WRI Annual Programs Report, February – December 2005

 

Achievement

Compare to its first one year of work in 2004, WRI had actively produced its outputs in publication on the theme of gender and governance during 2005 as can be seen separately along with this report. During this year, WRI had published four books namely: (1) “Representasi Perempuan dalam Kebijakan Publik di Era Otonomi Daerah”, This book contains findings from the first phase research of WRI in nine districts/cities, including Banda Aceh; (2) “Identitas Politik Perempuan Aceh” by Edriana Noerdin; (3) “Metode-metode Feminis dalam Penelitian Sosial” by Shulamit Reinharz; (4) Training Module on “Analisa Gender dan Anggaran Berkeadilan Gender”. Where as the book on “Potret Kemiskinan Perempuan” is still in the phase of final editing. The cover of the book had been finalised, hopefully in early February 2006 this book may be published.

 

 

In relation with the marketing of these books, WRI is working with several book distributors who used to supply books at books fair at universities in Jakarta and conferences venues as well as working with Gramedia book store at jl. Matraman and Pondok Indah Mall. The results is quite encouraging, since more than 50% of its publication had been distributed. The books also being distributed to WRI’s network in the eight districts/cities.

The research division had produced the report of the second phase research and at the moment is still in the preparation of finalizing the report of the third research. It is hoped that these research report, after being rewrite for books, may be published in 2006. This division also works collaboratively with the other two divisions, the capacity building and publication and campaign divisions. In relation with the publication and campaign division the research division work hand in hand in socializing the importance of using feminist methodology through book discussions with universities and activists in Yogyakarta and Jakarta.

The capacity building division had finalized its work on gender budgeting. The results is very encouraging. At the moment WRI had succeeded in helping multi stakeholders forum in several districts/cities in Indonesia to have commitments in integrating gender perspective in their budget allocation for 2006. Those districts/cities namely are: (1) Kupang; (2) Pontianak; (3) West Nusa Tenggara Province; (4) West Sumatera Province; (5) DKI Jakarta; (6) Yogyakarta. Currently, in collaboration with the research division WRI has prepare a research design to study on ”The Impact of Gender Budgeting Advocacy in 6 Districts/Cities”. The research will be implemented in the first quarter of 2006.

WRI in this past two years 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 attending the Dupakat Inong Aceh and involved in a workshop at the Institute of Development Studies in Sussex, UK to prepare the assessment of Ford Foundation work on Social Justice Outcomes of Participatory Local Governance were some examples that WRI had been regarded as an organization that has strong view on the issue of gender and governance in Indonesia.

Background

When governance as a precondition for Democracy is defined as a system of management and distribution of resources, it becomes clear that its concept is not limited just to the relations with the government or relations among civil society organizations. Management and distribution of resources could involve the government, businesses, and the people (civil society); or just NGOs and the people; but it could also become a domestic issue involving the unequal distribution of resources between husband and wife within a family. Referring to the last case, the dichotomy between public and private sphere should be eradicated so that governance as a major issue in democracy is no longer limited to social and political relations at the macro level. Democracy issues should also include relations that take place within the family, which is the smallest social unit of our society.

Therefore, Democracy could only be realized within the context of an inclusive democratization process that does not only recognize but also celebrate the plurality of ethnicity, race, religion, belief, diffability (different ability), social class, age, sexuality, language, geographical origin, and sex. The existing understanding of governance to achieve democracy, such as reflected in the concept of participation, transparency, and accountability should be deconstructed. Those concepts are currently being used in a general sense, making them appear inclusive and representative to the public interest. Democratization should not be represented in gender neutral concepts.

