Religious Affairs Ministry Accelerates Plans to Form Disaster Response Coordination Team

Jakarta (ANTARA) – The Ministry of Religious Affairs is accelerating plans to establish a Disaster Response Coordination Team as a proactive and structured measure to address the risk of, and respond to, natural disasters across Indonesia.

The special team is intended to enable the ministry to work systematically and in an integrated manner with the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) and the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas), both at national and regional levels.

“I have already been in communication with BNPB and Basarnas. It turns out they have been involving our regional work units as part of their disaster mitigation efforts,” Deputy Minister of Religious Affairs Romo Muhammad Syafi’i said in Jakarta on Monday.

Syafi’i said the team was being established in response to Indonesia’s high exposure to natural disasters, including the threat of megathrust earthquakes, flash floods and forest fires.

The ministry’s regional resources—including work units, religious counsellors, madrasahs, Islamic boarding schools and places of worship—have often contributed to disaster response. However, their involvement has not yet been coordinated through an integrated framework within the ministry.

Syafi’i stressed the importance of clear communication and coordination arrangements from the central government down to the regency and city levels to ensure disaster response is effective and measurable.

The Ministry of Religious Affairs’ General Affairs Bureau and Legal Bureau are drafting regulations for the disaster response and post-disaster reconstruction team.

The ministry’s Disaster Response Coordination Team will focus on five main operational and coordination functions.

First, it will coordinate emergency response, including the provision of aid and initial action when a disaster occurs.

Second, it will conduct rapid and accurate assessments of affected areas and infrastructure, including religious facilities such as mosques, churches and other places of worship, as well as religious educational institutions such as madrasahs and Islamic boarding schools.

Third, it will manage, collect and distribute assistance transparently through the ministry’s official emergency-response account.

Fourth, it will foster coordination among internal units and regional offices, working with echelon-one units, state Islamic higher education institutions (PTKN), the ministry’s regional offices and relevant external agencies.

Finally, it will provide ministry leaders with regular, integrated reports on the progress of assistance efforts.