Building a Sustainable Livelihood of the Earthquake Victims in Indonesia

Penulis/Peneliti : A.Y. Agung Nugroho dan Henny Susilawati

Bidang Penelitian :

Jurnal : ISBE Conference, Glasgow

Volume : 2007

Tahun : 2007

The earthquake in Yogyakarta and Central Java, Indonesia, on May 27, 2006 was a huge disaster which left great a number of victims with a high death toll and destroyed both economic and social infrastructures. 154.000 houses were destroyed and other 260.000 were damaged. The disaster has paralyzed industry activities in these areas. More than 650.000 people lost their job and around 30.000 entrepreneurs suffered a direct impact, i.e. disruption of their supply chain, which raised unemployment and poverty level. The damage of the industry infrastructure was mostly borne by small/middle scale home based industry. Recovery effort has to be prioritized, accordingly, by providing support for entrepreneurs’ capacity to re-build their business venture.
This project aims to:

1. Identify vulnerability of the community suffering from disaster

2. Identify potential resources of the community to build a sustainable living

3. Foster the community by re-establishing micro and small enterprises.

Effects of a disaster in a community require external assistances for reparation. Understanding vulnerability sources aggravating the recovery, i.e. poverty, low education level and socio-culture factor, could help the improvement of sustainable livelihood development after disaster. This study applied Participatory Vulnerability Analysis (PVA) which comprised several stages, i.e. vulnerability situation, vulnerability cause and community action analysis. The collected data were secondary data supported by an in-depth interview and focus group discussion (FGD) of 120 informants in 6 villages and of 60 informants in the sub-district level.

Research finding showed that the earthquake has brought wide impact to the community and that the poorest were the most difficult to recover. Meanwhile, the aid received worked only in short term; it did not provide guarantee for a sustainable livelihood. Small scale handcrafters and producers were, nevertheless, recovered quicker.

The community needs sustainable livelihood development as well as infrastructure and basic needs facilities. This can be attained with consideration on the input factors, the production and the output process. Micro and small scale enterprises should be the main focus of the intervention, regarding their multiple impacts on the employment in the neighbourhood and economic development in the region. Persistent actions focusing on the development of sustainable livelihood, which involve all stakeholders, are required. A possible endeavour is to develop self-reliance on small scale handcrafters and producers by providing assistance to management, quality, design, and market access.

This study contributes theoretically and practically to disaster management through participatory approach in developing sustainable small enterprise in disaster region in Indonesia and worldwide.


Keywords: Vulnerability, Earthquake, Sustainable business, Small enterprise