The results of WRI’s previous research allow WRI to have a general view of the tendencies in regions with different character, which more or less show the multicultural Indonesian contemporary society. WRI also have learned that capacities of data collecting and data presentation are not evenly distributed, which makes it difficult for WRI to conduct a more focused research in 8 districts/cities. The first research has shown that women have been rendered invisible in the texts of Peraturan Daerah (Local Regulation) because very few data on women is being collected and presented. Thus the next two researches which are planned in between 2005-2007 will try to focus on the politics of local policies on gender roles, to be able to perform critical assessment of policies which were made after the regional autonomy as well as to find the meeting point for local stakeholders’ interest to give inputs for future policy-making. Both researches are designed to combine a review on development policy with the impacts which are seen through day to day experiences of women in urban and rural setting.

Activities Report
Research

This division is coordinated by Ms Lisabona Rahman and assisted by Ms Erni Agustini. Starting from June to November 2005, Ms Linda Christanti and Ms Diana Pakasi join the research team to do the third research of WRI on “Perspective, Patterns of Strategies and the Gender Agenda of Women’s Organizations in 5 Regions in Indonesia” (“Perspektif, Pola Strategi dan Agenda Gender Organisasi Perempuan di 5 Wilayah Indonesia”). In December 2005, Ms Rahman ended her contract with WRI. In relation to this situation, starting December 2005 Ms Agustini becomes the research manager of WRI. At the moment, this division is in the process of preparing the next research activities on “The Impact of Gender Budgeting Advocacies in 6 Regions in Indonesia” that will be started February 2006. This division also in the stage of selecting candidates of researchers and it is hoped the candidates already being selected on February 2006.

In March 9, 2005 WRI conducted a one day workshop to commemorate “International Women’s Day 2005”. This workshop is funded by Hivos. The workshop took place at the S. Widjojo Centre Auditorium and was organised into three sessions. The first session was discussing the findings of WRI’s research and its analysis on “Gender Roles in Local Politics: A Study in 8 Districts/Cities” (“Peran Gender dalam Politik Lokal: Studi di Delapan Kabupaten/Kota”). WRI’s invited two prominent researchers, Dr. Syamsudin Harris (LIPI) and Dr. Meutia Ganie Rohman (FISIP-UI), well known NGO activist, Ms. Zoemrotin K. Soesilo and Dr. Hans Antlov, a well known scholar on governance issues and (at that time) the Program Officer of Ford Foundation to discussed WRI’s research result. For further information on this workshop please refer to the annex of this report. The second and third sessions were organized by the publication and campaign division, therefore the information will be reported in the division of publication & campaign.

During May to June 2005, this division started its preparation in writing the research design for the third research activities on “Perspective, Patterns of Strategies and the Gender Agenda of Women’s Organizations in 5 Regions in Indonesia” (“Perspektif, Pola Strategi dan Agenda Gender Organisasi Perempuan di 5 Wilayah Indonesia”).

The research division in conjunction with the publication and campaign division organized a discussion on “Feminist Methods in Social Research” a translation of the work of Shulamit Reinharz. WRI published the Indonesian version of this book. The discussion took place several times and there were with the Department of Anthropology of the University of Gajah Mada (September 23, 2005) and the Atmajaya University (October 5, 2005) both in Yogyakarta as well as in Jakarta at the S.Widjojo Center Auditorium (September 30, 2005). Please refer to the annex of this report for more detail information on the discussions and paper of the resource persons.

In collaboration with the publication and campaign division, the research division also had completed its writing process on compilation of essays on “The Portrayal of Women’s Poverty”. At the moment the essays is the final process of lay out and editing. The editor of this book is Ms Liza Hadiz, known as prominent writer and editor on women issues.

