Indonesia

The regionally unique Constitution of the Republic of Vanuatu provides that all land in Vanuatu belongs to custom owners and their descendants and that the rules of... Show More + custom shall form the basis of ownership and use of land. The Vanuatu Ministry of lands finalized a land sector framework 2009-2018, focusing on five areas in need of reform. These were: 1) enhancing the governance of land; 2) engaging customary groups; 3) improving the delivery of land services; 4) creating a productive and sustainable sector; and 5) ensuring the access and tenure security of all groups. This note summarizes the research findings, prioritizes problematic issues for policy consideration, and offers practical proposals for addressing these issues to ensure more equitable and therefore durable future lease creation and lease administration procedures. This study provides an estimate of how much of Vanuatu's land is currently under lease, where land has been leased and how it is being used, the duration of leases, and the extent of lease subdivisions as of December 2010. Current land leasing practices in Vanuatu reveal a number of problems, such as the neglect of impact assessments, the overextension of ministerial power, inconsistencies in the determination of land values, and the poor enforcement of lease conditions. All of these factors contribute to inequitable outcomes for landholders. Show Less -

The tsunami that originated from the Indian Ocean in 2004 wreaked massive destruction, killing more than 130,000 people and displacing half a million individuals in... Show More + Aceh, Indonesia. More than 800 kilometers of coastline was affected, and close to 53,795 land parcels were destroyed. The land administration system sustained significant damage because documentation of land ownership was washed away along with people's houses and other possessions in the affected communities. Physical boundary markers, including trees and fences, also disappeared. An additionally, close to one-third of the land office personnel perished. When the disaster struck, Aceh was reeling from three decades of civil strife. Five years later, in 2009, the province was still in the process of recovery not only from the devastation of the tsunami but also from years of unrest. The premise of this research study is that the gender aspects of women's access to land and property rights cannot be understood solely as an administrative or procedural issue, but should be considered a part of the broader social and cultural dimensions. These dimensions need to be understood in relation to development opportunities, constraints, and risks facing women and affecting their ability to participate in the process of reconstruction and development. Understanding the macro social and institutional processes is essential to influencing and supporting changes to enhance gender equity on land and property rights. The results of this study need to be appreciated within the following limitations: (a) it is affected by the absence of baseline information and gender-disaggregated data on land; (b) the scope of this study is limited to land and property rights only; and (c) by the time this study commenced, the Reconstruction of Aceh Land Administration System Project (RALAS) Grant had closed, and therefore the study served mainly to assess and document the experiences and lessons learned. Show Less -

Access to improved sanitation remains a huge challenge in Indonesia. Joint Monitoring Program (JMP) 2010 data indicate that around 38 percent of the rural population... Show More + has access to improved sanitation services and that open defecation remains a widespread practice for over 60 million Indonesians. The persistence of old habits and a lack of awareness form the basis of many challenges in the Indonesian sanitation sector. To change this situation there is a need to focus on changing sanitation and hygiene behavior within communities, in addition to increasing investment in sanitation services. The majority of Indonesians are Muslims (88 percent), and Islamic teachings provide instruction and guidance on sanitation habits and behaviors. The teaching requires that running water, if available, should be used for anal cleansing and certain materials, including human excreta and urine, are regarded as najis (ritually unclean). Apart from the 'natural' feelings of disgust that most people express towards human excreta which result in anal cleansing, Islam requires ritual cleansing after being in contact with materials that are considered to be najis. However, the use of water for anal cleansing also appears to be a cultural habit as non-Muslim Indonesians also use water for anal cleansing, a fact confirmed by the study results. Show Less -

The agriculture sector has been and will continue to be important for poverty alleviation efforts in Indonesia. Indonesia was very successful in increasing agriculture... Show More + productivity during the 1970s and up to the early 1990s, but productivity stagnated during most of the 1990s, partly as a result of declining public investments. Public spending on agriculture has increased significantly in the last decade, but a large share of that spending has been allocated to subsidizing private inputs. The impact of public spending on productivity can be positive, but that depends on the composition of spending. While public goods and services will have a positive impact on growth, subsidizing private inputs is unlikely to have much of an impact. Reforms to the existing subsidies systems can be combined with continued assistance to poor farmers, while the freed up resources could be used to provide improved public goods and services. A reallocation of spending should be combined with renewed efforts to improve the efficiency through which key services are provided, in particular in the areas of R&D, extension services and irrigation. Show Less -

