Communities lead the way as new Disaster Justice Network launches in Lombok

The GENERATE Project at the University of Leeds has launched a community-led network in Indonesia dedicated to advancing more just, inclusive, and equitable approaches to disaster risk reduction.

What happens when the communities most affected by disasters come together to lead change? 

A new initiative in East Lombok seeks to answer that question. Following more than a year of creative and participatory research and action, the GENERATE Project at the University of Leeds has formally launched the Disaster Justice Network (DJN): Komunitas Peduli Bencana, a community-led network dedicated to advancing more just, inclusive, and equitable approaches to disaster risk reduction. 

Officially launched during a four-day Intersectional Disaster Justice Workshop during 8-11 September 2026 at the East Lombok Regional Library. The event brought together 15 founding members of the Disaster Justice Network, alongside journalists from across Lombok, to strengthen community leadership and develop collective strategies for addressing the root causes of disaster risk and vulnerability. 

Created in collaboration with disaster volunteers, grassroots communities, youth leaders, women's groups, and disability advocates from across East Lombok, the Disaster Justice Network aims to strengthen community participation, mobilise local leadership, and promote inclusion and equity in disaster risk reduction and governance. The initiative is grounded in the principle that justice should be central to shaping preparedness, response, recovery, and governance. 

At the heart of the network is therefore a commitment to realising community visions of disaster justice. While disasters are often linked to ‘natural’ hazards, their impacts are rarely experienced equally. Factors such as gender, disability, age, poverty, social class, colonialism, corruption, extractive industries and other forms of structural inequality can significantly shape some people's exposure to risk and their capacity to respond and recover. 

The Intersectional Disaster Justice Workshop explored how an intersectional perspective can support communities to better understand and address these unequal impacts. Participants shared experiences from their own communities, learned creative and practical approaches to disaster justice, and co-developed plans to facilitate similar workshops and activities within their local networks. 

"Disasters are never experienced equally," said Associate Professor Katie McQuaid from the University of Leeds. "The Disaster Justice Network begins from this principle and focuses on recognising the leadership, expertise and care networks of grassroots communities and creating opportunities for people to come together, share knowledge, and advocate for more inclusive and equitable approaches to disaster risk reduction. By recognising the diverse experiences and strengths within communities, we can mobilise more just and effective responses to disasters.  

Over the past year we have spent time with communities across the island, including fishers, farmers, labourers, teachers, people with disabilities, queer communities, older people, youth, women and youth. Together, we have built a collective vision of disaster justice that recognises how vulnerability is shaped by social and structural inequalities, while also recognising the knowledge, creativity, and collective power that communities already possess. The Disaster Justice Network creates a space to strengthen those connections and build a stronger collective voice for more inclusive disaster governance." 

The workshop was led by Lalu Faris Naufal Makhroja, and Associate Professor Katie McQuaid, and Dr Andi Misbahul Pratiwi from the School of Geography at the University of Leeds, who worked closely with participants to build understanding of intersectional approaches to disaster risk reduction and support the development of community-led action plans. 

By building solidarity, strengthening local leadership, and addressing the root causes of vulnerability, the network aims to help create a future where communities are not only resilient to disasters but are actively shaping more just and equitable responses to them. 

About the Disaster Justice Network 

The launch of the Disaster Justice Network: Komunitas Peduli Bencana marks an important milestone for the GENERATE Project's ongoing work in Indonesia, building on more than a year of collaborative and participatory research with communities across Lombok.  

The GENERATE Project is an international UKRI-funded research initiative that uses participatory, creative, and community-based approaches to understand and address how climate and disaster vulnerability is shaped by inequalities. Working collaboratively with communities and local partners, the project seeks to promote more inclusive, equitable, and locally driven approaches to climate and disaster justice. 

The Disaster Justice Network represents a collaboration between GENERATE, the Indonesian Red Cross (Palang Merah Indonesia/PMI), the Regional Disaster Management Agency (Badan Penanggulangan Bencana Daerah/BPBD), disability organisations including GERKATIN, PPDI, and HWDI, Self-Help Groups (SHGs), as well as women leaders, young leaders, disaster volunteers, and community leaders. It positions communities directly affected by disasters at the centre of decision-making on disaster risk reduction design, policies, programmes, and actions. This approach is based on the principle that everyone should have an equal opportunity to prepare for, mitigate, respond to, and recover from disasters in a just and equitable way.  

By placing justice, participation, and community leadership at the heart of disaster risk reduction, the Disaster Justice Network aims to disrupt and shift existing power dynamics and amplify grassroots and marginalised voices that are often excluded from disaster policy and practice, ensuring that preparedness and recovery efforts leave no one behind. 

Understanding disasters through the lens of justice 

 

Over four days, members of the Disaster Justice Network and other participants engaged in discussion, reflection, participatory counter-mapping, storytelling, and collaborative workshop design to explore how social inequalities shape disaster experiences and how communities can collectively address them. The workshop began by introducing participants to concepts of gender, intersectionality, power relations, and systemic injustice. Through interactive discussions and activities, participants examined how gender, patriarchal norms, ableism, ageism, poverty and other factors can shape people's experiences before, during, and after disasters, disproportionately affecting certain groups. 

Drawing on comics, illustrated books, videos, and poetry co-produced through the GENERATE Project, participants explored how different forms of identity and inequality intersect to shape vulnerability and resilience before, during, and after disasters occur. Discussions highlighted the importance of recognising diverse experiences that are often overlooked in mainstream disaster planning and response. 

