Village Law Ten Year Report

KOMPAS/HERYUNANTO

Illustration

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the implementation of Law Number 6 of 2014 concerning Villages.

In that decade, the implementation of this Law has produced various achievements, especially in human and cultural development. If we look deeper, the spirit behind this law is village development which is human-centered (people-centered village development).

Apart from that, the implementation of the Village Law also refers to the principles of "Developing Villages" and "Building Villages". In essence, development is carried out together with the community using a combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches and giving wider authority to the village.

Since 2015 until 2023, through the village fund policy instrument (DD), Rp 539 trillion has been allocated and distributed to around 74,960 villages throughout the country. The amount has rapidly increased from around Rp 280 million (2015) to Rp 1.1 billion- Rp 1.3 billion per village (2023), with an average absorption rate of 99 percent.

The criteria for the level of village development have been established into three categories. In order, these are self-reliant villages, advanced villages, and underdeveloped villages. From 2015-2023, the number of self-reliant villages increased from 174 to 11,456. Advanced villages rose from 3,608 to 23,035. In contrast, underdeveloped villages decreased drastically from 33,592 to 7,154.

Also read: Ten Years of Village Law

Rural development has shown positive impact in reducing poverty rates. The decrease in poverty rates is better compared to urban areas. Based on BPS data, poverty in rural areas decreased by 1.99 percentage points from 14.21 percent in 2015 to 12.22 percent in 2023. Meanwhile, urban poverty decreased by 1.00 percentage point from 8.29 percent to 7.29 percent.

Human development

Human development in rural areas, as stipulated in the Village Law, encompasses various aspects such as education, health, social security, and cultural advancement.

Meanwhile, what is more specific and urgent is the elimination of extreme poverty, improving the nutritional and health status of mothers and children, reducing stunting, vocational education and equitable development, both between regions and between villages and cities.

From an educational perspective, the gross participation rate (APK) for early childhood education and 12-year basic education in rural areas has also increased. The highest increase occurred in the gross participation rate for senior high school and equivalent levels, from 70.23 percent (2015) to 82.56 percent (2023).

In terms of health, access to health facilities and services in rural areas is also increasing. This is evidenced by a reduction in the number of villages having difficulty accessing hospitals, inpatient clinics, and outpatient clinics. The construction of health centers in villages, immunization programs, and health promotion have reduced maternal and infant mortality rates and improved life expectancy in rural areas.

Regarding the aspect of empowering the local economy, through DD, villages are able to develop their economy by utilizing available local resources. With the creation of a rural economic ecosystem, it is hoped that all productive-aged village residents can be empowered. They are actively involved in the chain of rural economic processes so that a village without unemployment can be achieved.

In supporting human development in terms of empowering women and vulnerable groups, DD has become a mainstay in reducing gender and social gaps in villages. Various social and economic inclusion programs have also been implemented.

The active role of the community in village planning and development is also a determining factor in the success of village development.

Elimination of extreme poverty

In terms of vocational education and training programs, the types and levels are combined with workforce needs in villages and rural areas (link and match). Village communities, especially the younger generation, apart from being the main actors in the village economy, are also given the widest possible opportunities to improve their abilities, skills and competitiveness in the job market.

In terms of infrastructure, most villages still require basic infrastructure development, such as village roads, electricity, clean drinking water, and clean water, in order to improve the quality of life of rural communities. More than 325,000 km of village roads have been built with DD funding from 2015-2023.

The number of families using water sources has also increased by around 7.28% between 2018-2021. The number of families without access to electricity has decreased significantly, around 47%.

The same applies to the management of natural resources. Through environmental conservation and sustainable agriculture development programs, rural communities can utilize natural resources to improve their well-being. For food security, villages must allocate a minimum of 20 percent of the Village Fund budget.

In terms of eradicating extreme poverty, various programs and policies have been launched, particularly to reduce the burden of extreme poor families' expenditures. Extreme poor families can receive multiple assistance programs at once so that their purchasing power can rise above the extreme poverty line of $1.9 based on purchasing power parity or equivalent to Rp 11,571 per day per person on average nationally.

Here, the DD becomes a key instrument to make all villages able to "move towards a village without extreme poverty," in line with President Joko Widodo's target of zero percent extreme poverty by 2024.

Human-centered

Active participation of the community in village planning and development is also a determining factor for the success of rural development. This can be done through village deliberation (musyawarah desa) where the community has ample opportunity to directly participate in the process of formulating, determining, and implementing programs for their village development.

Village development has shown a positive impact in reducing poverty rates.

Whether it be programs that originate from and by the village community itself, or from technical sectoral ministries, local governments, development partners, universities, and private entities.

Rural development that places human beings at the center must also pay attention to and provide the best possible services to vulnerable groups, namely the elderly, people with disabilities, people with mental disorders, pregnant and nursing mothers, and young children. The existence of female heads of households in rural areas cannot be ignored either, as out of around 10.4 million households, approximately 12.73 percent are led by women (based on BPS 2023 data).

Muhadjir EffendyCoordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture