACF s interventions have primarily comprised Wash and Food Security programmes, either through relief operations or post-crisis projects. o Wash: ACF is well positioned in the Wash Cluster. It is an active member of the SAG (Strategic Advisory Group). Past experiences have showed that ACF has an expertise and a capacity for quick deployment similar to those of big players. Therefore, ACF should definitely consider interventions with a big Wash component. o Food Security and Livelihoods: ACF has expertise in Food Security and Livelihoods in emergency, which primarily often consists of food aid. However, there is little room for it now in the country given that both government and WFP can manage most of the supplies and distributions (except in remote areas). In addition, food availability is not an issue in most parts of the country (vulnerable populations face issues related to access & use). Line ministries and communities often have their own mechanisms to restore access to food, repair irrigation schemes or re-launch agricultural works (traditional solidarity mechanisms such as gotong royong 1, governmental contingency stocks and know-how, etc). However, there is a recurrent issue of access to labour force and income. Therefore, ACF should pay particular attention in this sector to (i) cash-based interventions including in the aftermath of emergencies and (ii) early recovery programming complementing those of local governments, line ministries and communities, especially in the fields of shelter reconstruction and agriculture. o Mental health and Infant and Young Child feeding in Emergency: IFE (Infant Feeding in Emergencies) has been neglected during the last emergencies despite lessons learned from the response to the tsunami ACF has neglected this sector because of its Wash and Food Security programmes. However, it seems that women s needs for specific breastfeeding counselling, specific sanitation facilities and needs for activities focused on under-five feeding and child care in emergency are crucial issues in this country. This is due to (i) the impact of disasters on women & children, (ii) the pre-disaster patterns (widespread inadequate IYCF practices in many areas) and (iii) the low number of humanitarian actors having expertise in this field e.g. comparatively to shelters. ACF should definitely consider assessing better and intervening in this sector. o NFI (shelter, cooking and hygiene kits): Kits should be distributed in integration with Wash interventions for several reasons: (i) the relevance of integrated programming given people s needs in the aftermath of disasters, (ii) NFI distributions otherwise risk having little relevance and impact and (iii) other actors have a massive intervention and distribution capacity in this field (Oxfam can pre-position and deploy up to 50,000 kits in 72 hours compared to 2,000 for ACF). 1 Traditional term in bahasa, used to refer to get-together solidarity and community-based schemes of selfhelp. They differ from one area to another (decision-making processes as well as types of actions carried out) but generally designate a group of community members getting together to work collectively and generally for free on a need identified by the community (agricultural work for instance).

3 4.3. Implementation of the Response Emergency Needs Assessment There are three necessary steps in the assessment process: 1. Selecting and deploying the assessment team. Experts or experienced staffs must have been identified in advance and be ready for assignment which means Rapid Response Team should consist of expert for the assessment. Staffs should be trained for rapid assessment in advance. 2. Conducting rapid assessment. The assessment team should gather information on all relevant topics from as many sources as possible with in 72 hours, with particular attention to households and vulnerable groups directly affected by the crisis, and give clear priorities in the needs identified. The assessment team must consider available internal sources of information, such as emergency preparedness and response plan, reports of previous similar emergencies and/or recommendations from evaluations, etc. 3. Reporting: At the end of the rapid assessment, a recommendation must be made by the team with validation by Jakarta office, based on the findings of the assessment, as to whether there is a role for ACF to play in the emergency situation. Internal ACF Tools ACF has rapid assessment tools for general information, Food Security and WASH sector. Unfortunately, now, it is only few people know and understand the tool. The tools must be socialized among staffs to enable staffs to use it. Rapid assessment forms/tools are provided by ACF in previous emergency response: o FS emergency questionnaire: general questionnaire for FS assessment. Same layout than for WS (possible to cross-check data) o Report matrix for FS: matrix table that can be used for qualitative data collection. The table compares how the situation before the disaster and the impact of it. o Rapid Food Security Appraisal Guidelines o Rapid general assessment Nut WS FS: Joint Assessment Tools In, several effort including collaboration among NGOs have been initiated for joint rapid assessment since emergency response in West Timor in However, development of standardized tools for assessment is still on process. Several tools have been developed for joint assesment, such as: Joint Need Assesment (JNA) by Emergency Capacity Building (ECB). JNA (Joint Need Assessment, available in English and Bahasa version). ECB is a consortium of NGOs (CARE, CRS, IMC, n Society for Disaster Management, Oxfam, Mercy Corps, Save The Children and World Vision). For a time being, JNA (Joint Need Assessment) developed by ECB has been used by most of humanitarian agencies in West Sumatera Earthquake. This tool is still under reviewing as one of lesson learnt from West Sumatera that report from rapid assessment was a challenge. CAT/RAT by WASH Cluster (English version). ACF is involved in WASH Cluster and member of SAG WASH Cluster. WASH cluster is now working on reviewing and revising of CAT (Comprehensive Assessment Tools). Unfortunately, WASH Cluster is still not having assessment tools for Rapid Assessment. It is agreed that the JNA from ECB will be used temporary for RAT (Rapid Assessment Tools). MIRA (Multi Cluster Initial Rapid Assessment, English version) by IASC (Inter Agency Standing Committee)

