INDONESIABUSINESS INSIGHTS

POVERTY IN BEAUTIFUL RAJA AMPATTHE BEAUTY OF RAJA AMPAT CANNOT HIDE THE FACE OF POVERTY IN THIS TOURIST PARADISE. LOCATED IN THE PROVINCE OF WEST PAPUA, THIS DISTRICT IS ONE OF 183 DISADVANTAGED REGIONS IN INDONESIA. AHMAD YUNUS TELLS HOW A GROUP OF WOMEN ARE FIGHTING TO FREE THEIR FAMILIES FROM THE POVERTY TRAP.

6-fold

From 4,.425 (1998-2007)

to 258,578 (2008-2011)

SPP has grown faster than any

other PNPM Perdesaan

project.

The SPP Project Has Grown

ON the boat, the three women look tense. Every now and then, they wipe the sea spray off their faces. Their wooden boat powered by an outboard motor rocks against the swell. They make slow headway, avoiding the crashing waves.

Fatima Rukabu and her two women friends, at the end of August, were headed for Waisai, the capital of Raja Ampat district in the province of West Papua. The boat journey takes about 30 minutes from where they live, on Saonek Island, South Waigeo, also in Raja Ampat district.

They were off to sell the crackers and dried Spanish mackerel produced by their enterprise group under the PNPM Perdesaan-Pertanian in Raja Ampat district. At the end of every week they bring their produce to Waisai market, leaving their 200 gram packs of crackers and dried fish to be sold at various food outlets. Each pack fetches IDR 15,000-20,000.

“In a month, we do four or five rounds of cracker production. It depends on the supply of fish,” Fatima told the Katadata journalist on board. “One fish can produce between 80 and 90 packs, maybe more.”

With start-up capital of around IDR 2 million, the group makes a net profit of up to IDR 1 million a month from its crackers. “We use the money to pay for the children’s schooling,” she added. “We can borrow and use the money.”

Fatima is one of around 13 members of the fish cracker producer group. They are all from families of fishers. This business has been a blessing and earns them more than just selling the fish straight from the sea.

“A kilo of mackerel fetches IDR 18,000. If it’s processed into crackers, it fetches IDR 200,000,” she said. Mackerel is easy to catch around Raja Ampat, because these islands are a treasure store of fish of all kinds. The estimated potential catch is 590,000 tons a year, valued at IDR 126 billion.

As well as Fatima’s group, there are other women’s groups that were set up in 2012. They were formed as part of the PNPM Perdesaan-Pertanian program in West Papua. This program engages women in poverty alleviation initiatives – from coming up with ideas, making plans, and forming organisations to running the activities.

Each group received financial and equipment support. The amount differed from group to group. The dried fish processing group got start-up capital of IDR 47 million; the fish cracker production group, IDR 93 million, and the salted fish production group, IDR 100 million.

“Women have an important role. They know what their needs are, right down to the household level.” “That is why,” explained Odie Seumahu from the PNPM Support Facility in West Papua, “we give the chance to get involved more.”

As a community-based development

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For six months, from June 2013, KATADATA will be looking back over the 15 years of PNPM Perdesaan. Articles will be published every third week in Tempo magazine, and all the articles can be accessed at www.katadata.co.id. Feedback and suggestions to info@katadata.co.id

PRODUKSI KATADATA/TIM INFO TEMPO

15 YEARS PNPM PERDESAAN (1998-2013)The Largest Community-Based Development in The WorldRp 34 billion

Rp 225 billion

27.000 people

Rp15 billion local revenue

per year

Rp3 billionrevenue from tourism

sector per year

PNPM funding for 19 subdistricts of Raja Ampat

PNPM funding for 11 regency and 152 sub-districts of West Papua

RAJA AMPATprogram, PNPM Mandiri Perdesaan is very focused on women’s participation. Since the beginnings of this project in 1998, when it was still a World Bank funded project called the Subdistrict Development Program (Program Pengembangan Kecamatan – PPK), there have been various initiatives to encourage women’s participation.

