The Role and Capacity of Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs) as Policy Advocates for Disability Inclusive DRR in Indonesia

This chapter describes Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) capacity building activities with disabled people’s organizations (DPOs) in four hazard risk provinces in Indonesia. Established as part of an Australian Aid supported development research initiative, the project was implemented in the last years of the Hyogo Framework for Action by the Centre for Disability Research and Policy, University of Sydney and Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund Deutschland e.V, Indonesia and Philippines Office. As in other regions, participation in DRR by Indonesian DPOs was highly limited under the HFA. With the Sendai Framework for DRR (SFDRR) now recognizing persons with disabilities as key stakeholders, there is a need to broaden knowledge on the role of DPOs in DRR. While the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) refers to situations of risk, the related article has received little attention from DPOs due to multiple competing priorities. Similarly, DRR actors have rarely engaged with the disability sector. The SFDRR calls for greater collaboration between these two groups. This chapter outlines core features of the capacity building initiative and the impact of the programme on equipping Indonesian DPOs to engage within DRR. We describe how capacity building initiatives contributed to increased collaboration between disability and DRR actors, providing a practical model for supporting DPOs as policy advocates in other regions and countries. Disability-inclusive DRR recognizes the importance of collaboration to reduce and prevent risk. As the chapter illustrates, the resources to achieve this are far closer at hand than the DRR community previously thought.