In recent years, there has been a rise in the frequency and severity of natural disasters, presenting enormous difficulties to communities and governments. These disasters have enduring social, economic, and environmental consequences in addition to causing loss of life and livelihoods (Asiah et al., 2020-10-31). Indonesia is one of the disaster-prone countries ((Andreastuti et al., 2023); (Fahlevi et al., 2019); (Oktari et al., 2017); (Radtke & , 2019); (Rinanda, 2013); (Yunus et al., 2022)), thus requiring effective and efficient disaster budgeting. Governments and local authorities must prioritize disaster management and invest adequate funding and resources to reduce the impacts of natural disasters. The repercussions of natural disasters have significantly grown due to climate change and globalization.

This requires the implementation of effective and efficient disaster budgeting strategies to guarantee prompt and suitable responses during emergencies. Local authorities must possess a thorough awareness of the requirements and obstacles involved in disaster budgeting. Disaster budgeting is essential for ensuring efficient disaster management and response. It enables the distribution of cash and resources beforehand, reducing the effects of disasters and aiding in a prompt and organized reaction.

The Regional Agency for Disaster Management or Badan Penanggulangan Bencana Daerah (BPBD) in Indonesia is the primary agency in charge of disaster management at the regional level. Studying the real-life experiences and viewpoints of BPBD personnel on disaster budgeting is crucial for improving resource distribution effectiveness and building disaster resilience. BPBD professionals recognize the significance of disaster budgeting in facilitating efficient planning and preparation for prospective disasters. They understand that allocating a specific budget for disaster management allows them to focus on important areas like training and providing equipment for emergency response teams, running public awareness programs, and implementing preventive measures.

The BPBD personnel recognize that disaster budgeting facilitates the effective allocation of resources before and after a disaster. It enables the rapid delivery of essential support and aid to impacted communities, ensuring their needs are addressed. They recognize that budgeting allows them to oversee and monitor the use of finances, ensuring openness and responsibility in their actions.

Establishing a transparent disaster budget enables BPBD staff to effectively lobby for sufficient funds and resources from higher government authorities. This guarantees that they possess the essential resources to efficiently address calamities and safeguard the lives and well-being of their people (Artiga et al., 2020). During a crisis, a carefully prepared and sufficiently financed budget is crucial for successful response and recovery operations.

Budget adequacy is the main key to the success of disaster management programs in Indonesia (Silmi et al., 2019). Therefore, the disaster budget must be well prepared to deal with various disasters that often occur in Indonesia, both pre-disaster, emergency response, and post-disaster.

It is very important to conduct studies on disaster budgeting because disaster-friendly countries should have adequate disaster budgets (Mirjas et al., 2021). This is allegedly caused by the government's lack of support in prioritizing the disaster budget (Shalih & Nugroho, 2021). Central and regional governments are required to allocate budgets related to disaster management programs (Fahlevi et al., 2019). However, the disaster budget allocation at the central level is still below international standards (1%) of the total state revenue and expenditure budget (APBN). This was found in research on the disaster budget in the City of Banda Aceh with the result that the Banda Aceh BPBD only received a budget of no more than 0.59% of the total Banda Aceh City Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBK) between 2007 and 2015 (Oktari et al., 2017). More than 50% of local governments in Indonesia allocate less disaster funds than needed (Dartanto et al., 2017). This study also reveals that the disaster budget allocation in the Sleman and Bantul Regency BPBDs has a very small percentage, namely only 0.44% and 0.47% of the total Regional Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBD). Table 1 shows the percentage of budget allocations for the Sleman and Bantul Regencies.

Disaster budgeting in Indonesia still has weaknesses, namely the lack of optimal disaster budget support (Apryana et al., 2020) (Silmi et al., 2019), slow mechanism for the disaster management budget process (Mardalaila & Suwandaru, 2022), weak coordination between related agencies (Muktaf & Santoso, 2018), too focused on the emergency and post-disaster response stages and ignoring pre-disaster or disaster prevention aspects and not considering the basic characteristics and uniqueness of disasters (Mirjas et al., 2021).

