Building Resilience of the Urban Poor in Indonesia

By Asian Development Bank

Climate risk threatens Indonesia’s socioeconomic development, and it is likely to exacerbate the plight of Indonesians living below and close to the poverty line. Urban areas are hot spots of such risk, disproportionately impacting the lives, livelihoods, and well-being of the poor and near poor who often live in slums and informal settlements. Growing urbanization and increasing climate risk make it imperative to strengthen the resilience of the urban poor through interventions that promote coping, incremental, and transformational strategies. This report identifies pro-poor climate resilience solutions and their concomitant enabling factors, building on national policies and programs and taking into account Indonesia’s priority sectors for climate-resilient development.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Asian Development Bank
• Release date: Jan 10, 2022
• ISBN: 9789292691035

Book preview

BUILDING RESILIENCE OF THE URBAN POOR IN INDONESIA

JANUARY 2022

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 IGO license (CC BY 3.0 IGO)

© 2022 Asian Development Bank

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Some rights reserved. Published in 2022.

ISBN 978-92-9269-102-8 (print); 978-92-9269-103-5 (electronic); 978-92-9269-104-2 (ebook)

Publication Stock No. TCS210404-2

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22617/TCS210404-2

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Notes:

The report cites data and information available as of date of writing and publication.

In this publication, $ refers to United States dollars.

Photo on the front cover: Community members included in decision-making. Involving community members in the decision-making process helps them better understand disaster and climate risks and how to sustain efforts to build their resilience (photo by RISE Program).

All photos are from ADB unless otherwise stated.

Contents

Table

Figures

Boxes

Foreword

As the largest archipelagic country in the world, Indonesia has been experiencing severe impacts of extreme weather events due to climate change. Data from the past decade show a significant increase in frequency and intensity of hydrometeorological hazards, potentially disrupting Indonesia’s achievement of the various development targets set in the Sustainable Development Goals and its National Medium-Term Development Plan 2020–2024. The Ministry of National Development Planning/National Development Planning Agency (BAPPENAS) estimates that potential gross domestic product loss due to climate change will reach approximately Rp115 trillion by 2024. Urban areas bear the brunt of these losses due to the high exposure of densely populated communities and major economic zones to climate-induced hazards. In fact, a majority of Indonesians now live in cities and the urban population is expected to increase with the country becoming more urbanized.

Despite the economic growth brought about by urbanization, millions of Indonesians still live below the poverty line. The ramifications of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic also drew the world’s attention to the near poor or those vulnerable to falling into poverty and the new poor. An astute reading of recent country statistics reveals that the well-being and livelihoods of more than 22 million city dwellers are at risk.

Collaborative actions from international, national, and local stakeholders are necessary to mitigate the often-complex risks brought by climate change. The Government of Indonesia’s commitment to climate change adaptation is manifest with the recent issuance of the Climate Resilience Development Policy, which by Presidential Regulation No. 18 of 2020 has become part of the sixth national priority in the National Medium-Term Development Plan 2020–2024.

Indonesia is among the three countries included in Advancing Inclusive and Resilient Urban Development Targeted at the Urban Poor, a regional technical assistance project of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). It aims to strengthen the government’s capacity in designing and implementing pro-poor investments for building climate resilience. We thank ADB for its support in this initiative and welcome this report as a complement for the Climate Resilience Development Policy 2020–2045. The report furthermore integrates the four priority sectors in Indonesia’s policy and identifies pro-poor climate resilience solutions along five priority policy areas: (i) adaptive and shock-responsive social protection; (ii) sustainable livelihoods; (iii) effective public health system; (iv) safe housing; and (v) robust community infrastructure, including recommendations and entry points for building resilience in the Indonesian context.

Our hope is that readers will gain a better understanding of where Indonesia is heading with its climate resilience policy, in particular toward a more sustainable and integrated urban development.

