Assessing “Preparing to Excel in Emergency Response (PEER)

Project” in Organizational Capacity Response Quality Improvement

Muhammad Kaimuddin

, Setya Haksama

, Samsriyaningsih Handayani

Postgraduate School, Magister of Disaster Management, Universitas Airlangga,

Department of Health Administration and Policy, Faculty of Public Health, Universitas Airlangga,

Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Airlangga,

Keywords: Organizational Capacity, PEER Project, Response Quality.

Abstarct: The frequency of global disaster is increasing continuously in the future which causes deaths and material

damages. At the same time, the response capacity of the organizations related to disaster management is

insufficient. PEER Project initiation as a model has been established to reach capacity improvement of

organizations involved in disaster management. The development includes the regulations establishment,

guidelines, standard operating procedures, training, socialization, and implementation in each region. This

study aimed to analyze the effect of PEER Project on organizational capacity response quality improvement.

A cross-sectional survey design was used. The population was organizations involving in emergency

response from 8 regional branch offices were chosen. Modified Capacity Assessment (MOCA) tools were

used to assess improvements. Regional branches showed varied trends, ranging from -8.5% to 71.3%. The

mean scores achieved as compared to the maximum scores of MOCA components were 77% for finance,

59% for logistics and administration, 76% for human resources management and capacities, 51% for

coordination, 69% for Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL), 73% for resource

mobilization, and 66% for quality response capacities. The result from Kruskal Wallis test was significant

differences between scores before and after PEER Project implementation in aspects of Human Resources

Management and Capacities (HRMC, p = 0.025), Monitoring Evaluation Accountability and Learning

(MEAL, p = 0.025) and Resource Mobilization (p = 0.025). The coordination and logistics-administration

components should be of particular concern to the next project due to the low MOCA scores.

1 INTRODUCTION

Indonesia is a disaster prone country which suffers

various threats based on meteorology and geophysic

sciences. The threats are often manifested as

disasters that disrupt human activities at different

levels. Report of the Indonesian National Agency

for Disaster Management shows that since year 1815

to 2017, the disaster has surged Aceh to Papua for

25,218 times (BNPB, 2018). Frequent world

disasters cause loss of life and material damages will

keep increasing in the future. Nevertheless, the

capacity of response to the disaster has a significant

wide gap that raises many critics on its disaster

management (Whybark, 2015, Proudlock et al,

2009). Part of the United Nation Organization which

handles the coordination of humanitarian aid

informs that there exists a significant wide gap of

response capacity of the aid and the needs. During

2017, USD 24.4 billion has been needed to respond

the disaster in the world but only 1.4 billion USD or

5.7% was fulfilled (UN OCHA 2018).

Those efforts are seldom to be conducted in

coordination with other responses. This role should

be in accordance with the organization’s capacity in

order to deliver quality aids (Whybark, 2015). In

order to address this deficiency, the Catholic Relief

Services (CRS) initiates a program called Preparing

to Excel in Emergency Response (PEER) Project to

improve individual and organizational capacites to

be able to achieve a quality response of non-

governmental organizations in Indonesia.

Organizations enrolled in the PEER Project are the

Pos Keadilan Peduli Umat Human Initiative (PKPU

HI) and the Muhammadiyah Disaster Management

Center (MDMC). These two organizations were

chosen because they are part of religious-based non-

governmental organizations which play an active

Kaimuddin, M., Haksama, S. and Handayani, S.

Assessing â

AIJPreparing to Excel in Emergency Response (PEER) Projectâ

I in Organizational Capacity Response Quality Improvement.

DOI: 10.5220/0007539301550158

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference Postgraduate School (ICPS 2018), pages 155-158

ISBN: 978-989-758-348-3

155

role in disaster response and humanity crisis at local,

national, and global levels (Bruce and Terry 1990,

Cheena et al, 2014, Fiddian and Ager, 2013).

Organizations low capacity and decreasing

response quality become the focus of this research.

The elements of decreasing response quality

discussed by Whybark (2015) are limited to global

logistic capacity, difficult collaboration among

institutions and/or international organizations,

increasing dependent food aids to non-government

organizations such as humanitarian organizations to

give response during the crisis. If these are allowed

then high cost activities will occur and longer time

of response will be needed since the frequency of

disaster with aid needs will increase too (Social

Issue Report, 2011 and Baird, 2010).

