The Urban Living Labs Implementation for the Displaced Community in Garut Indonesia

Original article: Urban Living Labs for Displaced Communities in Indonesia - Urbanet 

With disasters forcing people to move, how can host cities ensure adequate living conditions for displaced communities? Saut Sagala makes a case for Urban Living Labs.

The Risks For Displaced Communities In Indonesian Cities

Disasters have caused the loss of life and property. The damages often force people to move out and away from their homes, creating displacement. The number of internal displacements due to disasters in Indonesia has constantly increased. In 2020, disasters in Indonesia resulted in 161,000 internally displaced people (IDPs). Most affected communities also end up in informal settlements in urban areas. Thus, IDPs due to disasters need to be in the picture because this situation causes various problems that will roll like snowballs.

For instance, in Garut Regency, the flash flood in September 2016 severely impacted six subdistricts. It resulted in an estimated economic loss of around 28 million USD and the displacement of about 2,525 people. The most affected were communities close to Cimanuk riverbanks, mostly informal settlements bound to high vulnerability that could not be re-inhabited. Later, the local government relocated the people to several locations in the periphery of the Garut Kota Subdistrict. The IDPs, however, were not relocated along with their former community. Instead, they were subdivided into households and placed into new locations. Thus, many problems occur in the new relocation site due to the lack of social cohesion in the displaced community. This calls for a durable solution to solve the problem for the displaced community.

Making Displacement Safer Through Urban Living Labs (ULL)

Therefore, the Resilience Development Initiative (RDI), along with the Global Network of Civil Society Organisations for Disaster Reduction (GNDR), worked on the “Making Displacement Safer” project to seek locally-led durable solutions to challenges faced by IDPs living in urban areas. The displaced community in Garut used an Urban Living Labs (ULL) approach. ULL is the approach of gathering all actors, including stakeholders – companies, research institutions, the public sectors – and the community through co-creation for creating innovation. The implementation of ULL helps identify critical stakeholders and formulate outcomes for the displaced population in Garut alongside the community. Therefore, RDI ensures the inclusivity of involvement and insights in finding solutions for the displacement issues in Garut.

Achieving a long-lasting solution for the displaced community issues includes several steps. The first step is a joint exploration to identify the community’s challenges and needs. The findings indicate that the displaced communities can not sustain their livelihood in the relocation sites. Therefore, the following steps focus on creating a solution for the community to be more resilient and sustain their livelihood at the relocation site. Urban Living Labs can bring people from displaced communities together.