Discussions then turned to questions of responsibility, power, and justice. Using the Circle of Control method, participants reflected on the challenges they face as community leaders, distinguishing between issues they can address individually, challenges that require collective action, and problems rooted in wider political, economic, and social systems. Participants were supported to explore the emotional burden of supporting their communities during crises and the importance of wellbeing and care for frontline community leaders. 

Faris highlighted the importance of understanding disaster as a justice issue: “Lombok has a very complex geological order as it is situated between two major geological faults, and has a big volcanic complex for an island its size, which contributes to the island’s hazards. We, however, need to understand that 70% of Lombok’s population works in informal sectors, 13% of people residing here live below the poverty line of £23.5 per person per month, there is a complete lack of inclusive infrastructure and disaster management, and there are many practices that are deeply patriarchal and ableist. Thus, we really want to foreground the concept of justice in this workshop; to do so, we highlight the ways in which social and systemic injustices interact with pre-existing hazards to create disasters. 

Coupled with understanding how power works, highlighting systemic and social injustices’ role in creating disasters enabled the participants to have a clearer sense of where their influence is strongest within their community when advocating for disaster justice. We consider this to be a huge milestone in this project, as many of the participants previously felt systemic injustices are a part of their responsibility, leading to feelings of despondency and powerlessness.” 

Mapping experiences, risks, and community strengths

 

On the second day, participants engaged in disaster counter-mapping and  community power mapping activities, drawing on their personal experiences as well as the experiences of their families and communities. 

Using visual tools including representations of a berugaq (a traditional Sasak community gathering structure), human bodies, palm trees, and a map of Lombok, participants mapped disaster risks alongside social and economic challenges affecting their communities. The exercise encouraged participants to identify how issues such as poverty, exclusion, inequality, and access to resources intersect with disaster risk and shape people's lived experiences.  

The counter-mapping process also challenged conventional hazard maps, which often prioritise technical assessments while overlooking local knowledge and community perspectives.  By placing lived experience at the centre of mapping, participants generated a richer understanding of both vulnerability and resilience across East Lombok. 

Importantly, participants did not only map risk. They also identified sources of community strength and collective power within their communities, including grassroots organisations, traditional knowledge, mutual aid networks (gotong royong), and collective action.  

The day concluded with a Warung Belajar (‘learning shop’) session featuring mentors from local organisations including GEMA Alam, LPSDM (Lembaga Pengembangan Sumber Daya Mitra), and LIDI (Lombok Independent Disabilitas Indonesia), providing opportunities for cross-community learning and dialogue. 

Creative storytelling for disaster justice 

 

The third day focused on storytelling as a tool for advocacy, learning, and social change. Building on previous discussions around intersectionality and community power, participants explored how stories can communicate disaster justice issues to wider audiences and influence public understanding of disaster risk. 

Dr Andi Misbahul Pratiwi said, “Storytelling is a practice that has been part of everyday life in Indonesia for centuries, taking many different forms and serving as a way to collectively build and share knowledge, values, memories, and collective experiences. Storytelling can take many forms, including music, folktales, chants, pantun (traditional poetic verses), oral traditions, performances, and other forms of cultural and everyday expression that have been passed down across generations. 

There are no fixed boundaries to what storytelling can be. Through this storytelling session, we facilitated participants to share their experiences of disasters in their own ways and inspire/advocate others to take action and work together for disaster justice. More than this, storytelling is counter act to technical approaches to disaster knowledge that are detached from the realities and experiences of communities, and that exclude everyday experiences and embodied knowledge.” 

Participants developed concepts and storyboards for their storytelling actions through a range of creative outputs, including (but not limited to) short videos, photo stories, digital photo essays, articles, illustrated stories, poems, podcasts, and digital posters. These projects drew directly from community experiences and aimed to amplify voices and perspectives that are often absent from dominant disaster narratives.  

A participant who is a head of an Islamic school told us that, “This workshop has inspired me to use the knowledge I learned during this workshop to teach my peers about diffability and to advocate for inclusive education curricula in my school through storytelling”. A participant who works as a paralegal added that she will “post educational videos to advocate for gender equality and the prevention of child marriage on my social media”. 

A Deaf participant shared that, “I am interested in telling stories about the experiences of people with disabilities during disasters through pantomime, an art form that can be accessible and inclusive for people with disabilities, also invite other people to understand our experiences through arts”. 

As digital spaces, particularly social media, have become powerful platforms for storytelling, the session also equipped participants with practical knowledge on digital ethics, safety, and risk. Participants were encouraged to use these spaces not only to share stories, but also to amplify community voices, challenge exclusion, and inspire collective action for disaster justice. 

Building a community-led movement 

On the final day, participants worked together to co-design Disaster Justice Network workshops that can be adapted and delivered within their own communities.  

Participants discussed how to create safe and inclusive learning spaces, how to facilitate conversations around power and inequality, and how intersectional approaches can be embedded within community-based disaster risk reduction programmes.  They then developed practical workshop plans designed to strengthen participation, leadership, and collective action in their respective communities. 

The workshop concluded with a shared commitment to expand community-led approaches to disaster risk reduction and disaster justice across East Lombok.  

Looking ahead, through the Disaster Justice Network, members will continue to exchange knowledge, deliver community-based workshops, strengthen local advocacy efforts, foster collaboration across communities, and create spaces in which the experiences and leadership of women, people with disabilities, and local communities can inform and lead disaster preparedness, response, and recovery across the region.