From July to December 2005, this division had implemented its third research activity on “Perspective, Patterns of Strategies and the Gender Agenda of Women’s Organisations in 5 Regions in Indonesia” (“Perspektif, Pola Strategi dan Agenda Gender Organisasi Perempuan di 5 Wilayah Indonesia”). The five regions are DKI Jakarta, Makassar (South Sulawesi), Pontianak (West Kalimantan), Padang (West Sumatera) and Mataram (West Nusa Tenggara). This research activities was conducted by five researchers, Ms Lisabona Rahman, Ms Erni Agustini, Ms Diana Teresa Pakasi, Ms Siti Nurwati Hodijah and Ms Linda Christanti. For the purpose of the third research, WRI also involved several experts as WRI’s research consultants. They are Mr. Manneke Budiman MA (The Faculty of Cultural Study, the University of Indonesia), Dr. Aris Arif Mudayat (Department of Antropology, the Gajah Mada University) and Ms Yanti Muchtar MA (Kapal Perempuan, women’s NGO). They are asked to give inputs for the methodology and sharpening the analysis of the findings. The research division also asked Ms. Myra Diarsi MA (board member of WRI and commissioner of the National Commission on Anti Violence against Women) continuously as discussant during the process of research. Currently, the third research already in the stage of writing the final report by all of the researchers.

Ms Erni Agustini participated in Dupakat Inong Aceh II, a meeting of Acehnesse women from all over Aceh region. The meeting itself was a second meeting after had been conducted about almost four years ago (around 2001). The meeting is an important meeting since all Acehnesse women attempt to negotiate their roles in the situation of Aceh post Tsunami. In the first Dupakat all women were asked about the legal status of all violence against women cases that happened during the Military Operation in Aceh (DOM I and II). WRI was invited to witness the process of this importance meeting as observed. For WRI, to be presence in the history in making was a fortunate moment. As research institute, WRI may help confirm that women in Indonesia are active agent of change and should be documented so the history will not silence this fact.

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 December 2005, WRI’s documentation and collection during 2005 has become 486 items. There are about 93 new additional items to the 393 last year items. Please refer to the annex of this report for the references list.

Publication and Campaign

In order to commemorate the International Women’s Day on March 9, 2005, WRI hold a workshop on “Strategy for Women’s Representation within the Social Reconstruction Process in Aceh”(“Perumusan Strategi Representasi Perempuan dalam Rekonstruksi Sosial di Aceh” ). The meeting was held at S. Widjojo Auditorium in Jakarta. The workshop was divided into three sessions as follows:

1. The Workshop on WRI’s Second Phase Research Findings in eight districts/cities, including Banda Aceh. The topic of the workshop was “Gender Roles in Local Politics: Study in Eight Districts/Cities”
WRI had conducted research phase one and phase two that attempted to examine what are the impacts of the new space of negotiation towards the definition of gender roles within local governance. In the second phase WRI attempted to compare the day to day women’s experiences with the gender assumption that being used by the local government.

The findings of the second phase research showed that women’s experiences still have not being considered as important aspect in the formulation of local policy.Women still do not have enough space to express their needs and interest. If this aspect can be included it may improved the quality of the local government services towards women’s beneficiaries as well as their participation in local governance.

The Discussants of WRI’s Research Findings are as follows:

1. Syamsuddin Haris (Researcher from LIPI): Policy on Public Services for Women in the Regional Autonomy Era (Kebijakan pelayanan publik bagi perempuan di Era Otonomi Daerah)
2. Zoemrotin K. Susilo (Women’s Health Forum/Forum Kesehatan Perempuan): Strategy to Decrease the Number of Maternal Mortality in the Regional Autonomy Era (Strategi Penurunan Angka Kematian Ibu melahirkan di Era Otonomi Daerah)
3. Hans Antlov (Ford Foundation): The Impact of Regional Autonomy towards the Democratization Process in Indonesia. Has women participation being included in the Democratization Process? (Dampak Otonomi Daerah terhadap Proses Demokratisasi di Indonesia, Sudahkah Melibatkan Partisipasi Perempuan?)
4. Meuthia Ganie-Rochman (Laboratorium Sosiologi Universitas Indonesia): The Theoritical Analysis on Women’s Decision Making in the Regional Autonomy Era (Tinjauan Teoritik Pembagian Porsi Pengambilan Keputusan bagi Perempuan dalam Era Otonomi Daerah)

The workshop also aimed as a media to disseminate WRI’s research findings, particulalrly to organisations who are working on gender analysis, women’s rights and policy analysis. It is hoped that WRI’s research may provided additional information for those who are working on women’s rights and policy analysis.