At that time, PPK required that if there were two proposals from one village, one of them had to come from a women’s group. Of the two village facilitators, one had to be a woman. Special funding and support was also provided to women and other marginalised groups.

After it changed its name to PNPM Mandiri in 2007, the program continued to focus on engaging women. In particular, PNPM Mandiri Perdesaan allocates up to one quarter of available money to women’s credit union revolving funds. These funds are for their income generating activities or small businesses.

A 2009 survey showed that loan funds for women amounted to more than 17 percent of the funds rolled out for PNPM. That is why, in the 15 years of PNPM, projects funded by credit union revolving fund loans increased more than six fold, from 42,425 projects (1998-2007) to 258,578

projects (2008-2011). Of all the PNPM Perdesaan projects, the women’s credit union program has grown the fastest.

In Saonek, the women work in a production room with a corrugated iron roof. The two rooms they have conjured up are a kitchen and room for packing the fish crackers. Not far away, is the dried fish production group. They even use the same raw material: Spanish mackerel.

An hour from Saonek Island is the salted fish production group. The women in Wawayai who are group members are also fishers. Off these exotic islands, they throw out lines and catch all sorts of fresh fish.

These three groups producing fish crackers, dried fish and salted fish work hard to make their businesses grow. They have yet to taste the fruits of the Raja Ampat tourist industry, even though the place where they live has been turned into a local tourist paradise.

PRODUKSI KATADATA/TIM INFO TEMPO

INDONESIABUSINESS INSIGHTS

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KURASIA Kurasia Buatan was unconscious. Her body unable to beat the strong current. Her small boat capsized. Her belongings washed away, including a wad of her own money, and IDR 7 million belonging to other members of her family.

“I don’t know how many glasses of sea water I swallowed,” said Kurasia, recalling her bitter experience. She doesn’t remember everything. Only trying to swim with all her might the 500 metres or so to shore.

But the strong current and her rising panic proved too much. Her energy spent, there was nothing left to do but accept her fate and pray in her heart. “Oh God, lead me to You if I die,” she whispered. The waters swallowed up her spent, limp body.

Luckily, some villagers saw what was happening. They swam out to get Kurasia’s body, which was being tossed about in the current. They wasted no time dragging out her limp body, saving her life. “I was ill for three months,” said Kurasia. “It really is risky work.

But I’ve never given up.”Kurasia is a woman who has

worked for more than 10 years on the community empowerment program Program Nasional Pemberdayaan Masyarakat (PNPM) Perdesaan in West Papua. As a community facilitator, she has been involved in various infrastructure development programs, including bridges, roads, schools, water supply systems and irrigation systems.

She has to check that proposals from the villagers are on target. This includes monitoring the implementation phase. Which means she has to write activity reports.

This 160-cm tall woman joined PNPM in 2002. “I started from zero,” she said. She went on a six-month training course in Jayapura along with tens of other candidates. Her first job was to take responsibility for supporting villagers in settlements across South Misool, Raja Ampat.

The Misool Islands cover an area of around 2,000 square kilometres. The main islands include Salawati, Batanta, and Waigeo. The Raja Ampat Islands as a whole consist of around 610 islands. This district covers 12,000 square kilometres, and is home to a population of 37,000 (2010 figures).

The total project in Misool is worth IDR 45 million, for 22 settlements. Each settlement receives a different amount of funding, depending on its needs. Kurasia is responsible for seven settlements. Boat is the primary form of transport in Raja Ampat.

The islands in Raja Ampat are scattered. Tall trees grow on boulders and cliffs. The settlements are spread out over several islands. The only way of reaching them is by small vessels with outboard motors. Speed boats and ferries ply only the main routes, such as Waisai-Sorong.

