Collective action and co-management initiatives in post-disaster Aceh, Indonesia

Studies of post-disaster rehabilitation tend to focus on the immediate vulnerabilities of those who survive. Far less is written on the efforts focused on important longer term human capacity development and organisational innovations needed to secure a sustainable future for them. This study, set against the background of the 2004 Asian tsunami deals with the latter. It narrates the initiative of a development assistance program in Aceh Province of Indonesia which was a collaborative effort of the Food and Agriculture Organisations of the United Nations (FAO) and the American Red Cross (ARC). It describes the strategy adopted in negotiating collective action to foster a new co-management initiative aimed at reviving a small-scale fishery and coastal communities, that were socio-politically isolated and bound by customary practices, to collaborate with state and civil society. The study examines in some detail the process adopted, its achievements and failures, the lesson learnt, as well as its hopes for the future.