WRI Annual Programs Report, January – December 2006

 

Achievement

In 2006 WRI had finalized its research activity on “The Impact of Gender Budgeting Advocacies in Six Regions in Indonesia”. Besides attain the data, WRI also provides capacity building, especially towards the executive and legislative at the local level of the six research areas. The research result at the moment is in the final stage of editing and lay out. It is hoped that the book on “The Impact of Gender Budgeting Advocacies in Six Regions in Indonesia” will be published and launched August 30, 2006.

 

Since its establishment, WRI had expanded its network not only at the national and local level, but also at the international level. WRI received invitations to present the research results and views on the impact of regional autonomy towards women’s participation. WRI also being asked to give gender analysis training an gender budgeting training due to its experiences in this particular subject. Many invitations such as being asked to become advisors to the Government of Indonesia’s delegation to the UN’s Conference on the Advancement of Women in New York is an example that WRI had been regarded as an organization that has strong view on the issue of gender and governance in Indonesia.

 

 

WRI’s Past Achievements

1. Research on Gender Issues:

• Conducting research on the impact of decentralization on women:
• Conducting text analysis on public policies that regulate decentralization
• Conducting empirical studies on women participation in public policy making under decentralization
• Conducting research on the perspectives and strategies of women organizations in dealing with decentralization
• Conducting research on the impact of gender budget advocacy in 6 regencies/cities

2. Gender Mainstreaming:

WRI conducted training to increase the capacity of government agencies in gender mainstreaming and gender budgeting. Trainings were provided to:

• The Ministry of Women’s Empowerment
• The Department of Finance
• The Department of Home Affair
• The Ministry of National Planning

3. Gender Budgeting:

• Conducting socialization and training of gender budgeting and planning to local multi-stakeholders in 8 regencies/cities, namely (Banda Aceh, Kabupaten Solok, Kota Mataram, Kebumen, Gianyar, Manado, Kupang, Pontianak)
• Collaborating with executives, legislatives, and NGOs to develop indicators for measuring and monitoring gender budget allocation.
• Formulating tools for analyzing gender budget revenue and expenditure
• Preparing the development of pilot project for gender budgeting in five regencies/cities

 

Background

WRI was established in 27 June 2002, one and a half year after the implementation of decentralization policy in Indonesia. There were five conditions that became the concern WRI:

• There was hardly any work that analyzed the impact of decentralization on women;
• Most local ordinances were not gender sensitive in character;
• Women could hardly participate in bottom up planning and budgeting process;
• Women had very limited access to resources;
• Women and women groups had limited knowledge and capacity in women poverty reduction through the implementation of good governance.

 

Since its establishment in 2002, the Women Research Institute (WRI) aims to bring up the issue of the impact of decentralization towards women in Indonesia. In order to achieve this aim, WRI conducted several research, capacity building by organizing gender analysis trainings and gender budgeting trainings as well as published and disseminated the research results and analysis using gender perspective.

 

In the past several years, WRI had established its network with the decision makers from the executive, legislative and civil society, especially the NGOs and people from the university. This network is developed, in order to support the application of WRI’s research recommendations. So, it can help to broaden the work of democratization by using gender perspective to achieve equity and welfare. The data and information that WRI got during its research activity become the basis of WRI’s capacity building works, such as gender analysis and gender budgeting trainings as well as publications and campaigns as WRI’s dissemination activities.

 

WRI’s Objective

It is substantial that the democratization issues embrace various interests of the people. This is in line with the nature of democracy, to host and reflecting various interests in the society. Therefore, WRI attempt to do several research and activities in the next three years as follows,

Research
Develop an institution that focuses on research using feminist methodology and analyses that will support the “public” participation of women in local politics.

Capacity Building
Supports the development of critical thinking on gender relations in the formulations of regional regulations, based on the interests of marginalized groups, particularly women, in the context of regional autonomy.