Regional disaster budgeting is carried out by BPBD. Empowering BPBDs and strengthening the provincial/city BPBD network vertically and horizontally will improve the disaster management system and enable local actors to play a more important role in disaster management (Putra & Matsuyuki, 2019). BPBD is a regional government agency that carries out disaster management in the region (Perban Number 03 of 2018). BPBD consists of BPBD at the provincial level and BPBD at the district/city level. BPBD has functions, namely 1) formulating and establishing disaster management policies and handling refugees by acting quickly and precisely, effectively and efficiently; and 2) coordinating the implementation of disaster management activities in a planned, integrated, and comprehensive manner.

Phenomenology provides a useful structure for investigating the personal experiences of individuals and revealing the fundamental nature of things. This study aims to explore the detailed personal experiences of BPBD personnel in disaster budgeting using a phenomenological approach. It strives to reveal the underlying structures and meanings in their perceptions.

A phenomenological study can be conducted to analyze the perspectives of the BPBD apparatus in the Sleman and Bantul areas, providing useful insights into the practical aspects of disaster budgeting. Studying the experiences and viewpoints of the BPBD personnel might reveal the specific factors and limitations they encounter in distributing the budget and resources for disaster management.

The phenomenon that occurs in Indonesia is that there are differences in perception between Regional Disaster Management Agencies (BPBD) in viewing disasters which results in differences in the disaster budget planning process. This perception varies, from seeing disasters as project opportunities that have the potential to cause fraud, to troublesome challenges.

Indonesia, as a disaster-prone country, faces the challenge of a lack of awareness and knowledge about disasters among the government and society. In this developing country, the lack of attention to disasters is a crucial issue, especially considering the significant impact of disasters on the Indonesian economy. The importance of having an adequate budget, especially for mitigation and prevention programs, is the main key to reducing the impact of disasters. In addition, pre-disaster budgets can increase public awareness of disasters (Fahlevi, 2020).

Gaining insight into the complexities of disaster budgeting from the perspective of individuals directly engaged might offer significant information for crafting specific policies and methods. It can help identify the exact areas needing attention and investment, allowing authorities to customize their budgeting processes to better tackle the changing difficulties presented by natural disasters.

Furthermore, using a phenomenological approach enables us to comprehend the subtleties and complexities of the BPBD apparatus's experiences, leading to a more profound insight into the aspects that impact their decision-making processes. This can help in creating disaster budgeting frameworks that are more responsive and adaptive, better able to protect communities, and reduce the extensive effects of natural disasters ((Onyeneke, 2017-04-03) ;(Bly et al., 2021-06-30)).

This study can enhance the current literature on disaster budgeting by offering a qualitative analysis that complements the quantitative research methods typically employed. Quantitative data analysis employs mathematical and statistical techniques to analyze and interpret numerical data. Analysis sometimes lacks the profound insights that can only be acquired through qualitative research approaches (Apryana et al., 2020). This study aims to reveal distinctive issues and limitations in disaster budgeting by analyzing the perspectives of BPBD personnel.

The challenges involve political motivations to postpone acknowledging the expenses of disaster preparedness until after a disaster, the perception that it is complex to allocate funds beforehand for disaster prevention, and the challenge of directly linking budget allocations to disaster mitigation and prevention activities.

Studies on disaster budgeting are still limited and new, thus creating a research gap regarding how local governments, especially BPBD, plan disaster budgets according to the type and level of disaster in their region. This study uses qualitative methods and a phenomenological approach to explore more deeply the perceptions of Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) officials in Sleman and Bantul Regencies regarding disaster budgeting. The reasons for selecting the research location are: first, geoFigureally, Indonesia's position is very vulnerable to the impact of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes (Widodo & Waskita, 2014); secondly, based on data from BNPB in 2022, Sleman is an area prone to volcanic eruptions with a Disaster Risk Index (IRB) score of 12.88 (B.N.P.B., 2022). The risk index of 12.88 is considered high (B.N.P.B., 2022); Third, based on data from BNPB in 2022, Bantul is an earthquake-prone area with a Disaster Risk Index (IRB) score of 14.04 (B.N.P.B., 2022). The risk index of 14.04 is considered high (B.N.P.B., 2022). Table 2 shows the types and levels of disasters in the Sleman and Bantul Regencies.