4 Though ACF has the form but there is no one in ACF mission has experienced to use the tool. For a time being, ACF has no capacity to use the tools. As Government and humanitarian agencies are still developing assessment tools, ACF meanwhile is using internal tools with some additional information from ACF international or Inter Agency Clusters. At a second stage, specific assessments for each sector will be done Logistics The contingency stock is as follow: Items Household Cooking kits Household Shelter kits Household Personal hygiene kits Community tool kits WASH items Number 2000 packages 2000 packages 2000 packages 500 packages See Toolbox Wash Administration Human Resources Based on an updated contact list (December 2010), ACF has only 49 existing staffs in 3 areas: Jakarta-Capital, SoE base 1 and base 2. However, ACF has committed former staffs who are able to be deployed for rapid assessment and to run the programmes at initial stage. Table number of staffs Department Number of staffs ADMIN 6 FOOD SEC 2 LOGISTICS 4 M&E 1 NUT/MH 3 WASH 9 HoM 1 Emergency Coordinator 3 Liaison 1 Grand Total 30

5 Table number of former staffs who have capacity for emergency response Donors Department Number of staffs Food Sec 7 LIAISON 1 Log admin 7 Mon Ev 1 Nutrition 2 WASH 6 Grand Total 24 Before disaster occurs, ACF should raise its profile and maintain relationships with several donors so that it will be easier for ACF to contact them during emergency. This can be done by signing Project Cooperation Agreement (PCA). However, this requires good accomplishment during emergency response. Prior to emergency response, some activities could also be done to strengthen relation with donors as follow: Networking with donors Participate in Cluster meetings Participation in Humanitarian Response Plan by UN OCHA and Government Raising profile of organization through being focal in coordination meeting UNICEF is open for partnership, especially for PCA. ACF has tried to approach UNICEF-WASH but ACF failed to follow it up as UNICEF has several criteria including working period of potential partners. Based on experience working with donors, ECHO, AUSAID, USAID and the Dutch Embassy were the major donors for ACF in the past. These donors should be approached at field, capital and headquarter levels. The recent earthquakes in West Sumatera (Sept. 2009) showed most of donors have been more proactive than before for humanitarian emergency response. In West Sumatera, several donors representatives from regional office (Bangkok) and National Office (Jakarta) came to the affected area in the first days after earthquake occurred. They did assessment in affected area and they also observed the most competent organizations to be their partners to delivery assistance. At the same time, most of NGOs representatives, who arrived as soon as disaster occurred, approached the representatives of donors at field level to access the funds at field level Reporting, Monitoring and Evaluation Situation Reports The purpose of situation report is to update information from the team in the field with HOM and the team in Headquarter in regard recent situation in affected area including achievement and planning. Rapid Response Team must update HOM or PIC (Person In Charge) about their activities and their plan since the first day they arrive in affected area through situation report. Then, by daily basis, Rapid Response Team should update Jakarta and Headquarter with the information. The information in situation report will help Jakarta and Headquarter to make decision and to develop concept notes and proposal to search funds to finance the project. Later, frequency of reporting situation through Situation Report will be reviewed based on needs as the situation changes.

6 Monitoring Classic ACF monitoring tools can be used during the program intervention (i.e. Activity Progress Report), except that the follow-up should be done daily during evening meeting instead of monthly. At the end of the program, it is essential to evaluate the impact of the work. Some options are possible for monitoring: Post Distribution Monitoring A KAP survey-like satisfaction questionnaire is implemented by ACF staff at the end of the response, An external evaluation, planed at the beginning of the project in the project s budget, is done several weeks after the intervention. A local consultant, thus speaking local language, can easily be hired. This has never been done yet by ACF, but is worth a try. Project reporting The implementation of activities should also, when possible, take into account the necessity of writing donor s report in the future, especially since in many case the persons who implement the activities are not the same as the ones who will write the report. Consequently, the following documents should be thoroughly capitalized and clearly handed over before the person leave the mission: Detailed and updated list of project, with location, number of beneficiaries, type of activities. Detailed list of items distributed (hygiene kits and other materials) Project documents Updated LFAs ACF national staff should be trained to write report External Coordination While emergency occurs, coordination with other organizations, especially with other humanitarian agencies and during clusters meetings will help collect information and analyze the whole situation in affected area including planning of other agencies. Purpose of general humanitarian meeting is to up date situation and information on emergency response in affected area. The meetings usually could be held at national, provincial and district level by humanitarian agencies and government. At national level Normally, there is a regular NGOs/UN/Donors/IFRC coordination meeting at national level on monthly basis. But usually, in case of serious disaster, ad hoc meeting could be organized every day or every week. It is necessary to participate in NGOs/UN/Donors/IFRC coordination meetings to maintain linkages and to update necessary information for humanitarian activities in. HoM and/or HoM assistant could participate in this coordination meeting to up date situation. For this national level coordination meeting, UN OCHA and BNPB usually facilitate the humanitarian agencies. At provincial level As soon as disaster occurs, governor/local government/bdpb with support from UN OCHA will call humanitarian agencies for coordination meeting at provincial level. Usually it will take place in governor s office or official residence. It is necessary to up date information from this