Publication and Campaign
Providing publication and campaign material for individuals, groups and institutions that are participating in efforts to develop good governance and an inclusive process of democracy that seriously takes into account the rights of women.

 

Strategy

Research

For WRI, research is the core activity of the organization. WRI’s researches are conducted to collect as much as possible data and information from eight locations on the impact of the implementation of decentralization towards women. In those researches, data and information on women’s struggle for better governance as well as their participation in the process of Democratization in local politics are also gathered.

 

Including data and information that are related to planning and budgeting. In addition, a mapping on the condition and position held by local women’s organization in the process of democratization.

 

Capacity Building

To support research and the publication as well as the campaign, WRI conducts a Capacity Building Program both for WRI’s internal staff and for those from the regions.

 

Publication and Campaign

The data and information collected through WRI’s researches are analyzed and published in many forms such as books, journals, and working papers. They are also utilized as campaign materials to monitor the implementation of decentralization in the eight districts/cities. Hence, all three programs of WRI are interrelated and continuing. Consequently, they will contribute to the monitoring of the implementation of decentralization in Indonesia in order to ensure that it will benefit the poor, including women.
Programs

Research

1. Research on the implementation of decentralization and its impact on women “public” participation in the local politics.
2. Research on how women struggle for the attainment of good governance and an inclusive democratization process in local politics.

Capacity Building

1. Policy Advocacy on regional governments’ budget planning and allocation, using gender perspective
2. Mapping of the existing local women’s organization in order to identify women’s representations, needs and interests within the decision making process.

Publication and Campaign:

1. Publish and disseminate knowledge and information on the impact of regional autonomy towards women’s political participation in local politics.
2. Campaign through public dialogue to examine women’s public space and political role that are constructed within the local politics as well as its impacts on women.
3. Campaign by building interactive dialogue amongst members of the community, as inputs to public policy advocacy supporting the implementation of regional autonomy that encourages the fulfillment of women’s interest.
4. Provides campaign materials that visually describe the issues promoted in the campaign activities.

 

Goals & Outputs

Research Program

Goals of WRI’s Objective on Research (1 – 2)

1. Establish a multi-cultural society based on gender equality, in order to achieve the realization of good governance and an inclusive democracy process by revitalizing and democratizing existing local women’s organization. In doing so, those organizations may work on their representations, needs and interests within the decision making process in local politics.
2. Strengthening women’s position in the concept of power distribution in local politics to enable them for taking part in the decision making process over local resources.
3. Open opportunities for more people both men and women to control their resources that represent many interests.

Outputs on Research (1 – 2)

1. Create a space for people to discuss feminist methodology and theory, as well as share various discourses and research results on the impact of Regional Autonomy toward women political participation in the local politics.
2. Develop consistencies in the implementation of feminist methods and analyses in all research as well as its consistent implementation in society.

 

Capacity Building Program

Goals of WRI’s Objective on Capacity Building (3 – 4)

1. Strengthening Local Women’s Organization Capacities
2. Organizing multi-stakeholders to collectively identify problems of regional planning and budgeting that do not take into account the needs and interest of marginalized groups, including women.
3. Training to increase the capacity of local actors in carrying out planning and formulating budget allocation that uses gender perspective.
4. Encourage the regions to develop themselves as models of best practices on budget policy and budget analysis that use gender perspective
5. Revitalizing and democratize existing local women organization, in order to achieve women’s representation, needs and interest within the decision making process to balance the dominant paternalistic power.

Outputs on Capacity Building (3 – 4)

1. Develop a learning centre on the implementation of good governance that is based on gender perspective throughout Indonesia.
2. Create a learning ground for the reformulation and implementation of decentralization concepts and an inclusive democracy, by among others, promoting gender budgeting and planning based on grass-root women participation.

