THE EDITOR – In the future, thousands of small candles will provide light for economic growth in rural West and Southwest Papua.
This was said by the Director General of Village Governance (Bina Pemdes) of the Ministry of Home Affairs, La Ode Ahmad P Bolombo, who is optimistic that he can successfully educate village officials to become agents of change who will make Papua shine like never before.
How Is It?
La Ode said that the Directorate General of Bina Pemdes is currently training village officials on the Village Government and Development Strengthening Programme (P3PD).
The P3PD training will produce village officials who will help create successful, creative villages.
One of the P3PD training locations is Sorong, Papua. La Ode is optimistic that the programme, which has been implemented by the government since 2023, will be successful.
“132 districts, 939 villages in West Papua and Southwest Papua are candles. If all of them are lit, Southwest Papua will shine beautifully. If all the villages are lit, this country will be lit,” he said to The Editor.
He is confident that in the next administration, which will be led by Prabowo Subianto and Gibran Rakabuming Raka, all officials trained by the Directorate General of Village Development will succeed in creating inspiring new villages.
Village Officials Who Are Able to Develop Their Own Work Programmes Will Lead
La Ode said that the P3PD training will produce village officials who are very different from before. This can be seen in the training curriculum, where the programme wants each village apparatus to be able to make new proposals about planning their respective village development programmes.
This programme is still rarely owned by village officials whose average education is not from college or university.
However, Lao Ode said that the P3PD training covers a wide range of skills that have been prepared by the Directorate General of Village Development so that officials recognise the potential of their respective regions.
“After this training, village officials will make proposals for village development programme planning that are in accordance with the potential of the village and closer to community services in the village,” he said.
How Many Villages Participated in This Training?
P3PD Regional Management Consultant (RMC) West Papua Coordinator Kasan Pribadi said that, in this training, his party invited village heads, village secretaries, village consultative body chairmen and PKK chairmen from 884 villages spread across the Regencies of Arfak Mountains, South Manokwari, Teluk Wondama, Teluk Bintuni, Kaimana, Sorong, South Sorong, Raja Ampat and Maybrat.
From The Editor’s observation, 3.552 village officials from West Papua and Southwest Papua were recorded to have participated in the P3PD training not long ago.
Lusje Anneke Tabalujan, Director of Facilitation of Village Government Arrangement and Administration of Bina Pemdes of the Ministry of Home Affairs, said that thousands of participants were divided into 111 classes and they all came from 184 villages in the province.
P3PD is a collaborative programme between the Government of Indonesia and the World Bank. Besides the Ministry of Home Affairs, the programme also involves the Ministry of Villages, Development of Disadvantaged Regions (Kemendesa PDTT) and the Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Culture (KemenkoPMK).
