THE EDITOR – The Indonesian government is targeting the percentage of independent villages to reach 16.25 per cent by 2024. Thus, President Prabowo Subianto’s Asta Cita mission, one of which is related to community welfare, can be achieved.
“In order to achieve this target, the government’s current policy direction falls into several categories, namely the fulfillment and equitable distribution of quality rural basic services, as well as increasing accessibility, increasing competitiveness and productivity of the rural economy through diversification of village activities and economy,” said Tri Dewi Firgiyanti, Deputy of the Ministry of National Development Planning/National Development Planning Agency.
In addition, she continued, several other stages were also carried out such as strengthening the resilience of rural communities to social conditions through empowering village communities, as well as managing the rural environment in order to increase rural resilience from disaster vulnerability and climate change, the capacity of governance, and adaptive village development assistance through optimisation and digitalisation of services.
ACHIEVING SELF-RELIANT VILLAGE TARGET THROUGH P3PD TRAINING
To create self-reliant villages, the Indonesian government is currently establishing the Strengthening Village Governance and Development Programme (P3PD).
There are five ministries mandated to run this programme, namely the Ministry of Villages and Development of Disadvantaged Regions, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Cultural Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of National Development Planning. This programme aims to make quality village expenditure in accordance with the potential of the community.
On the one hand, P3PD training is held to educate village officials to be more innovative and creative in making policies related to their villages. On the other hand, the community is also considered to be more participatory in encouraging the development of their residence.
Capacity building training for village officials is conducted by the Ministry of Home Affairs through the Directorate General of Village Government Development.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Villages and Development of Disadvantaged Regions targets to increase community capacity through village and local village facilitators.
As a model of this, village field schools, digital villages, and digital ambassadors in villages are prepared.
THE SUB-DISTRICT HEAD IS TAUGHT TO DIRECT THE PERFORMANCE OF VILLAGE OFFICIALS
The Directorate General of Territorial Administration (Bina Adwil) of the Ministry of Home Affairs is introducing a Rumah Bersama programme that will introduce a Sub-district Dashboard to all sub-district heads in Indonesia to monitor the use of the budget disbursed by the government to village heads.
The participants who will be involved in this training include sub-district heads, sub-district secretaries, Health Technical Service Units (UPT), and Education UPT.
Acting Director-General of Territorial Administration Amran, MT said that village spending by the village government has not been of high quality, with most of the funds only used for administrative costs and infrastructure.
Meanwhile, human resources, education, health, and economic development programmes are still low.
“Spending on human resource development, economic empowerment, education, and health is still relatively low, so the impact of the spending can not reach the community,” he said in a statement received by The Editor.
Therefore, Amran said, the sub-district head must be a liaison between village officials and the district government so that the programmes provided to the community match the targets and common needs in each village, especially in the area of village expenditure.
He explained that the web-based Sub-district Dashboard needs to be taught to sub-district heads in order to teach them how to analyze basic village achievements that are formulated in the form of an integrated work agenda.