 

Publication & Campaign

Goals of WRI’s Objective on Publication & Campaign (5 – 8)

1. Socialize WRI’s research findings to the wider public.
2. Provides knowledge on the importance to see the impact of regional autonomy towards women’s political participation in the local context.
3. Forming Multi Stake Holder support groups in society to raise their awareness on the importance of regional autonomy implication towards women’s political participation in local politics.
4. Strengthening advocacy activities in regions
5. Documenting research findings in the forms of books, booklets, modules, as well as working papers

Outputs Publication & Campaign (5 – 8)

1. Data, both qualitative and quantitative, about women’s position and participation in the era of regional autonomy
2. Books relating to regional autonomy that uses gender analysis
3. Networks for distribution of the materials in several regions throughout the country
4. Module on Gender Analysis and Gender Budgeting.

The following part will describe WRI’s activities and its achievements during the half year of 2006 (January to July 2006).

 

Activities
Institutional Support

Since February 2006, WRI had developed its website: www.wri.or.id. The website will be up dated with current information regarding research and publication on the impact of decentralization towards women’s political participation. The website will be in two languages, English and Indonesian. In order to accommodate the work of updating the website, WRI had upgraded its telephone line system and modem. It is hoped by doing so, the work of web will be sustained and easy to access.

 

Research

This division is coordinated by Ms Erni Agustini. Starting from February 2006, Ms Margaret Aliyatul Maimunah join the research team to do the fourth research of WRI on “The Impact of Gender Budgeting Advocacies in 6 Regions in Indonesia”. From February to May 2006, this division had implemented its fourth research activity on “The Impact of Gender Budgeting Advocacies in 6 Regions in Indonesia”. The six regions are Makassar (South Sulawesi), Mataram (West Nusa Tenggara), Surabaya including Lamongan (East Java), Surakarta (Central Java), Yogyakarta including Gunung Kidul (Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta) and Kupang (East Nusa Tenggara). This research activities was conducted by five researchers, Ms Erni Agustini, Ms Diana Teresa Pakasi, Ms Siti Nurwati Hodijah, Ms Margaret Aliyatul Maimunah, Ms Amorisa Wiratri. For the purpose of the fourth research, WRI also involved expert as WRI’s research consultant. The consultant is Dr. Aris Arif Mundayat (Department of Anthropology, the Gajah Mada University). Dr. Mundayat is being asked to give inputs for the methodology and sharpening the analysis of the findings. Dr. Aris Arif Mundayat besides guiding the research process also involved as researcher in Surakarta Currently, the fourth research already in the stage of writing for the purpose of book and will become WRI’s next publication.

 

The research division also in the process of preparing a Journal on research methodology, particularly on Feminist Methods in Social Research. The Journal will be written based on WRI’s experiences in conducting field research. At the moment the research team of WRI is in the field doing research in the industrial areas in the outskirt of Jakarta. The theme of the Journal at the moment, attempt to discuss about method and techniques in capturing the urban poverty, particularly that faced by women. The research division also in the middle of preparing the next three years research of WRI on “Gender based Poverty through the Provision of Primary Health Care, Education and Opportunity to Work”. It is hoped that the thorough research design will be completed in November 2006.

 

The research division still in the process of preparing a Journal on research methodology, particularly on Feminist Methods in Social Research. The Journal will be written based on WRI’s experiences in conducting field research. The articles of the Journal will be based on a research based on a research in the industrial areas in the outskirt Jakarta. The field research done from July – September 2006 by the research team of WRI. The theme of the Journal at the moment, attempt to discuss about method and techniques in capturing the urban poverty, particularly faced by women. The research division also in the middle of sharpening and focusing the next three years research of WRI on “Gender based Poverty through the Provision of Primary Health Care, Education & Opportunity to Work”.

 

References

In relation to WRI’a research activities, the research division has also collected references like books, working papers, articles and secondary data from the research areas. As of end of July 2006, WRI’s documentation and collection has become 856 items. There are about 370 new additional items to the 486 last semester items.

 

As of end of December 2006, WRI’s documentation and collection has become 1049 items. There are about 193 new additional items to the 856 last semester items.

