Dr. Astia Dendi GTZ Senior Advisor for Good Local Governance (GLG)

Drs. H. M. Ainul Asikin, MsiHead of BAPPEDA of Mataram City

CATALYTIC LOCAL GOVERNANCE INSTRUMENTS AND MEASURES FOR ALLEVIATING POVERTY

IN EASTERN INDONESIA:

Empirical Experience of Mataram City

Presentation at the 9th IRSA International Conference Palembang, 31 July 2008

Background: Good Governance Competition

Provincial government of West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) supported by GTZ (German Technical Cooperation), launched a Good Governance Award in 2007 to support capacity development in local governance in the provision of public services.

Civil society organizations, the private sector, and the public in general will benefit from the improvements made to the day-to-day routine practice of service delivery and, in the longer term, contribute to the improvement of regional human development index;

Defined theme for the first competition in 2007: “Innovation in Transparency and Participation in the Provision of Public Services for Enhancing Human Development”.

The challenge for local governments is to accomplish measurable improvements in service delivery processes, within a 3-month period, which then lead to greater transparency and participation

Province/National

Human Development IndexRank in 20051999 2002 2004 2005

NTB* 54.2 57.8 60,6 62.4 32

NTT* 60.4 60.3 62.7 63.6 31

Papua* 58.8 60.1 60.9 62.1 33

DKI Jakarta 72.5 75.6 75.8 76.1 1

Indonesia 64.3 65.8 68.7 69.6

Human Development: A critical challenge in Human Development: A critical challenge in Eastern Indonesia Eastern Indonesia

* Denotes Eastern Indonesia regionSource: BPS, 2008 http://www.bps.co.id

Some Facts about Mataram City

• Mataram City, the capital of West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) Province;

• Land teritory : 61,30 km2• Administratively it consists of 6 sub-districts, 50 kelurahan,

dan 288 Lingkungan (neighborhoods);• Population 356, 748 (2005)• Human Development Index is the highest in the province

but rank 208 out of 456 districts/ municipals in Indonesia (2006) Index = 66.08 (2004), and 70.09 (2006)

Key Issues and Problems

Profile of the Pilot Area

Location : Lingkungan SembalunImplementation : 24 August – 10 November 2007Territory : 10 HaPopulation: 182 households (11.53% of I, 579 total households in

the region in 2007)Number of poor households : 141 (77.47%)Livelihood : Farmers/ fishermen, small traders, civil servants, Population density : 5.306 people/km2Literacy rate : 15% women can read and write

Catalytic Strategy for Poverty Alleviation

Fields of Interventions

Performance Indicators (within 3 months)

Stakeholders Dialog

CAP

CAP= Community Action Planning

Community Action Planning (CAP)

CAPFacilitation

Short-Term Results

Awarded by the provincial government of NTB the first prize of the 2007’s Good Governance Award;

The municipal government has provided free health and education services for the eligible poor;

A community-led complain unit was established and well functioned;

A school for children under five years old (PAUD) was established and supported, as well as a class for combating illiteracy;

The aggreement of healthy livelihood (called awig-awig) was elaborated and implemented;

Economics training for the poor and micro entrepreneurs were identified and implemented;

A micro-finance institution was established and supported; Dialogs for “moving forward” (scaling up) are undergoing

Complain Boxes

Delivery of Complain Boxes

Collection of complains

Crosscheck/ verification of complains

Community Complain Unit

Coordination meeting Education for Children Under Five Years Old

(PAUD) with 23 students

Educative toys at PAUDParticipants of learning for

combating illiteracy (93 participants divided into 6

groups)

Education Activities

The program better access to education and enhance motivation for participation learning

The program encourages youth groups to establish a Center for Community Learning in the neighborhood to combat illiteracy and poverty

Health Promotion Community members actively participate in the promotion of better health

and creation of healthier livelihood and environment: They formulate and “institutionalize “ community’s convention (awig-awig)

to promote and reinforce healthy livelihood behavior and practices; They allocate resource and responsibilities to develop collective toilets,

litter boxes (waste disposal) , construction and renovation of drainage channels, etc.

Municipal government grants 141 poor households with access to free health services

Provision of extension service on healthy livelihood

Elaboration of awig-awig

Sign board for litter or waste disposal

Construction of collective toilets

Lessons Learned & Prospects

Contextualized good governance competition mobilizes local governance stakeholders to stretch the frontier of good governance practices in services provision, not only maintain the status quo;

Mataram city, in particular, demonstrates that creativity in combination with transparency and participation are good catalyst (catalytic factor) for producing numerous useful results for poverty reduction and human development;

The myth of public budget constraint for poverty reduction and human development is now challenged. The experience suggests that the catalytic factor and could be a well substitute (partly) for public capital through: Enhancement of local ownership, trust and solidarity Mobilization of role and responsibility sharing Participatory and cost-effective conflict resolution

Key role of BAPPEDA and intermediary organizations Community’s poverty data contradicts the official data

Some Ways Forward Provincial government should promote good governance dialogs at

provincial and local level: Establishment of Good Governance Fora or Good Governance Center of

Excellent at provincial level; Documentation and dissemination of “smart practices” involving

intermediary organizations and mass media; Similar competition but with different focus should be considered, with a

two-year cycle;

For the purpose of scaling up and sustainability, the municipal government of Mataram should:

Facilitate learning from [success story] poverty reduction initiative in Sembalun;

Establish mid-term strategic and expenditure framework for poverty reduction and mobilize local stakeholders for collaborative actions;

Promote the program to the related sector agencies at provincial and national level;

Re-examine and verify poverty data