Indonesia: a pivotal actor for Development Studies students and professionals

Over the course of the last decade the scope of NGO and voluntary sector activity in Indonesia has expanded rapidly.  Post-1998 political reform has witnessed the emergence of various quasi-governmental advisory boards, independent watchdogs and advocacy networks that have an increasingly important voice in the policy formulation and implementation process. The archipelago’s significance to the climate change issue has placed it at the forefront of the global environment agenda. The Indian Ocean Tsunami that devastated the province of Aceh in 2004 prompted the largest peacetime disaster relief mobilisation in world history. Domestically, strategies designed to meet Millennium Development Goals have prompted a renewed effort to ensure that achievements in democratic development provide concrete returns in the world’s fourth most populous country where 16.6% of the population live below the official poverty line.

Indonesia has never figured as highly on the global development agenda as it does today. The country is a founding member of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and to date is the regional lenders’ largest client by loan approvals, having received close to US$23 billion in the form of loans and technical assistance support. In recent years the country has co-chaired a number of important working groups on multi-lateral development financing within the G20 and IMF, and played host to a number of pivotal international forums such as the 2008 United Nations Conference on Climate Change, the 2009 World Ocean Conference, and the 42nd ADB Board of Governors’ Annual Meeting (2009).

Closer to home, Indonesia is Australia’s largest recipient of bilateral aid. The Australian-Indonesia Partnership (2008-2013) will see up to $2.5 billion spent in strategic areas such as human resource development, poverty alleviation, healthcare, environmental management, and education. Specific programs such as the Basic Schools Education Program and the Kalimantan Forests and Climate Partnership are part of a coordinated effort to meet Millennium Development Goals and international commitments set out under the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness.

At the grassroots level, a combination of international development strategies and local initiatives have created a vibrant network of voluntary associations and NGOs that are driven by a strong national ethos of common endeavour (gotong royong) and welfare voluntarism (pengabdian masyarakat). The post-Suharto era has additionally witnessed a shift in domestic discourses of development from the Bretton Woods-ish concept of pembangungan (with its emphasis on infrastructure building) to a model of pengembangan masyarakat or socially orientated development. The significance of the these latter concepts is a critical feature of the DSPP, as students or early career professionals will have the opportunity to observe and evaluate theoretical knowledge of development discourses and practices against indigenous equivalents and acculturated versions. Thus the ACICIS DSPP does not simply offer participants the chance to enhance their understanding of how theory is translated into practice by working with local organisations in the development field. The program is also designed to highlight Indonesian contributions to the field of development studies and the manner in which ‘global’ theories are mediated by ‘local’ cultures.