2. Seminar on “Women’s Repressentation in Social Reconstruction in Aceh” (“Representasi Perempuan dalam Rekonstruksi Sosial Aceh”)
The earthquake and subsequent tsunami flood wave in 2004 had killed over 160,000 people in Aceh region. The numbers keep changing and there is not any reliable information available. According to Indonesian government figures, there are around 400,000 internally displaced people (IDP) in Aceh and surrounding areas. The numbers of people who have died remain uncertain, though it is certain that the events of 26thDecember have wiped out the entire families and communities in at least 8 of the Province’s sub-districts, leaving many single parent households and unprotected orphans. It appears that the larger numbers of women and children died and the demographic implications have not yet been assessed. Traditional family structures and leadership have been destroyed, including those in communities, and among women and man. However, woman are often absent from relief or recovery process and most post disaster planning for reconstruction continues to ignore, or adequately account for, gender issues.

Long before the Tsunami, people in Aceh had experienced many issues related to the conflict situation in Aceh. This condition in the end caused poverty and women tends to the poorest amongst the poor.
In short, the discussion from the seminar concluded that women’s gender needs and interest should be included in the concept of Aceh’s social reconstruction.
The Resource Persons:

1. Alexander Irwan (TIFA Foundation): The Multi Stakeholders Strategy within the Social Reconstruction Process in Aceh: Where are the women’s voice? (Strategi Multi Pelaku dalam Rekonstruksi Sosial Aceh: Dimana Suara Perempuan?)
2. Syarifah Rahmatilah (Mitra Sejati Perempuan Indonesia-Aceh): The Involvement of Women in the Process of Social Reconstruction in Aceh. (Keterlibatan Perempuan dalam Rekonstruksi Sosial di Aceh)
3. Debra Helen Yatim (Yayasan Aceh Kita): The Effort of Aceh Social Rekonstruction by Civil Society (Upaya Rekonstruksi Sosial Aceh oleh Masyarakat Sipil)
4. Lailisma (Biro Pemberdayaan Perempuan Propinsi NAD): Activities done by the Local Government Post Tsunami for Women. (Yang dilakukan Pemerintah Pasca Tsunami untuk kepentingan perempuan)

The objective of this seminar is to formulate the Social Reconstruction Strategy in Aceh that involved women.

3. The Launching of WRI’s three books

1. “Representasi Perempuan dalam Kebijakan Publik di Era Otonomi Daerah”, This book contains findings from the first phase research of WRI in nine districts/cities, including Banda Aceh.
This book contains policy analysis on local regulations that came into existence since Regional Autonomy being implemented in 2000. The data being collected using feminist methodology. Moreover, the data were critically analyse using feminist perspective. It is hoped that the analyses may help developed a discourse on women’s political rights in local governance as well as evaluating the implementation of regional autonomy and what are the impacts for the people.

2. “Identitas Politik Perempuan Aceh” by Edriana Noerdin
Originally the book is a thesis for academic purpose. The book attempted to illustrate the discourse analysis at three levels. Those are the level of the language, institutions and social process as well as the subjectivity in understanding the conflict to gain power relation on the construction and deconstruction of Islamic based Acehnesse nationalism. This thesis examined the oral tradition that being practiced by the modern Acehnesse women, in order to understand the struggle of Acehnesse women towards the discourse that placed women far from the political realm. The book also attempted to examine the different subjective positions of Acehnesse women activists in the midst of diversity of discourse on gender, nation and religion.