 

Publication & Campaign
Campaign

On June 5 to 8, 2006 WRI conducted a National Workshop on “Developing Competence and Strategies on Planning and Gender Budgeting for Non Government Organization, Local Government & Local Legislative”. The workshop was held at Mercure Resort, Sanur, Bali

 

The workshop was conducted into three days sessions as follows:
Sessions on the first day conducted by using facilitation method. Ms Edriana Noerdin and MS Sita Aripurnami facilitated the group discussion. In this firs session participants were discussing several topics, those were The Strategy of Gender Mainstreaming and Gender Analysis in Planning, Identifying Gender Issues in the Six Regions, The Programme Planning and Gender Responsive Policy in the Six regions and Gender Budgeting. As the result of the first day all participants agree to formulate indicators to help stakeholders applying gender and gender based welfare assessment. Whereas session in the second day conducted in a seminar style, allowing participants to learn directly to the decision makers from government institutions regarding Gender Responsive Planning and Budgeting. The seminar were divided into three 3 sessions.

 

The first session resource persons were presenting:

1. “The Legal Based and Mechanism to Implement Gender Mainstreaming Strategy in the context of National Development” (“Dasar Hukum dan Mekanime Pelaksanaan Strategi PUG dalam Konteks Pembangunan Nasional”). Dr. Sujadi Soeparman, MPH, Deputy on Gender Mainstreaming, Ministry of Women Empowerment
2. “The Local Level Mechanism in Formulating Gender Responsive RPJMD” (“Mekanisme Daerah dalam Pembuatan RPJMD yang Responsif Gender”). Ir. Asminarsih Zahid, Ditjen Bina Pembangunan Daerah, Departemen Dalam Negeri
3. “Gender Budget through Budget Reallocation” (”Gender Budget melalui Realokasi Anggaran”). Dr. Alexander Irwan, Program Officer, The Ford Foundation 

 

The second session resource persons were presenting:

1. “Experiences and Strategies in Citizen Participation”. Dr. Hans Antlov, Local Governance Support Program
2. “Developing Competence and Strategies on Planning and Gender Budgeting” (“Pengembangan Kompetensi Strategi Perencanaan & Anggaran Berkeadilan Gender”). Dr. Aries Arief Mundayat, Senior Program Manager Women Research Institute
3. “Gender Responsive Planning and Budgeting” (“Perencanaan dan Penganggaran yang Responsif Gender”). Dr. Ir. Dedy M. Masykur Riyadi, Deputy on Human Resources and Culture, Ministry of National Development Planning/Head of National Planning Board (Bappenas) 

 

The third session was discussing the Model of Developing Gender Budget Advocacy Strategy. In this session, participants were contributing their inputs towards the mechanism, strategy and indicators of gender budget in the six regions of WRI’s research areas. This third session facilitated by Ms Edriana Noerdin and Ms Sita Aripurnami. On the final day of the workshop which is the third day, participants discussed the Action Plan on the Implementation Strategy and Collective Advocacy. In general, the workshop aimed to meeting up the multistakeholders (the local level executive and legislative, as well as the non government organizations) to share experiences, learning from each other and building commitment among them to formulate gender budget and planning in Indonesia.

 

On August 31, 2006 WRI launched its book under the title of “The Impact of Gender Budgeting Advocacies in 6 Regions in Indonesia”. The book launching held at S. Widjojo auditorium attended by about more than 100 participants from various backgrounds such as those who representing the media, women’s organizations, civil society organizations, academicians and decision makers from government’s institutions, as well as representatives of international organizations. The substance of the book was being discussed by Dr. Aris Arif Mundayat (Senior Program Manager of Research Division, WRI), Drs Abdul Kadir, MA (Head of Planning and Finance Bureau, Finance Department) and Emi Rachmawati (Assistant to the Deputy of Gender Mainstreaming, The Ministry of Women’s Empowerment). In the conclusion of the discussion, gender perspective agreed as an important perspective to help both government and civil society to achieve justice for women and men in Indonesia.

