PDC Supports National Guard's State Partnership Program in Indonesia
The National Guard has a program of international assistance called the State Partnership Program. Under this program, more than 60 countries are paired with U.S. states and territories to support security cooperation. State National Guards, which are unique civil-military organizations, are often largely devoted to human-security initiatives, including response and recovery related to natural disasters. Given that context, the partnerships are also opportunities for PDC, in collaboration with the Guard, to provide products, services, and technical assistance to the partner-nations.
January 24–27, PDC representatives traveled to Indonesia to kick-off a project under the Hawaii National Guard (HING) State Partnership Program (SPP) in collaboration with Indonesia’s National Coordinating Agency for Disaster Management, Badan Nasional Penanggulangan Bencana (BNPB). The meetings, held in Jakarta, also included key stakeholders within the Government of Indonesia responsible for the monitoring and dissemination of hazard information. The ministries and agencies engaged in this work are the National Meteorological and Geophysical Office (Badan Meteorologi, Klimatologi, dan Geofisika, or BMKG) for tsunami early warning; the Ministry of Public Works (Kementerian Pekerjaan Umum, or PU) for flooding; the Geological Agency (Badan Geologi) of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (Kementerian Energi Dan Sumber Daya Mineral, or KESDM) for volcanoes, earthquakes, and landslides; and Indonesia’s national mapping agency (BAKOSURTANAL).
As is true among disaster managers everywhere, officials responsible for disaster management within the government of Indonesia know that they can do their work far more effectively—saving lives, livelihoods, and infrastructure—by having, at all times:
- easily shared situational awareness, including the communications technology to achieve reliable and secure information exchanges;
- a common operational picture (COP) supporting planning for and response to hazards and disasters;
- the capacity to share disaster response plans that organize and assist regional response activities; and
- the capacity to conduct exercise that will confirm the readiness of such plans.
Under the auspices of the HING-SPP, PDC plans to customize relevant elements within its flagship technology, the DisasterAWARE platform. Using DisasterAWARE will help Indonesian officials to meet their disaster management objectives. In addition to supporting agency-to-agency communication and sharing, the technology will make possible the automation and dissemination of local hazard information. PDC will also develop and deliver needed training in the use of decision support tools for disaster management, including DisasterAWARE, throughout the course of the scheduled two-year project period and beyond.
While in Jakarta, Deputy Executive Director Chris Chiesa and Senior Geospatial Information Specialist John Livengood also met with representatives of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Office of Defense Coordination (ODC), the U.S. Department of Commerce, and the U.S. Embassy–Jakarta staff for Environment, Science, Technology and Health to demonstrate DisasterAWARE for them, and to coordinate PDC activities with other ongoing and planned activities in support of Indonesia.
The activities underway now in and on behalf of Indonesia are not PDC’s first experience with the National Guard State Partnership Program. Over the past three years, in coordination with the National Guard of Rhode Island and other partners, PDC has developed and managed disaster management knowledge exchanges in The Bahamas. Also, throughout the life cycle of Hurricane Irene, PDC supported the Rhode Island National Guard’s activities for both The Bahamas and the eastern U.S., including the Guardsmen’s home state. Over the past several years, PDC support to disaster management capacity development in Mongolia has also involved engagement with that country’s SPP partner, the State of Alaska.
- Read about the initial meetings, held in Maui, to initiate the Hawaii-Indonesia State Partnership Program.
- To link to many Regional Reports on hazards and disaster events in Indonesia, go the PDC homepage, and type Indonesia into the “Search this site” window.
- Discover much more about the National Guard’s State Partnership Program online.
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