3. “Metode-metode Feminis dalam Penelitian Sosial” by Shulamit Reinharz
The book is a translation on research experiences using feminist methodology. The book analysed examples of feminist research to find what method that feminist researchers used and the reason why they used that method.

In this book launching, WRI gave the book to:

1. Prof. Dr. Saparinah Sadli, as pioner of women study in Indonesia and commissioner of the National Commission on Anti Violence Against Women
2. Abdullah Attamimi, repressentative of the office of Ministry of Women’s Empowerement
3. Andy Yentriyanti, as younger generation women activist
4. Training Module on “Analisa Gender dan Anggaran Berkeadilan Gender”

The module was written and compiled based on WRI’s lesson-learned and experiences in implementing the Multistakeholder Training of Gender Budgeting in the eight areas.
This module is printed 500 copies and distributed through several book stores in Jakarta.

5. “Potret Kemiskinan Perempuan”
This book contains compilation of essays written by the WRI’s people. The theme of this book is to analyze issues experienced by women that leads to poverty.
It is hoped that this book may provided a documentation on how social issues at the end marginalized women and make them facing poverty.
At the moment, the book is in the final stage of editing and lay out and hopefully this book will be published early February 2006.

Capacity Building

The capacity building division of WRI is more focusing on strengthening the multi shakeholders capacity on developing the local budget using gender perspective in the eight areas. The activities that had taken place during 2005 can be seen as follows:

 

Gender Budgeting
The Gender Budgeting Program have done many activities during 2005. Those activities are as follows: (1) The Continuation of Multistakeholder Training on Gender Budgeting. In 2005, Women Research Institute conducted the training in the city and district of Manado; (2) Multistakeholder National Forum on Gender Budgeting; (3) Multistakeholder Advocacy on Gender Budgeting ; and (4) Compiling and writing the Training Module of Gender Analysis and Gender Budgeting.

Based on the participants evaluation, the Multistakeholder Training on Gender Budgeting had provide knowledge towards the participants. Most of the participants mentioned that the training improve their gender knowledge and understanding. Besides these improvements, they also gained knowledge on how to do budget planning as well as understand its mechanism. They also found the training useful since its provide the information on policy that explains about the general Guideline of Gender Mainstreaming in local government (The Internal Affairs Ministerial decree Number 132/2003). The participants of the training both in Manado and Kupang Cities are 97 people. The composition of the participants are 34 men and 63 women.

Similar to the training, the National Forum Multistakeholder of Gender Budgeting involved executives, legislatives, and civil society in 8 areas in Indonesia. The Forum participants were very active. The preparation of the National Forum Multistakeholder on Gender Budgeting was conducted during April to Mei 2005. The forum was participated by 27 people, representing the executive, legislative and civil society. The composition of the participants were 10 men and 19 women.

In order to increase the awareness and interest of the participants of the National Forum in implementing gender mainstreaming and budgeting, the forum invited several resource persons from various departments and institutions from government or non-government. The topic of “Budget that take into account the Women Interest” presented by the representatives from The Women Empowerment Ministry, the Department of Internal Affairs and the National Planning and Development Ministry). The topic on “The Participation of Women in Budgeting Process” was presented by Ms Khofifah Indarparawansa former minister of women’s empowerment and currently as members of the parliament. The National Forum also invited Fitra and The Asia Foundation to share their experiences conducting gender budgeting advocacy. Both institutions are known to have experiences on gender budgeting advocacy for long time. In addition the Gender Budgeting project officer of Women Research Institute also made a presentation on the gender issues and situation of budget allocation in the eight areas.

The Multistakeholders National Forum on Gender Budgeting brought results as follows: (1) there are strategic partners form the local executives, legislatives and civil society who have commitment to push the implementation of Gender Budgeting in 8 areas; (2) Action plan on Gender Budgeting Advocacy in 8 areas (see annex). The Women Research Institute gave the commitment to facilitate the 8 areas in order to get the commitment of the decision makers in the 8 areas. There are two alternatives that WRI offered. The first alternative was to conduct a one day discussion with The Head of District/City. The second alternatives was to organise a seminar or forum that involve the Head of District/City and its strategic partners and other decision makers.

