Deputy Ministers of Social Affairs and Women's Empowerment Discuss Acceleration of Sumatra Disaster Victim Recovery

Deputy Minister of Social Affairs (Wamensos), Agus Jabo Priyono and Deputy Minister of Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection (WamenPPPA), Veronica Tan discussed collaborative plans for the recovery of victims from disasters in Sumatra. The meeting took place at the Social Affairs Ministry (Kemensos) office on Tuesday, 10 March.

Agus Jabo explained that one measure adopted by Kemensos to accelerate victim recovery is the distribution of two types of social assistance (bansos): regular and adaptive social assistance. He stated that, in accordance with the mandate of President Prabowo Subianto, Kemensos is maximising the distribution of social assistance to be completed before Eid al-Fitr.

“Currently we are striving to distribute assistance as extensively as possible before Ramadan. However, the basis of this assistance remains data,” Agus Jabo explained on Tuesday, 10 March 2026.

Various ministries, agencies and other parties are currently collaborating to ensure that disaster-affected communities can recover quickly and rebuild their lives. Consequently, various stimulus packages are being distributed to affected communities.

Nevertheless, Agus Jabo clarified that all disaster assistance must be based on a single dataset approved by regional heads and ratified by the Minister of Home Affairs (Mendagri). This data also comes from the National Unified Socio-Economic Data (DTSEN).

Based on this data, Kemensos distributes various forms of adaptive social assistance, including heir compensation benefits, livelihood sustenance assistance, home furnishing assistance and socio-economic assistance to provide empowerment stimulus to residents.

To support efforts to accelerate the recovery of Sumatra disaster victims, Veronica expressed the hope that the Women’s Empowerment Ministry would help women and children affected by the disaster overcome their difficult situation and return to their previous way of life.

To this end, the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment wishes to collaborate with various parties, including Kemensos, to help women, the elderly and children become active and productive again through programmes provided by the ministry. The programme it intends to promote is the Women’s Garden Programme.

“Whilst living in temporary housing (huntara), women residing there must be given capacity building so they can survive, meaning support and mentoring must continue. The Women’s Garden Programme is expected to be implemented in both temporary and permanent housing (huntap),” Veronica said.

Agus Jabo welcomed the possibility of the programme being implemented by women so they can manage gardens and obtain produce from them. Through gardening, they are expected to build food security for their households.