1. Rationale
The proposed project is entitled BUiLD, which stands for “Building Universities in Leading Disaster Resilience”.
As a signatory of the Sendai Framework and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Indonesia is committed to improving its disaster resilience (Jakarta Post, 2019). The BNBP was established in 2008 to legislate on key risk reduction policies and the allocation of research and early warning tools. However, problems that impede the effective implementation of mitigation and response strategies are endemic in each aspect of disaster resilience.
Under SDG 4, the UNISDR report on the “Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, points to the central role of schools in providing disaster resilience education and in serving as centres to coordinate response and recovery efforts. Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have stronger networks within the public and private sector and with local, regional and international communities. This places them into an even more unique position to not only act as catalysts for research and educational initiatives, but also to mobilise networks, resources and specialist expertise in the event of emergencies and during recovery phases. This position is strengthened through their capacity to contribute to knowledge transfer, scenario planning, post-assessments and impact studies, curriculum development and innovative research initiatives to improve all aspects of disaster resilience. As socially responsible organisations, HEIs have a duty to reflect on how their educational strategies, research and business development activities, engagement with stakeholders and their institutional governance relate to the SDG disaster risk reduction targets. Moreover, HEIs are typically large organisations with a duty of care towards their students, staff and associated communities and whose activities contribute substantially to local and regional socio-economic development.
Consultation with the partner HEIs has highlighted that all seek to improve institutional disaster resilience. Having been either directly or indirectly affected by recent disasters and/or being involved in the provision of disaster aid, all have a vested interest in improving the disaster resilience of Indonesia’s HEI sector. Whilst the need for a holistic framework integrating governance, curriculum development, response capability and collaboration with external stakeholders is recognised and some of the partner HEIs are striving towards this, no such framework currently exists and some current disaster resilience initiatives are unsustainable due to limited funding or ineffective networking.
The aim of the project is therefore to build disaster resilience capacity within the Indonesian higher education (HE) sector. The project therefore contributes to socioeconomic and environmental resilience and sustainable development in Indonesia, whilst addressing national HE capacity building priorities.
2. The BUiLD Project Consortium
The Consortium consists of the following universities:
- University of Gloucestershire, UK (Project Lead)
- Universitas Islam Indonesia, Yogyakarta, South Java
- Universitas Ahmad Dahlan, Yogyakarta, South Java
- President University, Jakarta, West Java (lead for dissemination and exploitation activities)
- Universitas Andalas, Padang, Central Sumatera
- Universitas Khairun, Ternate, Maluku Utara
- Universitas Muhammadiya, Palu Sulawesi
- Universitas Lambung Mangkurat, Banjamarsin, South Borneo
- Universitas Surabaya, North Java
- Institute Polytechnic Porto, Portugal
- University College Copenhagen, Denmark
- Hafelakar, Innsbruck, Austria (lead for Quality Management)
3. Project aim and objectives
The project aims to create a Centre of Excellence in Disaster Resilience in each participating Indonesian HEI. These centres will oversee the implementation of a comprehensive Disaster Resilience Framework within the respective HEIs. This framework integrates resilience capacity building at multiple levels of HEIs, including the individual, programme, institutional and network level. It addresses several aspect of resilience capacity building, including HEI governance, disaster response and recovery capability, disaster awareness education, curriculum development, internal and external information exchange and knowledge transfer. Through this, the project seeks to increase the attractiveness of disaster resilience education at HEI level in order to build future research, innovation and leadership capacity in this field.
The specific objectives of the project are:
1. To conduct a comprehensive resilience capacity assessment for each Indonesian partner and to create institutional action plans for a comprehensive implementation of the BUiLD Disaster Resilience Framework, as per the following sub-objectives:
1.1. To develop a Best Practice Model for HEI governance to review the extent to which disaster resilience is embedded in institutional governance (led by the University of Gloucestershire)
1.2. To design a Disaster Response and Recovery Blueprint for HEIs and facilitate its effective adoption by Indonesian partner HEIs. This will involve a review of their current disaster preparedness and external stakeholders providing disaster aid to HEIs. The blueprint will be based on a needs analysis for beneficiaries of the response and recovery activities implemented by HEIs (i.e. students, staff and associated communities) (led by the University of Gloucestershire)
1.3. To design an institutional audit tool (the BUiLD HEI Disaster Resilience Audit Tool) to facilitate objective 1.1 (led by the University of Gloucestershire)
1.4. To develop a set of curriculum benchmarks for disaster resilience education for programmes in this specific subject and for the embedding of disaster resilience education more widely into HE curricula. This will involve a curriculum audit exercise and the development of state-of-the art learning, teaching and assessment strategies. This objective extends into the development of a programme of extra-curricular activities, such as volunteering, that students are able to engage in for personal development and career-building purposes (led University College Copenhagen)
1.5. To design and curriculum audit tool (the BUiLD Disaster Resilience Curriculum Audit Tool) to facilitate objective 1.4 (led University College Copenhagen)
1.6. To create a virtual reality disaster awareness-training toolkit and to train staff on the use of this toolkit for disaster awareness education within the context of a wider disaster awareness raising campaign aimed at staff, students and associated communities of HEIs. This will include the procurement of portable VR equipment for each Indonesian partner HEI (led by Institute Polytechnic Porto)
1.7. To identify and resource physical space for the location of the proposed Centres of Excellence in Disaster Resilience and to identify future funding streams that will ensure their ongoing financial viability. This will include a review of how Indonesian HEIs engage with internal and external stakeholders to maximise collaboration in all aspects of disaster resilience (led jointly by Universitas Islam Indonesia and Universitas Ahmad Dahlan)
1.8. To create a cross-institutional and cross-sector Disaster Resilience Network to facilitate information exchange, knowledge transfer and cross-disciplinary research and innovation in the field of disaster resilience. This will include the creation of a digital platform that connects individual centres and acts as a networking platform as well as a platform for the dissemination of disaster resilience education. It will also include the development of communication and collaboration links between the network and governmental and non-governmental organisations to inform policy-making and general disaster resilience strategies (led jointly by Universitas Islam Indonesia and Universitas Ahmad Dahlan)
1.9. To create a fundraising initiative to support the work of the network and of individual centres, and to raise funds for disaster response and recovery aid (led jointly by Universitas Islam Indonesia and Universitas Ahmad Dahlan)