Ache's Economic Developments -Past & Future -

In order to discuss the future of Aceh & Banda Aceh, it is extremely important to understand the economic developments over past 10 years that had supported Aceh & Banda Aceh economic livelihood.

It is also very important to know that the declining production of natural gas in Aceh is a major factor that lowers the GDP (Gross Domestic Products: Pertumbuhan Ekonomi) of Aceh while the agricultural and fishery, and possibly tourism sectors contribute very positively to Aceh’s GDP.

Y.Tanaka found the following figures that indicate the economic changes in Aceh, and he would like to see more detailed follow-up on this by UNSyiah researchers. Three references are thought to be extremely important for this study, and they are the following 3 literatures that are uploaded in our Dropbox:

1) Buku_Datin_Kinerja_Pembangunan_2004-2012
2) Sisira Jayasuriya and Peter McCawley (2010), The Asian Tsunami Aid and Reconstruction after a Disaster, (A JOINT PUBLICATION OF THE ASIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK INSTITUTE AND EDWARD ELGAR PUBLISHING)
3) Peter McCawley’s presentation: Indonesia Update 2013 - Aceh’s Economy – Prospects for Revival after Disaster and War- (taken from web).

Figure taken from Kinerja Pembangunan 2004-2012

Please see page 93 of this book.

 

Slide taken from Peter McCawley's presentation on Aceh's GDP's structural distribution. 

Y.Tanaka thinks that MIgas in the figure may represent the mines and natural gas contribution, and Agric would include agriculture and fishery.

April 24th WS(FGD) Postponed to 29th (第１回ワークショップ開催延期)

The followings are the summary of phone discussion with Y.Tanaka and TDMRC representative on April 21st evening.

Discussion was made at UNSyiah on how to conduct the first FGD (WS) on 24th. The details of questions and others have to be sorted out still, and it was decided to postpone it to 29th (Tuesday).

It was also confirmed that the discussion in FGD (WS) will be conducted by grouping the participants  into small numbers, say 7-8 persons for the participants to feel easy of expressing their views.

To collect a quantitative survey data/result from this FDG (WS), it is important to identify the individual's background (i.e., age, gender, and affiliation) so that we can judge his/her comment representing what kind of community or stakeholder.  All answer sheets need to be collected after the FDG (WS) and archived digitally.

In UNSyiah, the reliability of the data collected at FDG (WS) was discussed with respect to its quantitative accuracy. Alternative such as a survey over a large number of public using questionary is not used in this project because;
 outcomes expected from FDG (WS) are
1) sharing of understanding on recovery & reconstruction states at Banda Aceh among participants, and 
2) discussing together about the future plan of Banda Aceh among the participants through the understanding of current recovery and reconstruction status. 

Further discussions on the details of how to conduct the FGD (WS) continue at UNSyiah.

(Written by Y. Tanaka)

日本側研究者の皆様へ(To Japanese Researcher)

バンダアチェ市10年検証について、シャークアラ大学側は合計３回の会合を行い、第１回目を５日後の４月２４日（木）に実施することを決めました。田中は参加できませんので、実施方法の詳細を本ブログでまとめて、皆様のご意見を頂きたいと思います。

それと10年検証では、これから実施する参加者からのヒアリング調査だけでなく、シャークアラ大学研究者によるデータ収集が不可欠＆最重要と思います。人口、インフラ施設、政府組織等々についての10年間の年表の作成が特に必要と思います。

是非、ご意見をお願いします。なお、財団への申請書提出は終了し、後は結果を待つばかりです。どうぞ宜しくお願いいたします。

(Y.Tanaka is asking comments from Japanese researchers by reading this blog. Also he thinks that the data collections at UNSyiah side on population, infrastructures (water, sewerages, electricity, roads etc) over 10years at Banda Ache is the most important item. Lastly he comments on our application to the Japanese foundation has been accepted, and we just need to wait for their reply.)

3rd UNSyiah Meeting held to discuss 1st Workshop on 24th April

On 17th Thursday, 3rd meeting was held to discuss the details of 1st Workshop on 24th April.
The followings are key points as discussed in the meeting.
(Y. Tanaka highlights those statements that are not clearly understood.)

1. UNSyiah researchers are going to undertake 3 to 4 times FGDs (Focus Group Discussions?)  and a couple of in depth interviews or field survey with questionnaires. 

