Democratic Governance Programme

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) works to support democratic development and the promotion and protection of the rule of law in Indonesia. Democratic governance provides the necessary enabling environment to reduce inequalities, alleviate poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The UNDP works to promote democratic governance in Indonesia in three thematic areas: (1) promoting the ‘deepening of democracy’ through electoral and parliamentary support, (2) supporting decentralization and local governance reform, and (3) promote rights-based legal and justice sector reform.

1. Deepening Democracy

After holding national elections in 1999 and 2004, as well as a series of local elections, Indonesia is currently in a period of consolidating and deepening democratic progress. UNDP supports Indonesia’s democratic consolidation through the Deepening Democracy Programme, providing support to institutional and procedural reform as well as consensus building, fostering dialogue and bringing together key stakeholders.

Through the Deepening Democracy Programme, UNDP is working to further reform Indonesia’s election processes, build the capacity of election management bodies, and enhance the capacity of national and local parliamentary bodies. Further, the programme seeks to increase civic awareness among Indonesian citizens, and support Government efforts to measure democratic progress and regression both at the national and local levels. Finally, the programme supports the enhancement of interactive collaboration between the state and civil society organizations (CSOs) and improving the capacity of Indonesia’s media.

UNDP is working to deepen Indonesian democracy by:

• Revitalizing the Peoples’ Representative Council (DPR) and its public engagement in the Indonesian political process;
• Reforming the Regional Representative Council (DPD) and strengthening its secretariat;
• Strengthening governance reform and empowerment of the Regional Peoples’ Representative Councils (DPRDs);
• Promoting civic education among youth and school-aged children;
• Supporting national and regional elections, including the holding of Local Executive Elections (Pilkada);
• Capacity enhancement for both the National Election Commission (KPU) and Regional Election Commission (KPUDs);
• Strengthening the “Partnership for Governance Reform” to catalyze Indonesia’s governance reform agenda;
• Supporting journalists to better serve as watchdogs for democracy through the School for Broadcast Media; and
• Supporting the development of the Indonesian Democracy Index (IDI) to measure democratic progress and setbacks at the national and local levels, and to provide a tool for government agencies in policy planning.

2. Decentralization and Local Governance

Indonesia’s Government is in a period of rapid decentralization of political power from the central government to provincial and local authorities. As this process takes shape, UNDP is supporting Indonesia’s democratic and participatory development processes for the achievement of the MDGs through programmatic measures to ensure that development planning and budgeting are rightly targeted to address poverty-related issues. UNDP is further helping to increase the capacity of local governments and local parliaments as well as civil society to improve public service delivery. Support to policy and legislative frameworks is an essential component to this work.

UNDP is supporting the Government of Indonesia to accelerate the pace and effectiveness of local government reform through:

• Building and reinventing decentralized governance by strengthening the participation of multi-stakeholders in planning and implementing key public services;
• Developing inter-governmental cooperation to optimize regional autonomy and synergize regional development;
• Supporting the development of provincial-level Human Development Reports as a tool for consensus building in the regional development planning agenda and monitoring progress measured by the Human Development Index;
• Strengthening the development of research-based policy and its implementation, such as an evaluation study on the proliferation of the regions
• Developing tools that support provincial governments to more effectively assume new roles and responsibilities in light of the rapidly changing context of decentralization; and
• Empowering communities through improved access to information to advance socio-economic opportunities.

3. The Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and Strengthening Rights Based Legal and Justice Sector Reform

Access to justice is the ability of people from disadvantaged groups to prevent and overcome human poverty, through formal and informal justice systems, by seeking and obtaining a remedy for grievances in accordance with human rights principles and standards.

UNDP is helping to ensure people across Indonesia have access to justice through a rights-based legal framework. As a close partner to the Government of Indonesia and civil society organizations in this work, UNDP is assisting to empower citizens to better utilize the law and realize human rights, while simultaneously strengthening legal institutions responsible for securing access to justice as a basic human right.

UNDP is promoting and protecting human rights and strengthening rights based legal and justice sector reform by:

• Conducting comprehensive access to justice assessments in key areas throughout Indonesia;
• Improving the legal framework in support of access to justice as a basic human right through assistance provided to the nationally owned and developed strategy on access to justice for inclusion in the National Medium Term Development Plan 2010–2014;
• Increasing legal awareness and the ability of the most vulnerable and marginalized to obtain access to justice through legal awareness campaigns and the establishment of free legal aid facilities;
• Strengthening the institutional capacity of formal and informal justice delivery systems to provide access to justice, uphold the rule of law and protect human rights;
• Strengthening the capacity of civil society to monitor and advocate for the rights of the most vulnerable and marginalized, disseminate legal and human rights information and ensure justice sector accountability;
• Enhancing public participation in legal reform processes through advocacy and the strengthening of access to information; and
• Assisting reform efforts within the Office of the Attorney General, Supreme Court, Department of Law and Human Rights and the Anticorruption Commission in order that these institutions can be more responsive to the needs of the poor, disadvantaged, vulnerable and marginalized.

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