Participatory Village Government Planning (ID0096)

January 2019 - December 2020
Commitment Description
Lead implementing
agency/actor
1. Ministry of Village, Development of
Disadvantaged Regions, and Transmigration
2. Ministry of Home Affairs
Public participation in village meetings is still low and
this becomes a concern to the national government. There are some regulations to be revised to support
the implementation of this commitment. The revised
regulations are expected to provide assurance to the
communities. In addition to that, people could exercise
their rights in monitoring the administration of the
village government. Furthermore, socialization and
capacity building are conducted in the village
government, woman and communities. Through these
activities, hopefully, society can be more encouraged
to participate and be involved in the process of
government planning and implementation.
● This commitment is relevant to the principle of
public participation because it encourages active
participation from village communities in
monitoring and overviewing the course of
government.
● This commitment is also relevant to the principle of
openness and accountability to improve the quality
of village government. With openness in the
process of formulating village development
program, it will encourage the government to
become more transparent, at the same time
ensuring the use of village budget to be efficient
and effective as much as possible.
Why is this commitment relevant
to OGP values?
This commitment is also linked with the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) which happens to be an
international agenda in creating a more transparent
and inclusive development. This commitment is
tangible in the development goal Number 16 which
states about Peace, Justice and Strong Institution.
Because, a strong institution is also reflected in
accountability, transparency, and integrity. This
commitment will encourage the achievement of other
SDGs, especially SDGs Number 1 in regards to
reducing poverty.
Additional information
How will the commitment
contribute to solve the public
problem?
23
Milestone Activity with a verifiable
deliverable
Start Date: End Date:
1. Ministry of Home Affairs will be
conducting the workshop on Village
Budget in 30 villages.
January 2019 December 2019
Ministry of Home Affairs
2. The development of Village
Forum Guidance held by Ministry of
Home Affairs will be followed by
Focus Group Discussion. This FGD
will include the participation of civil
society to enrich the content.
January 2020 December 2020
Village meetings lack the invo lvement of various
stakeholders and instead are only exclusively limited
to the village elites. It is common that the village
meetings only consist of the head of the village and
the village secretary. As the result, the programs that
are proposed only cater the interest of the village
elites. Village meetings should be done with inclusive
participation forum which involves communities from
various elements such as work background, age,
gender and so on.
Policy improvements have been issued gradually and
among them is the issuance of the Minister of Home
Affairs Regulation Number 20/2018 on Village
Financial Management. In detail, this regulation
identifies the programs and activities carried out by
the village government to be more effective and
efficient.
However, the opportunities in improving the quality of
village government do not end there. The quality of
village community participation is still an unavoidable
task. Communities have to gain enough capability to
criticize their own government. The accountability of
village government can be done by increasing the role
of village facilitators especially in the planning and
implementation process of the government.
What is the public problem that
the commitment will address?
The limited access in the participation of Village
Development Planning will cause incompatible
development. Thus, this commitment encourages the
participation of diverse livelihoods of people through
the government’s policy.
Regarding this commitment, there will be two ministries
responsible to implement it.
What is the commitment?
1. Ministry of Home Affairs will take a role to give
capacity building for village and province.
Moreover, they will develop the Village Forum
Guidance in 30 villages of three provinces.
2. Ministry of Village, Development of
Disadvantaged Regions, and Transmigration
will revise the regulation on Village Forum and
Village Assistant. Ministry of Village, Development of Disadvantaged Regions, and Transmigration
3. The availability of the revised
draft of ministry regulation related
to village forum. In this milestone,
the development of ministry
regulation draft will involve the civil
society and other stakeholders.
January 2019 December 2019
4. The availability of the revised
draft of ministry regulation related to
village assistant. In this milestone,
the development of ministry
regulation draft will involve the civil
society and other stakeholders.
January 2020 December 2020
Contact information
Other Actors
Involved
State actors
involved
Ministry of National Development Planning/
Bappenas
CSOs, private
sector, multilaterals,
working groups
1. PATTIRO
2. World Vision Indonesia

5. Encouraging More Accountable and Participative Village Government Planning

Language of the commitment as it appears in the action plan:

The limited access in the participation of Village Development Planning will cause incompatible development. Thus, this commitment encourages the participation of diverse livelihoods of people through the government’s policy.

Regarding this commitment, there will be two ministries responsible to implement it.

1. Ministry of Home Affairs will take a role to give capacity building for village and province. Moreover, they will develop the Village Forum Guidance in 30 villages of three provinces.
2. Ministry of Village, Development of Disadvantaged Regions, and Transmigration will revise the regulation on Village Forum and Village Assistant.

Milestones:

Ministry of Home Affairs

1. Ministry of Home Affairs will be conducting the workshop on Village Budget in 30 villages.
2. The development of Village Forum Guidance held by Ministry of Home Affairs will be followed by Focus Group Discussion. This FGD will include the participation of civil society to enrich the content.

Ministry of Village, Development of Disadvantaged Regions, and Transmigration

1. The availability of the revised draft of ministry regulation related to village forum. In this milestone, the development of ministry regulation draft will involve the civil society and other stakeholders.
2. The availability of the revised draft of ministry regulation related to village assistant. In this milestone, the development of ministry regulation draft will involve the civil society and other stakeholders.

Start Date: January 2019                                                               End Date: December 2020

Context and Objectives

Indonesia’s fourth action plan included a commitment to strengthen village governance in terms of transparency, participation, and responsiveness. In the previous commitment, the Ministry of Home Affairs aimed to establish pilot projects across 30 villages in the Provinces of West Sumatera, Maluku, and Central Java. The commitment fell short of ensuring implementation of public consultations and reviews of village development and budget plans. ^[73] However, it did set up a basic framework which was disseminated in the 30 villages through a series of workshops.

