Description

Since 1998 Indonesia has been through economical and political turmoil. With the Asian financial crisis, followed by the fall of president Suharto after 32 years in power, inter-ethnic and religious conflicts and repeated corruption scandals. The number the Indonesians living under the poverty line nearly doubled between 1996 and 2000.

Transcript

Helping Indonesia to Develop Host: For the women of Shilmondi, it is possibly not whether their children go to school but just what they learn there which in the end will determine whether they have a better future in line with the promises of the Millennium Development Goals. Indonesia, a country whose population of 280 million is a diverse ethnic mix living on more than 6,000 islands. Since 1998, the country has been through economic and political turmoil; with the Asian financial crisis followed by the fall of President Suharto after 32 years in power, inter-ethnic and religious conflict and repeated corruption scandals. In the four years between 1996 and 2000, the number of Indonesians below the poverty line nearly doubled, with one in three people estimated to be living on less than US$1.00 dollar a day. Dr Jonathan Pincus: The tremendous shock of the financial crisis was that what everybody considered to be a very strong economy with very sound fundamentals could disintegrate so rapidly and with such serious implications for the poor, for political stability and the future of Indonesia’s development prospects. Host: The Kecamatan Development Project or KDP as its known was set up in 1999 to address the need for infrastructure development. Scott Guggenheim who designed it: Scott Guggenheim: The core idea behind KDP is that villagers can make smart decisions. Everything else you see about it is to facilitate that process. So, the whole development infrastructure on verifications, on fiscal transfer, was too clumsy for this kind of work. So, everything you see in KDP was to simplify the planning process. That’s the core idea. Host: KDP hinges on groups of villages holding meetings where the villagers themselves decide what needs to be done in their district; all decisions on how much money to spend, what to spend it on and the best way to manage projects are made at inter-village meetings like this one in the village of Sukoanyar in Eastern Java. Aiapah: For many, many years, with the older generations, my grandma and my mother, we used to come to the river for washing. When you got up in the morning, if you wanted to take a bath, you come down here. After that, on the way back you brought clean water for cooking and drinking. If you wanted to wash your body, you could do it in the river but you could also do it here. Host: Saiapah was one of the villagers who thought it would be a good idea to pump water direct to people’s houses. Saiapah: We, the villagers decided to have a meeting and proposed the idea. Then the idea was sent to the inter-village meeting. Host: Most villagers are pleased with the water, even -- who made money by carrying water in the past. He may be out of a job but he and his wife are happy anyway. Saiapah: We’re not selling water anymore. He is not working anymore. If he works, he gathers wood. We don’t work anymore. We are too old. Painah: Of course I am very happy because before I had to carry the water a long way but now not anymore. This water is very good. Scott Guggenheim: Within villages there are groups of people who normally wouldn’t be involved even in village decision-making. So, the first step is to get decision making down to the bottom and the second step is to maximize people’s involvement in these things even if they wouldn’t normally be involved at a village level. Host: Even though KDP aims to involve everyone in the community. It’s feared the process can never be truly democratic. Dr Jonathan Pincus: All of these people have different kinds of interests and they need different kinds of projects, so part of the problem in saying that this one particular project is more locally responsive or has a greater degree of ownership than another project which people who owns it and why do they own it and exactly which part of the community are you serving. Host: In Sukoanyar at least, KDP has funded projects which appeared to have benefited the whole community. The scheme is funded by loans from the World Bank and the communities themselves. As funds are limited, only a third of the ideas proposed to date have been carried out in Sukoanyar. Saiapah’s clean water idea was one of the first and because it’s the communities themselves who come up with the projects and contribute to funding them organizers say, they’re more likely to maintain them. Ella Hasanah helped designed the project. Female: If something is leaking, who is going to fix it? Male: A team there is a team. Female: And where does the money come from? Male: The money to fix it comes from the regular contribution every month that covers electricity and technical problems.