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02
March

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Jakarta (voinews): Indonesian President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) called on the regional government to include disaster risk in their development plans to detect which disaster-prone locations should not become investment targets.

"The regional government must include disaster risk in its development and investment plan," he noted while opening the 2023 National Coordination Meeting on Disaster Mitigation in Jakarta, Thursday.

By including disaster risk in the development plans, transparent information will be available on locations that can be used for development, he remarked.

This effort will also help officers in the field to take action on developments that violate regional spatial plans and have a high likelihood to increase disaster, the president remarked.

"The officers should be able to strictly prohibit construction in the landslide-prone area," he stated.

Jokowi spoke of having often noticed buildings near the river despite the location being a flood-prone area.

"It is obvious that there is a river in the area, but people keep building houses in the riverbank area that is prone to floods. This is what I often see," he stated.

Hence, the head of state also urged the regional government, through the Regional Development Planning Agency (Bappeda), to oversee the implementation of development.

"Bappeda must be able to manage regional planning. However, sometimes, the planning and implementation are different in the field. That is our weakness," he emphasized.

On the occasion, he also cautioned the regional government regarding the regulation complexity for social assistance disbursal when a disaster occurs.

"Usually, the assistance is piled up at the command post or at the village office. The people affected are only able to see it. Please simplify the distribution method during a disaster," he emphasized.

Attendees at the 2023 National Coordination Meeting on Disaster Mitigation were ministers from the Advanced Indonesia Cabinet; regional heads and elements of the regional government; Commander of the Indonesia Defense Forces (TNI), Admiral Yudo Margono; National Police Chief General Listyo Sigit Prabowo; Head of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), Lieutenant General Suharyanto; and other relevant officials. (Antaranews)

02
March

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Jakarta (voinews): The global community is no longer as afraid of the pandemic and war as they are of climate change, which has significantly increased the frequency of natural disasters, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has remarked.

"What is the world afraid of right now? It is not the pandemic, it is not the war, but there is something more horrible that is feared by all countries, which is climate change," he stated at the opening of the 2023 National Coordination Meeting on Disaster Mitigation here on Thursday.

The president noted that Indonesia is one of the top three countries most prone to disasters.

The frequency of natural disasters in Indonesia had increased by 81 percent over the last decade, from 1,945 disasters in 2010 to 3,544 disasters in 2022, the president stated.

"We do not only mitigate the (impacts of) floods, volcano eruptions, and landslides (but) we (also) face earthquakes, which become more frequent, as well as other natural and non-natural disasters," he remarked.

Hence, he emphasized that preparedness and vigilance are the keys to dealing with natural disasters.

Jokowi also stressed that pre-disaster, emergency response, and post-disaster management must be conducted properly by all parties.

On the same occasion, he also urged all local governments to include disaster risk mitigation attempts into their regional development plan as well as further simplify regulations on disaster aid disbursement, so that victims can get assistance at the earliest.

Earlier, at the working meeting of the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) on February 16, 2023, the president stated that the frequency of natural disasters and major accidents occurring worldwide jumped by up to five folds in the last 50 years.

Hence, he encouraged Basarnas to involve the public in disaster-handling attempts by providing first aid training, especially to those residing in disaster-prone areas.

He also appealed to the agency to improve its equipment with the use of the latest technology to accelerate the evacuation process of disaster victims. (Antaranews)

02
March

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Jakarta (voinews): The National Population and Family Planning Agency (BKKBN) raised the issue of early child marriage during a meeting of Arab and Asian Parliamentarians here on Wednesday.

"The high number of child marriages is a threat to the fulfillment of children's basic rights," BKKBN's deputy for training, research, and development, Rizal Damanik, said during the meeting in Jakarta.

The inter-regional meeting with a theme “Handling Youth Empowerment and Gender-Based Violence” will last until March 3, 2023.

As the host of the meeting, Damanik said that even though early child marriage cases in Indonesia have declined, the practice is still prevalent in many countries around the world.

According to him, early marriage causes children to lose their basic rights and puts children in a vulnerable position, which not only has physical and psychological impacts, but also worsens disparities between families due to the high poverty rate.

Another impact is low cognitive abilities because children are forced to drop out of school, he said.

Child marriages also widen the risk of cervical cancer for young women, and children who are born from early marriage are at risk of stunting, he added.

He said that the condition of child marriage in Indonesia is different from that in other countries. Based on data from the Religious Courts Agency (Badilag), 50,673 marriage dispensations were recorded in 2022.

Applications for early marriage are mostly submitted on account of a pregnancy before marriage, and at the encouragement of parents who want their children to marry to prevent adultery, he added.

Apart from that, cultural traditions and the paradigm of considering children as assets for the future are also behind the practice of early marriage in Indonesia, he said.

"Several studies have advised the government to take preventive measures, such as increasing care capacity and access to services, developing children's abilities, opening and equalizing access for children's development, and strengthening family social ties," he added.

Therefore, the BKKBN is of the view that each country needs to formulate policies regarding physical health, including those related to reproductive and mental health, parenting support, 12 years of formal education, and empowerment of livelihoods.

Damanik also provided best practices in Indonesia in preventing child marriage, such as implementing policies on reproductive health, especially for adolescents, and assisting the activities of youth groups called the Youth Information and Counseling Center (PIK Remaja).

"It is an honor for us to assist PIK Remaja. Tomorrow, some participants of the Arab-Asia Parliaments meeting will visit one of the PIK Remajas in Jakarta," he said.

Around 25 parliamentarians from Arab and Asian countries are attending the meeting virtually and in person to discuss issues that affect youth and gender-based violence and policy advocacy needed in the future. (Antaranews)

02
March

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Jakarta (voinews): Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture (PMK), Muhadjir Effendy, has asked local governments to verify data on people living in extreme poverty in their respective regions.

"Each region must carry out validation regarding the P3KE (Targets for the Acceleration of the Alleviation of Extreme Poverty) data, thus it can be followed up by the Coordinating Ministry for PMK later,” he said here on Wednesday.

The data validation is urgently needed so that the information on each extremely poor person can be made accurate based on the determined criteria, he added.

“For any region which still has problems with the data, it can be coordinated with the Coordinating Ministry for PMK," he stated.

The accuracy of P3KE data is also important for ensuring that the government's poverty eradication programs are on target, he explained.

With an accurate database, extreme poverty alleviation programs would be able to truly benefit impoverished people who need assistance from the government, he added.

"Using ‘by name by address’ data as well as data per village, it is hoped that there will be no more mistarget," he said.

The government is striving to reduce the extreme poverty rate, which, in 2021, was recorded at 4 percent, or 10.86 million people, to zero percent by 2024.

"President Joko Widodo has instructed all stakeholders to commit to eliminating extreme poverty (in Indonesia) by 2024, or 6 years prior to the target of SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals), which is 2030," Effendy added.

Earlier, he had urged all parties to optimize three key programs to expedite the eradication of extreme poverty.

The first involves disbursing social assistance and subsidies to ease the burden on extremely poor people, while the second involves community empowerment to help increase the productivity and economic capacity of the people.

Meanwhile, the third program concerns the development of basic infrastructures to reduce areas with high rates of extreme poverty.

According to Presidential Instruction Number 4 of 2022 on extreme poverty eradication acceleration, regional heads have been asked to determine the target data on extremely poor families, depending on the results of village meetings. (Antaranews)