In this commitment, the Ministry of Home Affairs collaborates with the Ministry of Villages, Development of Disadvantaged Regions, and Transmigration. The ministries have two different roles in implementing this commitment. The Ministry of Home Affairs is responsible for building local government capacity through workshops on how to involve citizens in development planning and budgeting. The Ministry of Villages, Development of Disadvantaged Regions, and Transmigration is responsible for renewing ministerial regulations No. 2/2015 on Village Forum ^[74] Mechanism ^[75] and No. 3/2015 on Village Facilitation. ^[76]

Public participation in local governance, including at the village level, is mandated by Law No. 23/2014 on Local Governments. ^[77] Local governments are responsible for encouraging public participation by disclosing information, building capacity for active participation, and institutionalizing a decision-making mechanism that enables effective public participation. ^[78] The scope of public participation includes the development of local regulations (Perda), development planning, budgeting, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation, natural resource and asset management, as well as public service delivery. ^[79]

Currently, however, governance at the village level rarely involves members of the public. The government’s assessment found that village forums (Musdes) often involve only the top leadership of village governments. ^[80] Through this commitment, the government aims to establish a clear mechanism for public participation by revising existing regulations. At the same time, the government will continue organizing workshops for village government officials to build capacity in involving citizens in development planning and budgeting. The workshops will also involve civil society and the public. However, the commitment does not go beyond facilitating the workshops. Compared to the same commitment in the prior action plan, this commitment has only a minor potential impact.

Next Steps

This commitment is similar to the village governance commitment in the previous action plan. The government could ensure its continuation results in more concrete outcomes as the groundwork is already established. For example, the government could design a model implementation of the accountable and participatory village government planning through a series of pilot projects in select locations. Findings, comprising of existing best practices, regulatory and practical challenges, as well as potential new mechanisms can then be replicated in other villages. However, if this commitment is something that the government intends to continuously work on through the OGP process, the ambition must increase to actually result in significant changes to village government planning. For example, the government facilitate public consultation forums with village citizens and monitor how village governments respond to citizens in their finalized development plans and budgets.

Within the context of this commitment, the government should consider the following actions to achieve more substantial results:

• Collaborate with the Ministry of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform to develop a standard mechanism for public participation in line with the public consultation forum commitment. This would help minimize confusion within governments at different levels due to inconsistent standards and mechanisms used for the same activities;
• Collect feedback from CSOs and citizens in the 30 pilot villages and incorporate their input into designing the public participation mechanism. This is important to capture the unique challenges faced by village citizens, such as lack of information technology infrastructure, lower access to information, and capacity gaps; and
• Beyond revising regulations and facilitating workshops, support village governments’ initial attempts to involve the public in development planning and budgeting. Instead of creating an entirely new mechanism, the government could utilize existing avenues such as village forums (Musdes) and village development planning forums (Musrenbang).

[73] Open Government Partnership, “Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) Indonesia End-of-Term Report 2016–2017” (2019), https://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Indonesia_End-of-Term_Report_2016-2017_EN.pdf.

[74] Within the context of village governance, village forums (Musyawarah Desa or Musdes) are mandated by Article 54 of Law No. 6/2014 on Villages (Government of Indonesia, 2014, http://www.dpr.go.id/dokjdih/document/uu/UU_2014_6.pdf). The scope of the village forum, in accordance with the law, includes village governance, village development planning, village cooperation, incoming investment plans, formation of a village-owned enterprise, changes in village assets, and any extraordinary situations.

[75] Ministry of Villages, Development of Disadvantaged Regions, and Transmigration, “Peraturan Menteri No. 2/2015 tentang Pedoman Tata Tertib dan Mekanisme Pengambilan Keputusan Musyawarah Desa” (2015), https://ppidkemkominfo.files.wordpress.com/2016/08/pm-desa-no-2-tahun-2015-tentang-pedoman-tata-tertib-dan-mekanisme-pengambilan-keputusan-musyawarah-desa.pdf.

[76] Ministry of Villages, Development of Disadvantaged Regions, and Transmigration, “Peraturan Menteri No. 3/2015 tentang Pendampingan Desa” (2015), https://ppidkemkominfo.files.wordpress.com/2016/08/pm-desa-no-3-ta-2015-tentang-pendampingan-desa.pdf.

[77] Government of Indonesia, “Undang-Undang No. 23/2014 tentang Pemerintah Daerah” (2014), https://pih.kemlu.go.id/files/UU0232014.pdf.

[78] Ibid.

[79] Ibid.

[80] Open Government Indonesia National Secretariat, “Indonesia OGP National Action Plan 2018–2020” (2018) 22, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Indonesia_Action-Plan_2018-2020.pdf.

5. Encouraging More Accountable and Participative Village Government Planning

Complete:

The Ministry of Village, Development of Disadvantaged Regions, and Transmigration issued two regulations to improve public participation in village forums, [49] building on a 2014 law which mandated public inclusion in village governance. [50] The Ministry of Home Affairs also developed guidance for village forums on development planning and budgeting, and conducted related evaluations through focus groups in 31 Maluku, Central Java, and West Sumatra villages. In addition, the ministry offered technical assistance on financial management in 30 villages. [51] Overall, implementation occurred within a limited geographic scope, targeting a small percentage of Indonesia’s villages. [52] That said, according to Wahana Visi Indonesia, preliminary results suggest that the commitment improved performance in targeted villages' financial management, producing budgets more closely aligned with residents’ needs. This was reflected by budgetary shifts from spending on infrastructure and bureaucracy to spending on health, child welfare, and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH). [53] Efforts to improve village governance were carried forward into the sixth action plan, with commitments on community-based evaluations and social accountability.