Ir. Medrilzam, MPE, PhD

Director for Environment, BAPPENAS

Jakarta

Acknowledgments

This country report is one of the outputs of Advancing Inclusive and Resilient Urban Development Targeted at the Urban Poor, a regional technical assistance (TA) project of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The project is financed by the Urban Climate Change Resilience Trust (UCCRTF), administered by ADB with financial support from the Rockefeller Foundation and the governments of Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

The country report was developed under the overall guidance of the Ministry of National Development Planning/National Development Planning Agency (BAPPENAS), the TA focal agency for Indonesia. The implementation of the TA was led by the Directorate of Environment headed by Ir. Medrilzam who provided strategic guidance during the report preparation and facilitated the consultation process, with support from Sudhiani Pratiwi, Putra Dwitama, and Emod Tri Utomo. The country report significantly benefited from technical guidance provided by Hendricus Andy Simarmata. Representatives of government agencies including BAPPENAS, the Ministry of Public Works and Housing, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Ministry of Health, and the National Disaster Management Agency also provided inputs during discussions at consultation workshops and meetings. The finalization of the report also benefited from inputs received from participants at the webinar Reducing Poverty and Strengthening Economy through Climate-Resilient Development, organized by BAPPENAS in December 2020.

The country report was prepared under the overall supervision of Arghya Sinha Roy, principal climate change specialist (climate change adaptation), Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department (SDCC); and Yukiko Ito, principal social development specialist, SDCC; with technical guidance and inputs from Joris van Etten, senior urban development specialist, Southeast Asia Department, ADB. Rowena Mantaring (TA coordinator) provided coordination support and Fatima Angela Marifosque (resilience research associate) provided research assistance in finalizing the report. Zarah Zafra and Imelda Marquez, operations analysts, provided administrative support. This report was edited by Kae Sugawara, and the infographic and layout were done by Lowil Espada. Sugar Gonzales, climate change officer, helped facilitate the publication of this report. The report includes photos from Revitalizing Informal Settlements and their Environments (RISE) Program provided by Kerrie Burge, project manager, RISE Program.

The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) led the initial drafting of the country report in close consultation with relevant Indonesian government ministries and agencies. The IIED team was led by David Dodman and included the following experts: Rifai Ahmad, Sinta Satriana, Irene Sondang, Diane Archer, Sara Candiracci, Matthew Free, Rachel Slater, Aditya V. Bahadur, Rizqa Hidayani, Gerard Howe, and Yasmina Arief Anshory Yusuf. The country report significantly benefited from background research undertaken on specific topics by Yasmina Arief Anshory Yusuf, Smita Notosusanto, Khair Rangi, Budi Haryanto, and Saut Sagala, and background work undertaken for the wider TA by Joanne Catherine Jordan, Manjusha Rai, and Philippa Keys.

The report benefited from review and comments provided by Shamit Chakravarti, former principal social sector specialist, Southeast Asia Department (currently Country Director, Bhutan Resident Mission); Tiffany Tran, human settlements expert (consultant); John Victor Bottini, social development specialist (consultant), and members of the UCCRTF team: Virinder Sharma, principal urban development specialist, SDCC; and Joy Amor Bailey and Ma. Victoria Antonio (consultants).

Vulnerability to climate hazards. Location and low quality of housing make poor communities more vulnerable to climate hazards.

Abbreviations

Executive Summary

Poverty and climate nexus needs special attention. Climate and disaster risk poses a serious threat to the socioeconomic development of Indonesia and undermines the country’s hard-earned development gains. The risks are expected to increase in the future with climate change, with its widespread impacts on four sectors—agriculture, water, marine and coastal, and health—as prioritized in the Climate Resilience Development Policy (Kebijakan Pembangunan Berketahanan Iklim, or PBI) 2020–2045. The major brunt of climate risk will be faced by 26.42 million Indonesians who live below the poverty line and have limited resources and capacity. The climate shocks and stresses will also force the near-poor population hovering marginally above the national poverty line to fall into poverty. Thus, a closer link needs to be established between efforts to reduce poverty and strengthen climate resilience if achievements in both spheres are to be sustained. Poverty reduction interventions, including those aimed at reducing burden, addressing spatial isolation, and improving economic capacity, need to be designed and delivered with current and future climate risk considerations. Climate actions need to be carefully designed so that they explicitly benefit the poor and near poor and do not inadvertently increase vulnerability and inequality. Such a vision is closely aligned with the development agenda of the National Medium-Term Development Plan (Rencana Pembangunan Jangka Menengah Nasional, or RPJMN) 2020–2024.

Explicit focus on building resilience of the poor and near poor in urban areas can ensure that urbanization benefits all equally. Urban areas,