THE EDITOR – The Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Cultural Affairs considers that strengthening women’s empowerment is very important for achieving inclusive and sustainable national development. This is in line with Astacita 4 of the Prabowo-Gibran administration related to gender equality and strengthening the role of women.
Seeing the importance of this, the Ministry held a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) on Strengthening Women’s Empowerment in Village Development on 6-8 November 2024 in Jakarta.
“The purpose of this FGD is important, namely to review women’s empowerment policies and encourage the optimisation of gender equality, both at the national level and at the smallest level – the village,” said Acting Secretary of the Deputy for Equitable Regional Development and Disaster Management Eni Rukawiani.
She mentioned that various programmes or initiatives related to women’s empowerment have been carried out by the central, regional governments, and non-governmental institutions with the aim of empowering women’s economy and increasing women’s participation in decision-making.
This FGD aims to explore various concepts, policy frameworks, and practices of empowerment in villages that can be a reference for village governments in optimizing village development planning that is more participatory and inclusive.
The approach used in this study is a qualitative approach that explores the depth of data from the perspectives of various informants from the central government, regional government, CSOs, and women’s groups.
Head of the TNP2K Policy Team Elan Satriawan in his speech said that Indonesia already has various regulations and policies to encourage gender mainstreaming and women’s empowerment. Indonesia has even ratified international treaties, but gender inequality still occurs.
The labor force participation rate (TPAK) of women (54.4%) is reportedly still much lower than that of men (84%). Indonesia is one of the countries that ranks the lowest compared to surrounding countries.
Also attending the FGD were the Assistant Deputy for Poverty Reduction, Assistant Deputy for Women’s Rights, Protection, and Empowerment, Assistant Deputy for Youth Empowerment, Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection, Ministry of National Development Planning/Bappenas, Ministry of Villages, Ministry of Cooperatives, Small and Medium Enterprises, BKKBN, Setwapres, and the National Commission on Violence Against Women.
