Meeting with Bima Mayor: Wahid Foundation Introduces Women Empowerment Program for Sustainable Peace

Bima City - In collaboration with UN Women and supported by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), the Wahid Foundation is implementing the "Empowered Women for Sustainable Peace: Addressing Peace Humanitarian Nexus to Enhance Community Resilience" program in Bima City.

On Monday (July 22), the Wahid Foundation held a meeting with the Acting Mayor of Bima, Mohammad Rum, at the Bima City Hall, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), to establish a connection and introduce the Women Empowerment for Sustainable Peace program, which will be implemented in Bima City and Bima Regency until 2026. This program focuses on empowering women and youth, as well as strengthening early warning systems to prevent social conflicts and natural disasters.

The program involves local partners, La Rimpu and LP2DER, who will contribute to enhancing capacity in leadership, policy advocacy, and active involvement of women in disaster and conflict prevention.

The meeting began with a welcome address from the Head of the Bakesbangpol of Bima City, Muhammad Hasyim, who appreciated the consortium’s initiative to introduce the program and expressed a desire to learn more about it.

“We greatly appreciate this initiative. The program is very relevant to the needs of Bima City, especially in terms of enhancing the capacity of women and youth to face various social and natural challenges. We are a small city with limited fiscal support. We are very welcoming and supportive of such activities,” said Hasyim.

Following this, the Acting Executive Director of Wahid Foundation, Siti Kholisoh, explained that the program aims to enhance community resilience through interventions that combine humanitarian, development, and peace-building aspects.

“We believe that women play a key role in creating sustainable peace; therefore, we focus on increasing women's capacity in leadership and their active participation in disaster and social conflict prevention and response. In this program, we also work with local partners like La Rimpu and LP2DER to ensure that our approach aligns with the local context and specific needs of the Bima community,” Siti Kholisoh explained.

Siti Kholisoh hopes to receive feedback and guidance from the Bima City government to ensure that the program implementation truly meets the community’s needs, particularly for women and youth.

The program will provide training and technical assistance for women and youth to enhance their leadership skills, disaster risk reduction, and economic development. For example, at the village level, the program will strengthen the Community Early Warning Forum (FKDM) and establish the Women's and Children's Protection Task Force (PPA).

“Training will cover early detection of disasters, peaceful dispute resolution, and the development of sustainable community-based enterprises. Through collaboration with local forums such as the Disaster Risk Reduction Forum (FPRB) and the Interfaith Harmony Forum (FKUB), we hope the program will contribute to community resilience and achieving SDGs, particularly in gender mainstreaming and sustainable peace,” she added.

In response, Acting Mayor Mohammad Rum expressed appreciation and support for this women empowerment program, emphasizing its importance for improving preparedness and vulnerability in Bima City through a participatory community approach.

“The Bima City government responds positively to and welcomes this initiative. Having worked in BPBD and Kesbangpol for three years, and with experience dealing with major floods in 2016 and the Lombok earthquake as a field general, I am aware of Bima's vulnerabilities. We will prepare to support the collaboration for this program,” he said.

About the Program

The "Empowered Women for Sustainable Peace: Addressing Peace Humanitarian Nexus to Enhance Community Resilience" program has been ongoing since June 26, 2023, and will run until December 31, 2026, across three provinces: Central Sulawesi, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), and West Nusa Tenggara (NTB). Its aim is to enhance community resilience and reduce vulnerability in emergency natural disaster situations in conflict-prone areas through a humanitarian-development-peace (HDP Nexus) approach in Indonesia. The program collaborates with several strategic ministries, including the Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Cultural Affairs (Kemenko PMK), Ministry of Women Empowerment and Child Protection (KPPPA), Ministry of Social Affairs (Kemensos), Ministry of Village, Development of Disadvantaged Regions, and Transmigration (Kemendes PDTT), Ministry of Home Affairs (Kemendagri), National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT), and National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB).

In Bima City/Regency, NTB, UN Women and Wahid Foundation will collaborate with local partners La Rimpu and LP2DER, targeting seven villages/sub-districts: Sila Rato Village, Roi Village, Ncera Village, Samili Village in Bima Regency, and Penatoi Sub-district, Dara Sub-district, and Paruga Sub-district in Bima City. These areas were selected after an assessment process by the Wahid Foundation and La Rimpu teams, considering inputs, guidance, and recommendations from the Local Government Organization of Bima City/Regency.

The targeted villages/sub-districts will be facilitated with various training activities related to disaster preparedness, social conflict prevention, and promoting peace to prevent intolerance and violent extremism. Additionally, young women’s groups will receive capacity-building activities in leadership, policy advocacy, and involvement in disaster and social conflict prevention. Village and sub-district government officials will also receive training in gender-responsive village planning and budgeting, with the hope that these areas will develop gender-responsive policies and programs related to disaster preparedness and social conflict prevention. (ZA)