 

Publication

At the moment, WRI is in the stage of preparing its forthcoming book. The book is actually the research result of WRI’s fourth research under the title of “The Impact of Gender Budgeting Advocacies in 6 Regions in Indonesia”. The research results are enriched by inputs from the national workshop organized in June 5-8, 2006 and series of Focus Group Discussions at the six regions, namely Surakarta, Gunung Kidul, Kupang, Makassar, Surabaya and Mataram. The data gauged by WRI’s research team and written by Dr. Aris Arif Mundayat, Ms Edriana Noerdin and Ms Sita Aripurnami.

 

The theme of this book is to show to what extend do gender budget advocacy had bring impact towards the welfare of marginalize people, especially women. It is hoped that this book may provided a documentation on how can we search strategy/ies to help multistakeholders formulate gender based planning and budget. So, at the end will give impact on improving the welfare condition of the marginalize people, especially women and children. The book is in the final stage of editing by Arya Wisesa, a well-known editor on social issues in Indonesia, as well as lay out by WRI’s publication program officer. Hopefully this book will be published at the end of August 2006.

 

Networking

On February 27 to March 12 2006, Ms Edriana Noerdin and Ms Sita Aripurnami participated as advisors for the Indonesian delegation in an International Conference on 50th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women in New York. The conference was an annual event and conducted by the United Nation. Ms Noerdin and Ms Aripurnami were asked by the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment to become the advisor of the Government of Indonesia delegation. The meeting is an important meeting since we all have the opportunity to give inputs and influence on the writing of the draft of The Conference Resolution. We particularly involved in the writing of draft resolution on the issues of Work, Health and Education besides specific issues such as Female Migrant Workers and Women Political Participation. For WRI, to be presence in this Conference and involved as advisor to the government showed that as research institute, WRI now is being regarded as partner by the Indonesian government.

 

Starting on September 25, 2006 WRI is being asked to be involved as members of advisory board of The Coordination Ministry of People’s Welfare (Kementerian Koordinator Kesejahteraan Rakyat) to discuss about the implementation of poverty reduction strategy program in Indonesia. For WRI, to be involved in this government program showed that as research institute, WRI now is being regarded as partner by the Indonesian government. The respect towards WRI also came from the international institution, such as the World Bank. In December 7, 2006 Ms Edriana Noerdin of WRI is asked to become one of the resource person on “The National Conference of Poverty Reduction Strategy in Indonesia” held at Borobudur Hotel, Jakarta.

 

Capacity Building

The capacity building division of WRI at the moment is working collaboratively with the research division of WRI that implement the research on is more focusing on “The Impact of Gender Budgeting Advocacies in Six Regions in Indonesia”. As the same as last year, this division also aimed to strengthening the multi stakeholders capacity on developing the local budget using gender perspective. Thus, between February to May 2006, this division led by Ms Edriana Noerdin and Ms Sita Aripurnami conducted a Focus Group Discussions (FGD) in the six areas. Namely, Surakarta (Central Java), Gunung Kidul (DIY), Surabaya (East Java), Mataram (West Nusa Tenggara), Makassar (South Sulawesi) and Kupang (East Nusa Tenggara) Although, the FGDs conducted to support the research activities it may also provided socialization in order to strengthen the capacity of the multistakeholders in the six areas on gender budgeting.

 

As one of Ford’s support towards internal capacity of the Women Research Institute Dr. Meiwita Budiharsana, the country representative of Ford, on June 2006 had given Ms Edriana Noerdin and Ms Sita Aripurnami a three weeks writing program at The National University of Singapore (NUS) to produce written material based on the second and third research of WRI. Therefore, Ms Noerdin and Ms Aripurnami will be on the writing program in Singapore from August 4 to 27, 2006. The host of this writing program is Asian Research Institute (ARI), and Dr. Gavin Jones will act as the supervisor to discuss the development of the writing and sharpen the analysis. As one of Ford’s support towards internal capacity of the Women Research Institute Dr. Meiwita Budiharsana, the country representative of Ford, on June 2006 had given Ms Edriana Noerdin and Ms Sita Aripurnami a three weeks writing program at The National University of Singapore (NUS) to produce written material based on the second and third research of WRI. As a result, Ms Noerdin and Ms Aripurnami visited Singapore from August 4 to 27, 2006 to do the writing program. The host of this writing program is Asian Research Institute (ARI), and Dr. Gavin Jones acted as the supervisor to discuss the development of the writing and sharpen the analysis. The article at the moment still in the editing stage by Ms. Liza Hadiz