The advocacy activities were delayed and have to be done during July to September 2005. The delayed was related with the condition that the eight areas was having PILKADA (Pemilihan Umum Kepala Daerah – The general Election of The Head of Regency). The advocacy preparation was conducted in June 2005. In the preparation, each areas tried to determine the time of gender budgeting advocacy implementation in the eight areas. Another unfortunate situation besides the delayed is the rolling and mutation of decision makers at the executive level. This condition inhibited the socialization of gender budgeting to the wider public in the districts/cities level in some of the eight areas. Due to this situation, in order to socialize gender budgeting to the wider public, WRI moved its advocacy activities to the province level. Those are: the Province of West Sumatera, the Province of West Nusa Tenggara, the Province of Jakarta and the Province of Yogyakarta. However, some areas like Kupang and Pontianak have been implemented at the city level.

The Kupang Regency agreed to establish The Multistakeholder Forum. This Forum will study and plan gender budgeting implementation for the 2006 Budget of the City of Kupang. The Local Secretary (Sekda) of the City of Kupang give the written commitment. Similar to the City of Kupang, the City of Pontianak also give the commitment to implement gender budgeting and set up a Multi-stakeholder Forum. The Forum is organized by the Head of Local Planning and Development (Bapeda) of the city of Pontianak. At Province of West Nusa Tenggara, the local legislative challenges the NGO to involve in the process of formulating local regulation that respond to the gender needs. At the end, it is planned to do hearing with local executive and legislative on integrating gender perspective in the process of formulating local regulation. Whereas, at the Province of West Sumatera, each of the participant from local NGO committed to conduct socialization activities on Gender Mainstreaming and Budgeting to their community organization. The action plan was agreed among the NGOs and executives.

In the Province of Jakarta, the advocacy will focus on the improvement of the condition of women. It was planned to form a network among NGO in Jakarta to push government to implement gender budgeting as important agenda.

The Gender Budgeting Advocacy that conducted by Women Research Institute and Koalisi Perempuan Indonesia Yogyakarta recommended some new changes in regulation that guarantee women’s involvement and representation in the budgeting process, more clear concept on gender mainstreaming and budgeting, women representation in budgeting decision making institution such as budgeting committee member in local legislatives/parliament.

The compilation of the Module on Gender Analysis and Gender Budgeting was the final output of this program. The objectives of the Module was to broaden people horizon and knowledge’s on gender budgeting activities and to guide for budgeting implementation that have equality, equity and fairness in gender perspective. The module was written and compiled based on WRI’s lesson-learned and experiences in implementing the Multi-stakeholder Training of Gender Budgeting in the eight areas.

 

Institute of Development Studies Workshop
WRI is invited to attend a workshop on “Assessing Social Justice Outcomes of Participatory Local Governance” in the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, United Kingdom. The workshop itself was a meeting to discuss on how to assess the programmes of Ford in ten countries on strengthening civil society in local governance. In order to the assessment, Ford was asked Ms Edriana Noerdin and Ms Sita Aripurnami to do the assessment.

Conclusion

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. With regards to the latter statement it has to be explained here that WRI had met and discussed with Dr. Hans Antlov to ask permission to reallocate the use of money of the staff support for the research activities. As a result of the permission that we got from Dr. Antlov, the third research had been implemented and the report almost completed. It is hoped that the third research report will be disseminate in the first quarter of 2006.

WRI view that all planed activities had met the objectives. The research had completed and now in the stage of finalizing the report as well as preparing it into the form of books for both research report. The publication also had produced 4 books in 2005 and had conducted several meetings to socialize the importance of feminist methodology and gender analysis training and gender budget to help improved local policy on public services, particularly towards women.

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. ***