Public policy experts from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government shared a number of disaster management issues with local officials on Thursday during a visit to Indonesia.
In his presentation before local officials, Arnold M. Howitt, executive director of the school's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, shared how the US and China dealt with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005 and China's blizzards and Wenchuan earthquake in 2008, respectively.
"Katrina and China's blizzards raised many issues, such as *the governments'* inability to forecast accurately enough the extent and locations of the hazards, and insufficient local governments' emergency preparations and implementations of responses," Howitt said, adding that Indonesia faced a similar situation.
Howitt emphasized the need for governments to allocate sufficient funds for disaster mitigation, saying success in prevention and efforts to minimize impacts of disasters could, in the long term, suppress the cost of damages.
This, however, remains an issue in the US, China and Indonesia, with the governments still considering disaster mitigation a low priority after education, health and others, he said.
"But what you should do is prepare for the worst. If we have planned for the worst, whatever will come we'll be ready to face it."
Howitt also highlighted the need to make communities aware of the need to prepare for disasters, such as by building homes that were more resilient to quakes and applying for insurance so they could minimize the cost of damages.
Danny Hilman Natawidjaja from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences' Laboratory for Earth Hazards said that despite having been hit by numerous disasters in the past decade, Indonesia still lacked data on and maps of potential disasters, as well as disaster mitigation personnel.
Thursday's crisis management leadership workshop was hosted by the presidential advisor for social aid and disasters, Andi Arief, at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta.
It was also attended by officials from several government agencies dealing with disasters, including the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency and the Health Ministry.
The Kennedy School experts are visiting the country from June 21 to July 3 as part of an arrangement between the school and Indonesia's Rajawali Foundation.
They are also scheduled to address workshops at the Regional Representatives Council, University of Indonesia's School of Economics and the Home Ministry.