Dissemination of Publication

In relation with the effort to disseminate WRI’s publications/books, the results shows that the demand of WRI’s books is quite encouraging. WRI had expanding its collaboration in order to distribute its publications. Currently, WRI distribute its publication through four individual distributors who are active distributed the books in campuses around Jakarta and also cooperates with the three Gramedia book stores in Matraman, Pondok Indah and Pasar Baru, besides works collaboratively with the Journal Perempuan book shop. The books also being distributed at the Anthropology Department of Gajah Mada University in Yogyakarta. WRI also distributed its publications to its networks at the national level, among others to NGOs, Women Studies Centre at National Universities, and Government Institutions. The data of books can be seen on the table below:

 

Table: Dissemination of Publication

Title	Printed	Books that disseminated
Metode Feminis dalam Penelitian Ilmu Sosial	1050	679
Politik Identitas Perempuan Aceh	1000	985
Modul Analisa Gender & Anggaran Berkeadilan Gender	530	271
Representasi Perempuan dalam Kebijakan Publik di Era Otonomi Daerah	1000	945
Potret Kemiskinan Perempuan	1026	426
Studi Dampak Advokasi Anggaran Berkeadilan Gender	1010	759

_{Based on data until end of December 2006}

 

Conclusion

As the supports from the Ford Foundation come to its final stage, below are some of the highlighted achievements in the past six months of activities. Indeed, the support from Ford Foundation is very significant to the work of WRI, since its help sustain WRI to run all activities, particularly the core activity which is research. WRI view that all planned activities had met the objectives. The research activity supported by the Partnership for Governance Reform in Indonesia in collaboration with the European Union had completed and now is in the stage of finalizing the book based on the research. WRI also in the stage of writing a working paper based on the second and third research of WRI under the supervision of Dr. Gavin Jones of ARI – NUS, Singapore. Along with its publications, WRI also had constructed a website that can be browsed. The web is in Indonesian as well as in English and comprises information and data on gender and governance issues, the work of Women Research Institute. At the moment, the publication division in collaboration with the research division in the stage of preparing the Journal on Feminist Method in Social Research, it is hoped that the Journal may published next November 2006.

 

Referring to the highlighted achievements until the end of December 2006, WRI view that all planned activities had met the objectives. The book based on the research activity supported by the Partnership for Governance Reform in Indonesia in collaboration with the European Union had completed and being launched on August 31, 2006 at S.Widjojo Auditorium. WRI also had completed the writing of a working paper based on the second and third research of WRI under the supervision of Dr. Gavin Jones of ARI – NUS, Singapore. The article now its in the editing stage by Ms Liza Hadiz. Mirroring from WRI’s publication, the degree of dissemination is quite encouraging (please see table: Dissemination of Publication). It is showed that WRI’s publication is distributed quite frequently.

 

Since its establishment, WRI had expanded its network not only at the national and local level, but also at the international level. WRI received invitations to present the research results and views on the impact of regional autonomy towards women’s participation. WRI also being asked to give gender analysis training an gender budgeting training due to its experiences in this particular subject. Many invitations such as being asked to become advisors to the Government of Indonesia in relation to poverty reduction strategy is an example that WRI had been regarded as an organization that has strong view on the issue of gender and governance in Indonesia.

 

At the end it is hoped that WRI’s work may contribute to the process of achieving social justice for both women and men in the regional autonomy era. ***