This research is aimed to evaluate the

organizational capacity of the two chosen

organization, PKPU-HI and MDMC, during one-

year implimentation of PEER Project. The type of

this research was an observational, cross-sectional

survey with explanatory research using a

quantitative method (Santos-Silva, 1999). In this

research, there were two main variables observed:

organizational capacity and response quality (Whale

& Whargade, 2006). Kruskal Wallis test was used to

determine the PEER components affecting on the

improvements of organizational capacities and

quality of responses (Sugiono, 2014).

2 METHODS AND DATA

PREPARATION

This research used an observational, cross-sectional

survey with explanatory research using a

quantitative method. The research analyzed the

improvement of organizational capacity response

quality of PKPU HI and MDMC after PEER Project

implementation. The population of this research was

the PKPU HI headquarter office in Jakarta and its

regional offices in Bengkulu, Bandung, Surabaya,

and Makassar and MDMC headquarter office in

Yogyakarta and its regional offices: Sumatera

Selatan, Jawa Barat, Nusa Tenggara Barat and

Maluku Utara. The respondents were project

managers and head of the regional offices.

There were two main variables which are

observed in this research: organizational capacity

and response quality. Operational definitions used in

this research was to determine the variables into

empirical indicators. The institutional capacity

variables consisted of capacity and human resource

management, logistics and administration, finance,

monitoring of evaluation accountability and learning

- MEAL. While response quality variables

comprised of coordination, resource mobilization

and capacity of response.

The instrument used in the assessment was

questionnaires comprising questions on indicators of

research variables in PEER Project which is called

MOCA. Identification of indicators in the

questionaire refers to MOCA format. Primary and

secondary data were used. Primary data were

collected directly on face-to-face interviews with

Project manager of each organizations as

respondents to verify secondary data of PEER

Project. Secondary data on response quality and the

organizational capacity were obtained from CRS

Indonesia. This research was conducted in PKPU HI

offices and MDMC offices as advised by PEER

Project. This research was conducted on May and

June 2018 for PEER Project activities during years

2016-2017. Ethical clearance was obtained from the

Komite Etik Penelitian Kesehatan of Nursing

Faculty Universitas Airlangga. Data analysis was

conducted based on Kruskal Wallis test to determine

the PEER components affecting on the

improvements of organizational capacities and

quality of responses.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Prelimanary test results to two chosen organizations

after one year implementation of PEER Project,

PKPU-HI and MDMC shown in Table 1 indicates

that there is an increase of MOCA Scores in general

from year 2016 to 2017. This means that the PEER

Project shows a good performance in improving the

organizational capacity. Only one branch has a

decrease performance. The gap between head offices

and the branches in two organizations appears in the

test result which becomes a concern for further

study. However, the results in Table 1 is in general

form. The detail factors in the evaluation has not

been explored yet.

Accordingly, the measurement instrument of

organizational capacity variables in Table 2 was

used as a guideline in assessing the performance of

organization in PEER Project. The values in the

table is based on MOCA Assesment in PEER

Project.

ICPS 2018 - 2nd International Conference Postgraduate School

156

Table 1: Measurement Instrument of Organizational Capacity Variables.

Construct

Instrume

Measurement

result

Weighted

value

Results

Variable of

organizational

capacity and

response quality

Closed-ended

questionnaire

top

high

medium

low

bottom

item score x weight ,

“good” if ≥ 60%

and

“insufficient” if <60%.

Source: PEER Project (2018), Sugiono (2014)

Table 2: Average percentages of organizational capacity of all regional branch by components.

Source : PEER Project, 2018

The implementation of PEER Project started in

2016 with initial assessments on 7 components using

questionnaire based on MOCA standards. The

results are shown in Table 3. Significant components

were Human Resources Management and Capacities

(HRMC, p=0.025), Monitoring Evaluation

Accountability and Learning (MEAL, p = 0.025)

