Strengthening society preparedness as a strategy for disaster risk reduction in Indonesia

Natural disasters in Indonesia place a heavy and extraordinary burden on the affected people. Disaster victims are often unable to cope with the stress and tension of a disaster, so they turn to the government for help. Disasters also create difficult problems for the government to anticipate and deal with. As a result, the effectiveness of government efforts in disaster management varies. In many cases, the government’s response to disasters is slow, ineffective, often chaotic, and misguided. There is a “gap” between what the government is prepared to do in an emergency management situation and what emerges as the expectations of disaster victims. This paper aims to answer the problem on how the things related to community preparedness can be formulated in disaster management policies. We describe this assertion after conducting field research in six selected regencies in 2021. This mixed methods research is descriptive, with data collected through a survey with respondents and interviews with informants using semi-structured questionnaires. We conclude that there is no other way except society must be able to adapt to disasters and be capable of managing disaster risk reduction. This adaptability is manifested in the forms of society’s preparedness for disasters.