U.S., Indonesia Partner on Early Warning Systems for Disaster Risk Reduction

JAKARTA – This week, Indonesia’s Agency for Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics (BMKG) and the United States, through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to work together to strengthen, develop, and promote scientific and technical cooperation activities.

“We are pleased to deepen our partnership with the Government of Indonesia to address the challenges of climate change. Together with the BMKG’s leadership, we are improving public early warning systems to provide information on weather, climate, earthquakes and tsunamis that is timely, accurate, comprehensive, and easy to understand,” said USAID Indonesia Mission Director Jeff Cohen.

Under the new agreement, USAID and BMKG will partner to enhance impact-based forecasting, bolster the flash flood guidance system for the Asia and Pacific region, and improve earthquake notifications and tsunami warnings.

“BMKG Indonesia is very pleased to strengthen our cooperation with the United States through the USAID, so that we can learn from one another, primarily related to weather, climate, earthquake, and tsunami phenomena that significantly affect safety and prosperity of the community of the two countries. BMKG hopes this collaboration will generate and accelerate new knowledge and innovations, which is highly required in the provision of information and improvement of early warning systems amidst the increasing challenges of disaster events,” said the Head of BMKG, Prof. Dwikorita Karnawati.

USAID and BMKG will also conduct joint analysis, share information and best practices, and exchange visits.  The two partners further plan to deepen their partnership through new grant agreements.

For more information, visit https://www.usaid.gov/indonesia or contact USAID Communications Specialist Swiny Andina at +62 (21) 5083-1000 or sandina@usaid.gov.