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Recovery from COVID-19 must not leave Indigenous Peoples

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Tabloid JUBI - December 20, 2021

Alexander Loen, Jayapura, Jubi – The agenda on recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic must also favor the interests and needs of Indigenous Peoples, Ministry of Education and Culture's director-general of Culture Hilmar Farid says.

According to him, Indigenous Peoples in the era of the COVID-19 faced even more difficult conditions as their access to social and health facilities was limited. Such a condition often goes unnoticed.

"We are working with several communities in order to help accelerate vaccination [in remote areas]. However, it is noted that these services are still far from satisfactory. Therefore, having a roadmap will certainly help us a lot," he said in the webinar on the Roadmap for the COVID-19 Recovery Action Plan on Friday, December 17, 2021.

Farid added that cultural resources rooted in Indigenous Peoples should be the basis for making more substantive economic policies.

Meanwhile, according to head of the Working Team for the Roadmap for COVID-19 Recovery Action Plan Poppy Ismalina, an important lesson from the experiences of Indonesia and other countries is that the health sector should be the first priority in dealing with the crisis. "Recovery requires a roadmap and real action, especially how to restore public health," said Ismalina.

She further said that apart from prioritizing public health, no less important was synergizing it with the economic and social sectors. "Working together with all parties in preparing the community's adaptive capacity and efforts to mitigate health, economic and social risks is very much needed," she said.

Therefore, roadmaps and adaptation strategies for the health sector are only the first steps. This must be followed by the preparation of roadmaps and adaptation strategies dedicated to the interests of vulnerable groups such as farmers, micro and small businesses, indigenous communities, urban and rural poor, disabled communities, and women in the informal sector. (*)

Source: https://en.jubi.co.id/recovery-from-covid-19-must-not-leave-indigenous-peoples

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