Extensive land and market reform in Vietnam has resulted in dramatic increases in rice output over the past thirty years. The land and market reforms in agriculture... Show More + were pervasive, moving the system of rice production from commune-based public ownership and control to one with effective private property rights over land and farm assets, competitive domestic markets and individual decision making over a wide range of agricultural activities. The effect of this reform period and beyond is detailed with measures of total factor productivity (TFP), terms of trade and net returns in rice production in Vietnam from 1985 to 2006. Results show that TFP rises considerably in the major rice growing areas (the Mekong and Red River Delta areas) during the early years of reform, and beyond, but also that there is clear evidence of a productivity 'slow-down' since 2000. The differences over time and by region speak directly to existing land use regulations and practices, suggesting calls for further land and market reform. To illustrate this, additional frontier and efficiency model estimates detail the effects of remaining institutional and policy constraints, including existing restrictions on land consolidation and conversion and poorly developed markets for land and capital. Estimates show that larger and less land-fragmented farms, farms in the major rice growing areas, and those farms that are better irrigated, have a greater proportion of capital per unit of cultivated land, a clear property right or land use certificate and access to agricultural extension services are more efficient. Show Less -

Revitalizing agriculture is critical for rural Indonesia's economic prosperity. Historically, Indonesia's dramatic poverty reduction was driven by progress in agriculture... Show More + and agriculture continues to be a potent driver of growth and poverty alleviation. Agricultural sector growth strongly induces non-agricultural sector growth in rural areas, particularly through demand for locally produced and services. Agricultural sector productivity growth (along with price changes) has remained the most important way out of poverty. To shift agriculture along these dimensions, Indonesia needs to transition from its current and ineffective public stance, growing subsidies and selective output protection, to a more aggressive provision of public goods and services that build support systems for farmers to achieve continuous productivity gains. This will require an enabling agriculture policy environment, significant improvement in the delivery of services, agricultural research and extension in particular, and supporting enabling investments, which will encourage small farmers to move to high value agricultural activities. This will boost employment and raise incomes in rural areas while creating a bigger rural market with greater trade and investment opportunities. Show Less -

This report is a compilation of World Bank research on land acquisition in Indonesia. It first describes the macroeconomic cost of Indonesia's land acquisition delays.... Show More + The problem the Indonesian government has in acquiring land for infrastructure imposes a cost on the country. Next, it lays the background and analyzes the legal, budgetary and institutional factors underlying land acquisition for infrastructure projects. Finally, the report focuses on the framework and challenges for land acquisition by the Government as well as a comparison thereof with land acquisition by private sector. Show Less -

Indonesian agriculture is at a crossroads. Supporting the livelihood of millions of Indonesians, it needs to underpin renewed and robust growth of the economy; and be... Show More + a key component of the Government's poverty alleviation strategy. The challenge for the future is to reinvigorate productivity gains among rural producers, and provide the foundation for long run sustainability of these productivity gains. Productivity gains are key to farmer income growth, and for this rebuilding the research and extension systems that have seen a marked deterioration in recent years will be critical. The experience of the Indonesian decentralization of its extension system has been mixed, with adverse impact on extension through sharp reductions in funding, and removal of central-level guidance. At the same time, a series of positive debates and experimentation in management have taken place from a shift on top-down to participatory approaches, input and technology dissemination to dissemination of market and upstream information and technology, from centrally managed extension services to decentralized services, and some movement toward privatization of extension. In this context, an assessment of the agricultural extension services, as seen through the lens of the impact evaluation of the Decentralized Agricultural and Forestry Extension Project (DAFEP), was deemed to be timely and relevant. This report thus has the following objectives: i) provide an overview of the institutional changes in agricultural extension in Indonesia; ii) present the results of the impact evaluation of DAFEP; and iii) discuss lessons learned and emerging issues in the new political and institutional context. Show Less -

This report on the damage and loss assessment on the Aceh flood provides a summary of data collected in the flood assessment. Data was initially provided to local government... Show More + at the end of February and was presented to international agencies active in flood relief and reconstruction in a UNORC seminar on March 15, 2007. The report provides information on: 1) Affected locations and people which is discussed in Section I; 2) Estimates of damage and losses which is found in Section II; and 3) Impacts by district which is recorded in Section III. It finishes with Conclusions and Recommendations (Section IV). Data break?downs are annexed, as in an explanation of the methodology and assumptions used for generating cost estimates. Show Less -

This issue of the newsletter covers four main Indonesian topics as they relate to women. The first is the women's legal empowerment (WLE) pilot. It's a Justice for ... Show More + the Poor World Bank project which aims to: (a) promote legal reform at the sub-national level, (b) strengthen community access to justice and (c) provide legal empowerment and legal assistance for the community. This issue of the newsletter covers the following topics: women's legal empowerment (WLE) pilot. The second topic is on the main reasons for divorce and looks at responsibility and marriage. The third section looks at a case study that deals with a child rape case from West Java. Finally, the last section is an executive summary on the WLE. Show Less -