2. The first FGD on next Thursday, 24 April, is the so-called experts FGD.  Its purpose is to validate the questions formulated by each aspects based on experts judgements.

3. The 2nd and 3rd FGDs are dedicated to post those validated questions to the sample audiences which comes from different stakeholders and/or communities. Most of the aspects plan to do a multi-stage FGDs. This means there will be follow up action by in-depth interview with some further selected respondents. We have already identified some commonality of respondents from some aspects as well as completely different respondents from one aspects to another. We conclude based on this fact, that we are going to split into two parallel groups in every FGD event (FGD2a, FGD2b and FGD3a, FGD3b). Each of these sub FGDs (40 persons each) are consisting of two different target respondents. In this way, each aspects group who has commonality in respondents will be in the same sub FGD. We will try to finish the design of these sub FGDs in these two days and will update you on this.

4. Subsequently, it might be useful to conduct the final FGD (FGD4) which is dedicated to a public discussions based on final results of the assessment in order to once again have comments from wider audience, particularly from the community.

5. On the other hand, for some reasons, we feel that there are some details which cannot be acquired through FGDs, particularly with the aspects of economic development and infrastructure/housings. Also, by the fact that we want to include not only Banda Aceh, but also the cases of remote districts representative for the western and eastern coasts in our study. 
-----------The above are what discussed in the 3rd UNSyiah Meeting---------------

Y.Tanaka basically agrees what UNSyiah team planned, and also the needs for extending the study for the areas outside of Banda Aceh. --- Question is that "Do we have enough time to complete our study on Banda Aceh's recovery & reconstruction assessment??"
Y.Tanaka pose this question because we need not only those FGDs (Workshops?) and their analyses, but more importantly a good collection of data to create in-depth historical map (or graph) on populations, infrastructures, governmental organisation, educational system, industrial (agricultural & fishery) production changes at Banda Aceh or Aceh State over the past 10 years. This is the task UNSyiah FG(Focus Group) members have to complete otherwise nobody does. I expect more discussions and follow-ups will be made in the future blogs.

Application to Japanese Funding Agency has been submitted

On Friday 11th today, our application to Japanese Funding agency has been submitted.
The application will be reviewed by the agency managements in late May, and we will hear from them after that.

In any case, we will start our study by organising the first (preliminary) workshop by targeting the community people on April 24th. TDMRC focus groups will prepare the procedures to conduct the workshop, and various comments from participants on how they observe and judge the recovery & reconstruction states at Banda Aceh after 10 years from the 2004 Tsunami.

The following is an example of Kobe City study on how participants felt on the livelihood recovery & reconstruction;

We need to find out on what items Banda Aceh community people feel the recovery & reconstruction have been achieved, and on what items they feel not.

Also more importantly there should be a discussion on the future reconstruction or development of Banda Aceh after they have presented those have been & have not been achieved. This is a key discussion for creating a future vision of Banda Aceh, and a clear workshop procedure to conduct this discussion session is needed.

TDRMC meetings on 2nd April & 10th April

There were two meetings held at TDMRC on how to carry out the study.
            1) April  2nd 2014
            2) April 10th 2014

The followings are the summary of meetings.
1) Five focus groups & persons in charge have been decided;
   - Reconstruction of Human Settlement and Infrastructure of the affected area
        (Dr. Azmeri / Cut Mutiawati /?)
   - Regional and Communities’ Economic Revitalization
        (Dr. Safrida / Sofyan / Elvira Iskandar)
   - Social Ties and Psychological Recovery
        (Yulia Direzkia, Psikolog / Hendra Syahputra / Nursan Junita)
   - Disaster Management Efforts
         (Dr. Eng. Syamsidik/?/?)
   - Community Preparedness.
         (Rina Suryani Oktari/?/?)

 Members of management committee have been decided;
   - Head : Dr. Khairul Munadi
   - Vice: Dr. Ella Meilianda
  Management :
   - Project coordinator: Dr. Nizamuddin
   - Project Administrator: Alfi Rahman
   - Visual & Graphic designer/EO: Mahruza

2) First (preliminary) workshop date has been decided.

   - April 24th Thursday

   - Funding from Aceh provincial government is confirmed.