Local Planning and Performance Evaluation Places People at the Centre in Progressing Towards the MDGs and Human Development in Indonesia

Jakarta 14 October --The UNDP and the National Development Planning Agency (BAPPENAS) co-organized a Policy Seminar: Strengthening Development Planning and Performance Evaluation in Support of Local Government Practice on 13-14 October in Jakarta. Discussion focused on the value of Human Development (HD)/Millennium Development Goal (MDG) frameworks for planning, budgeting, monitoring and evaluating development. Existent and future application of these tools was reviewed for strengthening local development practices leading towards accelerated MDG achievement and promoted human development in Indonesia.

Dr Rosiady Sayuti (Head, Provincial Bappeda NTT), Mr. Ir.Hugua (Bupati of Wakatobi, Southeast Sulawesi), Dr Prastijono Widjojo (Deputy for Poverty, Labor and SMEs, Bappenas) and Dr Wera Damianus, MM (Vice Head of District of Sikka, NTT) during the roundtable on Regional Development Planning and Budgeting.

The seminar was a forum for dialogue between central policy-makers, Heads of local planning agencies, officials from the National Bureau of Statistics (BPS), representatives of universities and research institutes, and international partners. Representatives from the provinces of Papua, West Papua, Aceh, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), West Nusa Tenggara  (NTB), Gorontalo, Southeast Sulawesi, West Sulawesi, East, West and Central Java, including the Governor of Gorontalo, shared experience of local governments in applying HD/MDG-based approaches and tools in practice.

The seminar promoted knowledge-sharing, learning and discussion of shared challenges between central, provincial and local governments. The practical and focused discussion looked at how to make HD/MDG-based approaches and measures embedded more strongly into data and situation analysis, and into pro-poor planning and budgeting. Better targeting of resource allocations was discussed as well as the different ways different tools can be applied for monitoring and assessing development performance, for advocacy, public dialogue and oversight. Central policy-makers shared their plans for better integration of efforts across the sectors and between levels of governance.

Presentations from West Nusa Tenggara, East Nusa Tenggara and Southeast Sulawesi shared experiences on the BAPPENAS-UNDP supported Pro-Poor Planning, Budgeting and Monitoring Initiative (P3BM) where practical evidenced-based MDG tools - such as data and budget analysis, poverty mapping and score-carding – have helped to shape budget allocations to more effectively target development priorities. In Gorontalo, the Human Development Approach is integrated into government policies and programmes. The government has targeted 15 sub-districts with the lowest Human Development Index (HDI) and is promoting HDI-based development planning and formalizing efforts through mechanisms such as a Board for Community Empowerment and Poverty Alleviation and joint Memorandums of Understanding on Poverty Alleviation signed by the Governor and Bupatis. In Aceh, the HDI is being used to inform budget allocations across priority sectors. In West Sulawesi, the UNICEF supported ASIA methodology is being used at the district level to analyse the situation of women and children through localized application of Millennium Development Goal (MDG) related tools.

Experts from UNDP India shared experiences from India on financing for Human Development and how the Human Development Approach has been mainstreamed at various levels including government economic surveying, the education sector and through the establishment of research centres housed within government. Experts from UNDP Bratislava shared experiences from Central Europe mainstreaming MDGs into policy making and utilizing other indices such as the social exclusion index to compliment MDG and HD tools. 

A publication is currently being prepared inspired by experiences, lessons learned and recommendations that emerged during the seminar. The publication aims to capture the range of experiences in application of HD/MDG tools in policy and practice by Government from the central to the sub-district levels. It is hoped that through this publication, broad knowledge-sharing will facilitate further innovation and policy dialogue. The publication will be available in January 2010.

• Felicity Pascoe, Poverty Reduction Unit Felicity.Pascoe@undp.org or (021) 314 1308 ex.523