The results of this study show that the disaster budgeting process by BPBD involves three stages, namely pre-disaster, during emergency response, and post-disaster. In the pre-disaster stage, the budget is planned based on risk studies, while in the emergency response and post-disaster stages, historical experience is the main reference. Inter-agency collaboration and participatory approaches are essential in creating disaster budgets that are responsive to the specific needs of disaster-prone areas, such as Sleman and Bantul. This study emphasizes the importance of local community involvement in overcoming budget constraints and regulatory inconsistencies and suggests alternative funding sources such as disaster insurance, donations, and CSR.

This study provides a theoretical contribution to Public Accounting, as well as being a reference source for further research. Practically, these findings are expected to help BPBD and local governments in better disaster budget planning, as well as support the creation of more consistent disaster budget policies in Indonesia. Similarly, the study offers insight into the perspectives and encounters of the BPBD apparatus to evaluate the efficacy of disaster management awareness campaigns in regional district settings and pinpoints deficiencies and opportunities for enhancing collaboration among organizations engaged in disaster management. This study seeks to enhance the public comprehension of disaster budgeting by examining the perspectives and encounters of the BPBD personnel. This will offer significant insights into the obstacles and possibilities in disaster budgeting and guide policy decisions to guarantee a more efficient distribution of resources for disaster management.

This research aims to explore the perceptions of BPBD officials in Sleman and Bantul Regencies regarding disaster budgeting. Thus, a phenomenological approach is considered appropriate as it entails a process of bracketing preconceptions and immersing oneself in the participants' lived experiences, challenges and perspectives related to budget allocation for disaster management, through the following steps: 1) formulating research questions; 2) selecting participants; 3) collect data through in-depth face-to-face interviews; 4) analyzing data which includes phenomenological reduction, identifying the structure or essence of the observed experience and exploring the underlying meaning and patterns that emerge from the data; 5) identifying data, namely organizing data into larger units of meaning; 6) write a descriptive narrative that describes in depth the observed experience and allows the reader to feel and understand the experience; 7) explore contradictions and variations to help understand the complexity and diversity of individual experiences; 8) validity and reliability, namely being open to interpretation and seeking clarity through reflection and discussion with fellow researchers; 9) ethical considerations, namely privacy and protection of the rights of researchers and those being researched (Moustakas, 1994).

The data collection process begins by contacting the Sleman and Bantul Regency BPBD offices to apply for a research permit. An interview guide was prepared by composing questions related to disaster perceptions and disaster budgeting. After being given research permission, the researcher contacted potential informants via WhatsApp to determine an interview schedule. Data collection was carried out using face-to-face interview techniques with four informants who work as BPBD officers in Sleman and Bantul Regencies with an interview duration for each informant of 40-60 minutes. In this case, the researcher used a bracketing technique, which was done by not linking the information told by the first informant to the last informant during the interview so that the experience told by the informant had its purity without any intervention in the answer from the researcher. During the interview process, the digital audio recording device is always active to record all information from the informant. Data collection was considered sufficient to reach the fourth informant. This is because the data obtained has been saturated or there is no new information submitted by the last informant. The informant has a background in food technology, disasters, animal husbandry, and veterinary paramedics. Table 3 shows a list of research informants.

In phenomenological studies, the participant size can range from 2 to 25 (Cresswell, 2012). The selection of participants must reflect and represent the homogeneity that exists among the sample group of participants. Furthermore, phenomenological studies can be carried out on relatively small sample sizes, and the aim is to find a fairly homogeneous sample so that within the sample, the researcher can examine convergence and divergence in detail.

In this research, apart from conducting face-to-face interviews in the field, researchers also observed the 2018-2022 IRBI and DIBI documents. In-depth interviews were conducted with informants, namely BPBD officials from Sleman and Bantul Regencies, who are involved and responsible for disaster budgeting. The focus of the information sought is the informant's interpretation, understanding, and experience regarding disaster budgeting. Researchers explore this information through formal and non-formal questions and answers, combined with observations of phenomena in the field to obtain a more comprehensive understanding.

The results of the interviews were transcribed manually by the researcher by listening to and writing down word for word what was conveyed by the participants. After that, coding was carried out using ATLAS.ti software which includes open coding, axial coding, and selective coding (Strauss & Corbin, 1998), so that a categorization of themes is produced which produces assertions/propositions/theories. The coding process in this research follows the code-to-theory flow model developed by Saldana e.g. Figure 1 in the following.

