This research aims to strengthen the post-disaster socio-economic life prevention and reconstruction system that involves women as leaders in society during the post-2018 earthquake and tsunami in Central Sulawesi. This participatory action research with a quantitative and qualitative approach partnered with two local NGOs, namely the Community Cares for Women and Children (KPPA) and the Central Sulawesi Women’s Equality Struggle Group (KPKP-ST) and involved 60 women in 3 districts/cities of Central Sulawesi who were affected by the disaster as respondents. FAMM Indonesia applies power analysis to the rehabilitation and reconstruction process to identify differences in the vulnerability of men and women after a disaster.
This research finds that women play an important role in managing disaster relief, post-disaster reconstruction and social transformation. One way to do this is organizing through business groups to strengthen the family economy. The psychological trauma and economic difficulties faced by the resource person’s family increase the potential for domestic violence (KDRT). In addition, the government’s shelter design is not sensitive to the privacy needs of women and girls.
This research also emphasizes the importance of the Women’s Friendly Home (RRP) program in providing survivors with access to psychosocial support and facilitating multi-sector referrals such as health services and legal aid. The low access to business assistance means that almost all of the interviewees’ hopes are related to improving the family’s economic level so that business assistance is considered important. This research found that the formation of business groups can not only help economic recovery but also provide psychosocial support to resource persons.
Women’s leadership can be seen in the management of aid and care work carried out to maintain the economic sustainability and psychological health of the family. Women recover more quickly psychologically because they think about the future of their family, so they are encouraged to be part of the organizing carried out by local NGOs. However, the Covid-19 pandemic caused the business that the resource person had built from post-disaster aid to be hampered so that the family’s economy was disrupted. Apart from that, women’s representation in handling the Covid-19 pandemic is still low. Partner NGOs need more resources to provide assistance related to marketing products from the community. Currently training assistance includes business management and permit processing. Organizing work is supported by cooperation between stakeholders, namely local governments, international NGOs and local NGOs in sharing resources. This collaboration also helps restore infrastructure.
The role of data collection carried out by survivors and managed by local NGOs is important as reference and comparison data from data held by the government. Such data can also improve the bargaining position of local NGOs with local governments who often do not have up-to-date or incomplete data. This will provide an opportunity to include more specific issues related to women’s leadership in government policy making regarding disaster management.