These sea crossings can be very risky, especially in bad weather. “I’ve gone hungry because there were no food stalls in a village,” she said. “All the villagers were away fishing. All I had all day was water

A STRONG WOMAN FROM MISOOLTHE THREAT OF THE CRUEL AND SAVAGE PAPUA SEAS THAT ALMOST SWALLOWED HER UP DID NOTHING TO DAMPEN HER SPIRITS. THAT’S HOW STRONG THE PNPM FACILITATOR IS IN SOUTH MISOOL, RAJA AMPAT.

Oh God, lead me to You if I die

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PRODUKSI KATADATA/TIM INFO TEMPO

15 YEARS PNPM PERDESAAN (1998-2013)The Largest Community-Based Development in The World

INSTRUMENTAL in the birth of the national community empowerment program PNPM (Program Nasional Pemberdayan Masyarakat) was Scott Guggenheim. When working at the World Bank, he was the architect of the subdstrict development program PPK (Program Pengembangan Kecamatan) in 1998, which aimed to mitigate the poverty explosion following the monetary crisis.

PPK became PNPM in 2006, and has now expanded to include more than 63,000 villages. Over a cup of coffee in Cikini, Central Jakarta, Scott, who is now Social Policy Advisor to the Australian donor agency AusAID, offered comments and feedback on the 15 years of PNPM to the Katadata team. Also present was Citra Indah Lestari, Communication Associate at the PNPM Mandiri Support Facility (PSF).

HOW DID PNPM BEGIN? The first phase of the PPK actually began in 1995. Village development programs like Inpres Desa Tertinggal (IDT) had been initiated then, but the development concept was still centralised. Irrigation, rice paddy, and roads were developed without looking at what village communities actually needed. The second phase of the PPK started just before the fall of the New Order government. During this period of transition, as in many countries, the urban elite experienced democracy; but that was by no means true in village communities.

HOW WAS THE IDEA OF PNPM PUT TO A GOVERNMENT THAT WAS IN TRANSITION? The first step, in 1995, was to try to convince officials in the National Development Planning Agency about village development programs. This agency was chosen because at that time it was enormously influential under the leadership of Ginandjar Kartasasmita. Another official who supported the program from the outset was Vice President Boediono, who at that time was still working at the National Development

Planning Agency. I heard that Boediono regularly went to the villages to make sure that the program was running smoothly. After the new Order Regime collapsed and the program changed its name to PNPM, the most supportive officials were Sri Mulyani and Aburizal Bakrie. This was possibly the last program that they supported before both of them were finished.

WHAT ABOUT CORRUPTION AND FRAUD? Corruption in PNPM is small, although the figures can’t be verified exactly. That’s because PNPM funds are disbursed directly from central government to the villages. If they were disbursed through the bureaucratic structure, there could be leakages at every level. Up to 30% of the funds could be syphoned off.

WHAT ABOUT VILLAGE COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION? There are tangible results, but not very many. That’s the biggest issue for PNPM.

In some villages, the level of community participation is good. But in less than 100 villages, I’d say. That’s the challenge for PNPM – it’s a successful project but not a program.

THERE’S A BIG QUESTION MARK OVER WHETHER PNPM WILL CONTINUE AFTER THE 2014 GENERAL ELECTION… The new government might change its name; that’s no problem. But village communities still need a system like PNPM that disburses money directly to the villages for development. After 15 years, the program has to change too. PNPM is like a child that needs to break free from its mother.

Read the article in full atwww.katadata.co.id

from the bottom of a drum.”Kurasia has also been a police witness. For

two weeks, Kurasia and her manager were interviewed about a missing IDR 700 million in program funds. The funds were for building a water supply system, toilets and roads in Fakfak, in 2005. “The villagers threatened me with bows and arrows,” she said. Fortunately, the case was solved and the perpetrators jailed.

Kurasia believes that education is the way to open the villagers’ eyes to these potential riches. And to dealing the difficulties the villagers have and freeing them from the poverty trap. “Education is crucial. We cannot make our dreams come true without schooling,” she said. “That’s soul work.”

PNPM IS STILL A PROJECT

SCOTT GUGGENHEIM, PNPM CONCEPTOR:

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