Indonesia

The Multi-Stakeholder Review of Post-Conflict Programming in Aceh (MSR) was undertaken by the Aceh Peace-Reintegration Board (BRA), the National Development Planning... Show More + Agency (BAPPENAS), Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), Department for International Development (DFID), the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and the World Bank between May 2008 and December 2009 with International Organization for Migration (IOM) contributing in the initial phase. It builds upon recent efforts by BRA and its partners to better plan and coordinates post-conflict programming, based on a shared understanding and strategic vision. The MSR has engaged a wide range of government, international and local stakeholders. The MSR employs a comprehensive framework to identify post-conflict needs and issues in Aceh and ways to most effectively respond to them. It considers issues relating to livelihoods and the economy, politics, security and social cohesion, and governance and institutions. Within each of these areas, the report discusses existing programs, needs, challenges and constraints at the individual, community and macro levels. This allows for a consideration of the policies and programs that can build the foundations for sustainable peace and development in post-conflict Aceh. Show Less -

The number of Female Migrant Workers (FMW) from Indonesia working overseas experiences an increase from year to year. From 1994 up to June 2005 it is recorded that there... Show More + were 2.762.066 FMW or approximately 72.5 percent of the total number of Indonesian migrant workers. The majority of these FMW work in the informal sector with the majority chooses to work as household maids. Aside from solving the problem of scarcity of employment opportunities at home, the departure of FMW also produces significant amount of foreign exchange through the remittance of money earned abroad. The departure of FMW at the same time has also opened up employment opportunities in the form of openings that starting from fulfill the needs of migrant workers and their families, as well as in the form of productive economic activities that migrant households develop. This, too, shows that the huge efforts of the FMW to make a living overseas are significant not only for themselves and their families, but also for the community and the government, at the local as well as the central level. Show Less -

The Violent Conflict in Indonesia Study (ViCIS) is a new the World Bank project aimed at plugging gaps in the literature and adding to popular knowledge on violent conflict... Show More + in Indonesia. The study aims to help the Government of Indonesia and others to formulate programs and policies to promote peaceful development and effective violence prevention. It seeks to bring a marriage of Indonesian conflict materials with the comparative theories of ethnic and communal conflict; it focuses attention on the widespread routine violence in Indonesia; it explores, within a broad comparative framework, how small clashes are transformed into large episodes of violence; and it investigates the process of de-escalation, asking whether Indonesian conflict de-escalation is likely to represent a permanent decline, or if there is evidence to the contrary. Finally, it aims to put together a comprehensive database of violence, updating and deepening the United Nations Support Facility for Indonesian Recovery (UNSFIR) dataset to include local conflict, violent crime and conflict since 2003, using around 100 newspapers as sources. Having started in mid-2008, the project will last for roughly three years. Show Less -

This National Program for Community Empowerment (PNPM) newsletter includes the following headings: updates; what is PNPM Generasi funding? Upcoming activities; case... Show More + study program flexibility keeps children in school; and puppet show brings messages of PNPM Generasi home. Show Less -

This note reviews the literature on fiscal incentives that aim to enhance the performance of local governments. The literature on the subject focuses mainly on two instruments... Show More + by which central governments (or international actors) can foster local government performance. The first instrument, and the most emphasized tool in the literature, is performance-based grants. The second instrument is the design of the fiscal structure. Both instruments and the empirical lessons that have emerged from the international experience. It is important to keep in mind that the literature concentrates on cases of countries that are of relatively recent formation, and/or in transition from central planning, and/or are relatively some of the poorest, and/or have low capacity, and/or are new to decentralization. It should be noted that the experience in relatively more developed countries is in general not covered in the literature and hence there could be things affecting the experience of the relatively developed countries that do not apply to the poorer countries and vice versa. Performance-Based Grants (PGs) have been piloted and mainstreamed in several countries as a national initiative and also as a donor driven initiative. The literature documents that in general the PG experience has been successful. Some factors stand out as important in promoting good results. Among those factors, the following are highlighted and are discussed below: capacity building policies; good performance indicators; flexibility in the usage of funds; commitment and credibility of all actors involved (citizens, non-governmental organizations, local governments, central governments and other contributing agencies/donors) and involvement of all key stakeholders in the grant implementation schemes; and strong communication of the objectives behind the system. Show Less -

This conflict monitoring update for November 2007 illustrates the high degree of pressure exerted on local government by the Free Aceh Movement/Komite Peralihan Aceh... Show More + (GAM/KPA) and others, and reveals growing divisions within GAM/KPA. These pressures pose a serious challenge to good governance in Aceh and need to be kept under control. In particular, GAM/KPA-affiliated political parties will have a lot to lose in upcoming general elections if current GAM/KPA leaders fail to demonstrate their capacity to govern in an efficient and transparent manner. Show Less -

The Indonesian government, through National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) and with technical support from the World Bank, has asked Lembaga Penelitian, Pendidikan... Show More + dan Penerangan Ekonomi dan Sosial (LP3ES) to conduct an independent evaluation in order to determine the effectiveness of poverty reduction programs carried out by related ministries, notably in the infrastructure sector that are implemented with community-based approaches. There are at least 14 large scale programs identified, 3 of which are rural infrastructure programs as follows: Firstly, the community and district government empowerment program (P2PMD), which include investment loans for reducing the impacts of the economic crisis and the improvement of the capacity of village institutions and the district government through the development and reparation of infrastructure and facilities managed by Bappenas. Secondly, the program for increasing and improving village infrastructure (PPIP), which is the continuation of Studi Evaluasi Pelaksanaan Program Kompensasi Pengurangan Subsidi Bahan Bakar Minyak Bidang Infrastruktur Pedesaan (PKPS-BBM IP) that aims to improve the welfare of the village people through the improvement of people's accesses to basic infrastructure service. This program is carried out by the ministry of public works. Thirdly, the community empowerment for village development program (PMPD), which is directed to reduce the poverty among people who live around growth centers through the development of infrastructure and economic enterprises in the framework of the inter-linkages between villages and cities. Show Less -

This conflict monitoring update for August 2007 focuses on tensions from the conflict era that manifested most strikingly in a series of incidents related to the theft... Show More + or disappearance of Independence Day national flags. Violence continued at the high level which has been recorded since March of this year, once again reaching its highest post-Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) level of 24 incidents. Many of these were related to the ongoing post-election conflict in Aceh Tenggara (see previous Updates), which this month escalated with a series of arson and grenade attacks. This Update also discusses a new development in the Bumi Flora land case, where NGO staffs assisting villagers to assert their land claims were charged under draconian "incitement" laws. The outcome of these legal proceedings might set a precedent with regards to the limits of democratic expression in Aceh. Show Less -

The Local Government Corruption Study (LGCS) is a research activity of the justice for the poor program, the World Bank Office, and Indonesia. The report is based on... Show More + case studies conducted in five provinces studying the efforts of local level actors to expose corruption by regional executive and legislative bodies and have them settled. The disclosure of corruption cases on this scale is an unprecedented phenomenon in Indonesia. That corruption itself occurred was neither unusual nor unexpected. What has distinguished the landscape over the last five years is precisely that these cases came to light at all. Furthermore, many have gone to trial through the local courts. Some powerful figures have been convicted. It is important, therefore, for Indonesia to take the opportunity to learn some lessons from this phenomenon: what factors led to the cloak of secrecy over corruption at the local level being lifted? Who played an important role in bring the cases to light, and what strategies did they employ? What factors supported them in promoting anti-corruption? Those questions frame this local government corruption study, which was launched with three major research objectives: i) to document the dynamics at the local level to both report and resolve corruption cases; ii) to identify the modus operandi of corruption, as well as the strategies developed by local actors to settle corruption cases, and iii) to identify success factors and ongoing weaknesses in the efforts of local actors to handle corruption cases at the local level. Show Less -

The 26 December 2004 earthquake and tsunami, coming on top of three decades of violent conflict, have had a devastating impact on infrastructure and social dynamics... Show More + in Aceh. The earthquake and tsunami disasters resulted in an estimated 130,000 deaths, with 37,000 still missing. To provide an accurate overview of the current condition of Acehnese villages, the Kecamatan Development Program (KDP)-the government's largest community development program in Aceh- undertook an assessment of the infrastructure status and the social situation throughout the province. The report consists of six sections. The introductory sections provide background information on the aims of the survey, the survey design, and the methodology. The third section reports general village information. The fourth section provides results of the infrastructure assessment. The fifth section discusses the results from the social section of the survey, including sub-sections on internally displaced people (IDPs), village information and development needs, social capital, and education. The sixth and concluding section reviews the study's findings and discusses recommendations suggested by these findings. Show Less -