Webinar Series for Humanitarian Workers and Volunteers, Indonesia, November to December 2022

As one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries, Indonesia faces 3,000-3,500 disasters every year. Over time, disasters in Indonesia are more frequent, more severe, more complex, and more unpredictable. As the number of disasters grows in Indonesia, so does the number of organisations working in the humanitarian sector. New actors, including from faith-based groups, political parties, private sector, community-based organisations, and NGOs, across Indonesia have increased interests in working in the humanitarian space. MPBI records from December 2021 show that there are at least 266 organisations working in the humanitarian sectors in Indonesia with estimation of more than 200,000 aid workers and volunteers.

In November 2022, an earthquake struck Cianjur, West Java in Indonesia resulted in more than 110,000 people displaced and 53,000 houses affected with most severely damaged or destroyed. MPBI was supporting the National Disaster Management Authority or BNPB and documented more than 350 organisations responding with almost 5,000 personnel and volunteers deployed in the humanitarian response. Recognising that many of these personnel and volunteers are from local organisations who are not familiar with humanitarian standards, MPBI then conducted a series of webinars to introduce and promote the application of globally-recognised and nationally-endorsed humanitarian standards. There were 12 webinars conducted over 3-week period (25 November to 15 December 2022), with each session lasting from 90 to 120 minutes. Each topic is closely related to the Sphere Handbook, such as core humanitarian standards, codes of conduct for humanitarian workers and volunteers, PSEAH, and accountability to the affected people, and all of these sessions are organised using Zoom platform and also livestreamed on Youtube to ensure documentation. All webinars can be accessed at https://bit.ly/WebinarSeriesHumanitarianWorkers2022. Audience from Zoom in each session reached between 100 to 150 participants and the Youtube recordings have been viewed over 2,000 views. It is estimated that the overall webinar series reached about 1,000 to 1,500 participants.

The webinar was organised MPBI with the support of seed funding from Sphere Secretariat and later on we were able to leverage additional funding support from Oxfam in Indonesia, CRS Indonesia, the Asia Pacific Alliance for Disaster Management in Indonesia (APAD-Indonesia), and ICVA. The webinars were initially planned for 4 sessions but then due to the necessities and importance of the issues, the organiser managed to organise 12 sessions. These 12 sessions are:
1. Core humanitarian standards
2. Code of conduct for humanitarian workers and volunteers
3. Humanitarian response coordination
4. Shelter response in disaster
5. Psychological First Aid
6. Information Management in disaster situation
7. Protection on Sexual Exploitation, Abuse, and Harrassment
8. Feedback mechanism in disaster
9. Menstrual health management
10. Cash voucher assistance
11. Protection for at-risk groups
12. Education in Emergencies