7 meeting because government will announce recent situation in affected area and planning of government to response. Major concerns and gaps in humanitarian action will be highlighted in the meeting as well. Agencies and donors who are willing to respond could also identified through this meeting. Then later, regular coordination meetings will also be held at provincial level as follow: General coordination meeting held by UN OCHA/Local government in governor office/official residential. Donors/INGOs/Local NGOs/UN/BNPB will participate in this general coordination meeting. In the first week, potentially, it will be daily general coordination meeting. Inter agencies/sector/clusters meeting. Normally, for big scale emergency, Inter Agencies/Cluster meeting will be called. ACF is an active member for WASH, Food and Nutrition, Logistic and Early Recovery clusters. The Shelter, Agriculture and Child Protection clusters should also be attended Local NGOs (yayasan or LSM) meeting. At provincial level, government also usually open POSKO-crisis centre to up date situation report from affected area, damages, causalities, death toll and other related information is updated on a daily basis. The information is helpful to update situation and prepare situation reports. Government also opens warehouse for receiving and distributing spontaneous assistance from other provincial and district or central government. Note: It is necessary to bring flash disk or camera to crisis centre to capture the information. Access to internet is also provided in the crisis centre by government or internet provider kiosk. At district level In the past, district government of affected area was busy with receiving assistance from other districts and provincial government and then distributed the assistance to affected area. They were also busy with registration of damages and affected population (missing, causalities, death toll, IDPs) and other related information on a daily basis for affected area in district. Currently, they are also busy with registration and distribution but some districts have BPBD (District Disaster Management Agency) which organization responsible to facilitate coordination meeting among humanitarian agencies. At sub district level There is no coordination at sub district level, but NGOs could visit sub district office and arrange interview with head of sub district (camat). Data damage infrastructure and affected by sub district are available in sub district office. Detail data demography and contact person in village level could be found in sub district level. Based on ACF recent experience in West Sumatera and West Java Earthquake (2009), it seems necessary to hire a staff working exclusively on reporting and representation to clusters & donors including at a very early stage of the emergency response. There are two main reasons for it: (i) in case of medium and large scale disasters, UN-led clusters will be activated and the points made during their meetings, their choices or decisions, influence greatly funding decisions by donors it is key to be represented to match, complement or question them;

8 (ii) ACF has historically focused on getting its team on the ground and assessing needs in the first 48 to 72 hours. It has caught up with donors & clusters later. However ACF realized that whilst it was doing that, other organizations would already send staff dedicated to profile-raising and, in fact, fundraising. We missed several opportunities primarily due to this, although our needs assessments were probably of better quality. Therefore, and at the onset of a disaster, ACF should send an emergency program coordinator to supervise assessment and intervention, and provide him with a skilled assistant who would focus on attending cluster meetings 2, raising ACF profile, producing reports and donor proposals (in coordination with the program coordinator and technical team members) Operational Partnerships During emergency response in DI Yogyakarta for Merapi emergency, ACF has already initiated work with local partners. ACF has BMP and PSB as their local partners. ACF also has a local partner to deliver existing program in West Timor, namely YASNA Extra Issues EXTERNAL CONSTRAINTS No support from national authorities and communities No request for international humanitarian response from the government: declared as local emergency by the government, local governments assume that they have the capacity to respond. It might render access difficult: international organisations might face difficulties to get permission from the government for assessment and initial intervention (priority is given to agencies already being present in the area; outside agencies will need specific authorisation from provincial authorities). In case the government requests for an international humanitarian response, there might be a lack of support and responsiveness from the local governments and communities. Local governments might be affected and local communities might be temporarily shocked leading to slow service or item delivery at local level during the first 72 hours. Damaged infrastructures Disruption of infrastructures: - Health services - Communications (communications being cut or difficult (jammed mobile phone networks, no or little Internet, landlines broken) - Water systems - Public facilities - Electricity - Transportation Difficulty to access the affected areas, especially if there are rural and remote (poor roads). 2 WASH, Food and Nutrition, Child Protection, Early Recovery, Agriculture.

9 Others - Too many humanitarian agencies do assessment and intervention without any significant coordination. It creates competition instead of collaboration. - Limited understanding and knowledge of areas, particularly local language. - No donor interest to fund the project. - Difficult deployment of materials and human resources (permanent staff, volunteers and temporary staffs) from existing projects or from affected areas. - Floods in Jakarta There are traffic jams due to the increased level of water/flood and due to rain. Movement of goods and services is limited. There are gaps and assistance overlapping because of the numerous actors providing assistance (religious organisations, political and community groups (youth groups, students group, KPP group), LNGOs, the private sector, etc ) Toolbox