and Resource mobilization (p = 0.025). The

insignificant improvements of the finance

component of the two institutions may be caused by

the high standard of financial management that have

already been implemented on daily bases by the

institutions so that PEER Projects did not add more

values. PKPU HI uses the ISO 9001: 2008. Some

aspects of finance included the availability of

response budgets, the knowledge on how to access

funds at the head office, the application of small

cash management mechanisms and the availability

of emergency fund management transaction

documents. All of these processes could be found in

routine institutional activities. Human Resources

Management and Capacities was significantly

improved. The possible factor that led to this result

was that at the time the PEER Project was

implemented, both institutions were in their process

of building management system standards for

emergency response staffers /volunteers. The

HRMC component emphasized on how staffers

acquire skills and training experience, branches

having divisions of tasks, the number of

staffers/branch personnel, branch heads/staffers

having financial control, staffers having training

experience, the staffers having the capacity to adapt

to changes in structures and planning. In the

coordination component, Gittel (2002) in Shen &

Stella (2004) describes two problems faced in an

emergency situation i.e. the low uncertainty and

more dynamic situation that can be addressed by

regular response team meetings. Branch offices were

possible to partner with local/ international/ local

government/ organizations, participating in

partnership and cluster meetings. Every training

session of this project became an important topic for

the participants. The role of coordination maximizes

the effectiveness of the response and minimizes the

gap needs to be improved. There were needs for

staffers, equipment and knowing how to access

emergency response funds in each.

Specialized training sessions on the MEAL

component in PEER Project also provided new

knowledge for the institutions so that it was

significant in this project. The involvement of all age

groups in the emergency response, proposal and

budget process, the use of Specific, Measurable,

Achievable, Relevant and Time based methods

appealed to staffers and institutions. Branches were

also required to have data collection forms to

monitor emergency response activities prior to the

end of project implementation, to evaluate and

engage beneficiaries in emergency response

Bengkulu Bandung Makassar Surabaya Malut Jabar Sumsel NTB

2016 2017 trend

Finance 34.8% 20.0% 6.5% 69.9% 78.6% 10.7% 38.5% 73.3% 57.8% 77.1% 33.4%

Logistic & Administration 10.0% 52.4% 14.3% 91.6% 37.5% 7.1% 0.0% 94.7% 43.6% 58.9% 35.0%

Hum Res Mangt & Capcts -6.8% -2.7% 55.8% 49.3% 95.5% 11.5% 48.1% 53.6% 56.7% 75.5% 33.2%

Coordination -31.8% -9.5% 11.1% 23.2% 130.0% 20.0% 55.6% 9.1% 44.2% 51.1% 15.5%

Mont Evl Accountblt & Lrng -29.5% -18.0% 11.4% 19.5% 64.5% 7.7% 57.6% 34.5% 61.0% 69.4% 13.7%

Resource Mobilization -35.3% 0.0% 40.0% 28.6% 38.5% -9.1% 23.1% 30.0% 67.5% 75.0% 11.1%

Response Capacity -3.4% 30.8% 68.4% 31.0% 58.8% 9.7% 5.9% 42.9% 51.4% 65.6% 27.4%

Total -8.9% 10.4% 29.6% 44.7% 71.9% 8.2% 32.7% 48.3% 24.2%

Section

All Regional Branches

mean

PKPU HI

MDMC

trend in 2016 to 2017 (%)

Assessing â

AIJPreparing to Excel in Emergency Response (PEER) Projectâ

I in Organizational Capacity Response Quality Improvement

157

activities according to disaggregated data. Resources

mobilization improved significantly. For trainees of

PEER Project agencies, implementing emergency

responses was essential for providing services and

determining funding strategies, and establishing

mechanisms and volunteer mobilization procedures.

Speed and accuracy were important factors for

institutions to remain exist in service. In addition,

response staffers were trained to write grant

proposals to agencies at local, regional and even

international levels. Both institutions also had

adequate response staffers, enabling them to pay

attention to the process of assignment and what

factors should be done. Assessment on logistics and

administrative components revealed that both

institutions had standard response procedures,

emergency financing procedures, emergency

response volunteer procedures and rescue equipment

although they had not been fully implemented.

Generally, branches did not have logistics and office

warehouses that accommodated rescue equipment

and goods supplies. The response capacity

component of the branch in the needs assessment,

incorporating mainstream protection in the program,

applying the sphere standard, implementing the

quick review was still in its initiation process so it

requires good practice (Sphere Project, 2011). So

far, writing situation reports in every emergency

response program has been practiced.

4 CONCLUSIONS

The results enable each branch or organization to

monitor and improve their capacity. Based on the

evaluation results, the coordination and logistics-

administration components should be of particular

concern in the next project due to the low MOCA

scores. Improvements are needed for the next PEER

project, focusing on coordination, administration

and logistics and response capacity components.

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