In 2006, Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) and UNESCO supported by UNISDR developed a tool to measure the level of preparedness of the community, school, and government, towards earthquake and tsunami. There are three main stakeholders of this tool:
By using five (5) parameters, namely (1) policy, (2) knowledge, (3) preparedness and response plan, (4) early warning system, and (5) resource mobilization capacity, this tool was utilized to assess the level of preparedness in dealing with earthquake and tsunami in some areas in Indonesia. As of January 2018, over 200 schools in 10 provinces in Indonesia have been assessed using this tool.
In 2017, a project namely ‘Partnerships for strengthening school preparedness for tsunami in the Asia Pacific Region’ funded by the Government of Japan and implemented by UNDP supported the development of tool applications based on the five parameters to assess the level of preparedness of earthquake and tsunami of a school community. The tool, namely STEP-A has been adapted to be suitably used in multi-country setting and currently will be rolled out in 18 countries across Asia Pacific region.
The development of STEP-A has involved a series of consultation with the Government of Indonesia, UN agencies, civil society, school representatives and experts, and has been piloted in several schools in Indonesia. STEP-A is designed to promote scaling up efforts in assessing tsunami preparedness capacity in schools in tsunami-prone areas. With the use of technology, it is expected that the assessment process to be faster, self-administered, cost-efficient, and designed to be at-scale. Furthermore, the results of the assessment are accessible and can be easily understood by the school stakeholders.