This research adopts the phenomenological method developed by Edmund Husserl (1859-1938), which aims to describe phenomena in their most original and pure form. Phenomenological studies understand a phenomenon experienced in a person's consciousness, thoughts, and actions, including the value or aesthetic acceptance of the phenomenon (Kusumawanti & Arawindha, 2018).

Phenomenological research focuses on a deep understanding of the quality of an individual's experiences, allowing the researcher to identify and evaluate the essence of those experiences. The main aim of this approach is not to formulate grand theories or develop models, but to describe accurately and in detail 'lived experiences', namely unique and real experiences in a person's life, such as traumatic experiences that are felt deeply and are directly related to the research topic (Morissan, 2019).

The main advantage of phenomenological studies lies in their ability to reveal experiences hidden in the philosophical and psychological dimensions of individuals through narrative, allowing researchers to understand the subject's lived experiences more realistically. Husserl viewed phenomenology as the study of the essence of consciousness itself, "the science of the nature of what is thought". With this approach, phenomenological research attracts the interest of researchers from various scientific disciplines, thanks to its uniqueness in exploring and understanding subjective human experiences (Kahija, 2017).

Stages of phenomenological research according to Husserl. First, the researcher did epoche, namely staying away or distancing himself (Moustakas, 1994). Epoche allows researchers to enter a pure internal world, making it easier to understand themselves and others. Thus, the biggest challenge when doing epoche is being open or honest with yourself (Cresswell, 2009).

Second, the researcher carries out a phenomenological reduction to explain in linguistic terms how the object looks. Reduction allows researchers to carry out a process of exploration, analysis, and description of phenomena to obtain a complete and in-depth picture of the phenomena that occur.

Third, the researcher used variations of imagination to find themes that emerged from the results of interviews with informants. By utilizing imagination, researchers make something that was previously invisibly visible.

Fourth, researchers carry out synthetic meaning and essence, namely intuitive integration of the basics of textural and structural descriptions into a statement that describes the nature of the phenomenon as a whole. Husserl defines essence as something general and universally applicable, the condition or quality of being that something. The essence is never fully revealed. A synthesis of fundamental textural structures representing this essence in a particular time and place, and one's imaginative viewpoint and reflective study of the phenomenon.

Researchers used triangulation to ensure the validity and reliability of the research by asking the same questions to each informant and comparing the perceptions of the answers from each informant. Next, member checking was carried out by sending the results of the interview transcript to each informant to ensure that the transcript data was by the interview that had been conducted.

Through a phenomenological inquiry, this study has provided nuanced insights into the subjective experiences of the BPBD apparatus regarding disaster budgeting. By acknowledging the historical realities of frontline responders, policymakers can develop more responsive and effective strategies for enhancing disaster resilience and mitigating the impact of future disasters.

Based on the perception of BPBD officials in Sleman and Bantul Regencies, the disaster budgeting process at BPBD involves three stages: pre-disaster, during a disaster, and post-disaster. In the pre-disaster stage, budget allocation planning is based on disaster risk studies, while in the post-disaster stage, historical experience in dealing with disasters becomes a reference. Inter-agency collaboration and a participatory approach are key in creating efficient and efficient disaster budgets for the specific needs of disaster-prone areas, such as volcanic eruptions in Sleman Regency and earthquakes in Bantul Regency. The importance of local community involvement in this process is very necessary, especially to overcome budget constraints, which are often not a priority and are hampered by regulatory inconsistencies. Therefore, disaster budgeting requires alternative funding sources, such as disaster insurance, donations, and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) from the private sector.

This study has several limitations. First, the focus is limited to the perception of BPBD officials in disaster budgeting, even though many other Regional Apparatus Organizations (OPD) are also involved in disaster budget planning, including the Regional Finance and Assets Agency (BKAD), the Fire Department (Damkar), various related agencies, and Units Civil Service Police (Satpol PP). Second, this study does not include the perceptions of the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), as the coordinator at the national level. Third, research has not explored the perceptions of the volunteer community and communities affected by disasters, who are direct beneficiaries of the disaster budget.

This study provides several suggestions for the development of further studies. First, it is necessary to expand the unit of analysis to gain a more comprehensive understanding of disaster budgeting in Indonesia. Second, it is important to explore more deeply the most effective disaster budgeting concept for disaster management in Indonesia. Third, future researchers could consider conducting inter-regional or inter-country comparative studies.