Indonesia: Two years on from the Yogyakarta earthquake
27 May 2008
In late May 2006, while Indonesia was still recovering from the devastating
impact of the December 2004 tsunami, another strong earthquake and tsunami hit
the city of Yogyakarta and the nearby areas of Central and West Java.
27 May is the anniversary of the main earthquake. It is an occasion to
remember a disaster that left more than 5,000 people dead, damaged more than
600,000 houses, and made almost a million people homeless.
What has been achieved since then, and how?
 Two
years on, remarkable progress has been made by international standards, in terms
of both the speed and quality of reconstruction.
More than 270,000 homes have now been re-built, a further 253,000
rehabilitated, and 97.31% of earthquake victims have been able to resettle in
their new, safe, earthquake-resistant homes.
The quality of construction has also been high, and corruption in the use of
reconstruction funds low. As a result, surveys have shown high levels of
community satisfaction with the housing programme.
There are several reasons for this:
- Strong leadership by provincial government, and support from the
central government;
- Lessons were learned from the tsunami experience;
- Strong community involvement and participation in all aspects, from
identification of recipients to planning, design and the actual
construction of housing;
- Technical support to local communities from trained facilitators;
- High levels of transparency and accountability.
In a region with a strong social tradition of community self-help, the
resilience and hard work of the local population was a particularly important
factor.
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The contribution of DFID and the Java Reconstruction Fund
 In
the immediate aftermath of the disaster, DFID responded with £5 million in
emergency assistance, channelled through the UN and international
non-governmental organisations (NGOs). These funds were used for emergency
shelter, relief supplies and medical care.
Later in 2006, DFID provided a further £5 million for longer term recovery and
reconstruction. The UK was the first donor to provide its funding through the
 Java
Reconstruction Fund (JRF), which pools donor funds and allocates them to
projects agreed between government and donors. Administered by the World Bank,
the JRF has also received substantial contributions from other donors, such as
the European Commission, the Netherlands, Canada, Finland and Denmark.
The JRF followed the example of the successful post-tsunami Multi Donor Fund
for Aceh and Nias (MDF), which is also supported by DFID. By combining our
funding in this way, we can implement projects more effectively, and allow local
government to take the leading role.
 The
JRF has made a major contribution to a rapid return to normality.
Eighteen-thousand permanent, earthquake-resistant houses will have been built by
the end of May 2008, while over 4,400 families benefited from prefabricated
‘transitional’ shelters. In addition, 123 kilometres of village roads, 30 km of
retaining walls, 6,000 water supply facilities, and 200 sanitation facilities
have been restored.
Also, 1,097 community centres, one health centre and one market have been
rehabilitated. JRF surveys have shown that over 95% of beneficiary households
feel that temporary housing has enabled them to resume their normal household
activities, with satisfaction rates of between 92-100% for both men and women.
DFID’s contribution included £500,000 for Disaster Risk Reduction activities,
helping communities to reduce the impact of future disasters through improved
reconstruction, better planning and preparation.
Although the housing reconstruction project is now nearing completion, two new
JRF projects are about to be launched to assist in the recovery of sustainable
livelihoods. These will provide training and low-interest loans to help people
enter new areas of work and set up small businesses, and are especially aimed at
those who would
not otherwise be eligible for loans.
All photos courtesy of JRF/World Bank
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