Five Years of Developing Villages

KOMPAS/WINARTO HERUSANSONO

The sleeping Ganesha statue was built to complement the tourist destination of the Fossil House in Banjarejo Village, Gabus District, Grobogan Regency, Central Java, Wednesday (10/17/2018). This sleeping Ganesha statue in four months has been visited by 60,000 visitors. The statue, which was built at the expense of the village fund, has provided Rp 300 million in village cash in these four months. Stretching tourism activities that also increase the income of rural tourism communities.

At the end of the Joko Widodo-Jusuf Kalla administration\'s term, development policies were evaluated as a basis for formulating future development strategies. One such policy was on village development.

The issuance of Law No. 6/2014 on villages has had at least two major implications. First, villages have the authority to determine and take care of their own local needs. Second, villages have a large source of funding and have the right to manage their own funds to meet their needs. This means that villages plan and carry out development within the corridor of their authority.

Since village funds were first disbursed by the government in 2015, on top of village fund allocations (ADD) of at least 10 percent of the central government\'s general transfer funds to the regions, a village\'s fiscal capacity has increased significantly. Before the introduction of village funds, many villages managed no more than Rp 30 million per year. However, since 2015, each village has received an average of Rp 280 million in village funds. The amount of village funds has continued to increase. In 2019, on average a village received Rp 934 million. During the 2015-2019 period, the number of villages increased from 74,093 to 74,953. In the past five years, the government has channeled more than Rp 257 trillion in village funds to villages. When combined with ADD of Rp 176 trillion, more than Rp 433 trillion flowed to villages from 2015 to 2019.

Achievement and challenges

The Villages, Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration Ministry has boasted of a number of achievements in village development in the last five years. By the end of July 2019, more than 201,000 kilometers of village roads had been built. Each village has built an average of 2.6 km of village roads. A lot of other infrastructure has been built, such as 260,000 public bathing, washing and toilet facilities (MCK), 10,000 village maternity posts (Polindes), 26,000 integrated health posts (Posyandu) and 49,000 wells.

KOMPAS/KELVIN HIANUSA

Minister of Villages, Disadvantaged Regions, and Transmigration Eko Putro Sandjojo during the launch of the book RURAL EKOnomics III, Tuesday (10/15/2019) in Jakarta.

The 2015-2019 National Medium-term Development Plan (RPJMN) targets the alleviation of 5,000 underdeveloped villages to developed villages and 2,000 villages to become self-reliant. Based on Statistics Indonesia (BPS) 2018 data on village potential (Podes), 6,518 underdeveloped villages have progressed to the developed category and 2,665 villages have become self-reliant. This means that the target has been exceeded. BPS data shows the poverty rate in rural areas has decreased from 14.21 percent (2015) to 12.85 percent (2019). The unemployment rate also dropped from 4.93 percent (2015) to 3.45 percent (2019). On average, the level of expenditure per capita of rural communities rose from Rp 572,000 (2014) to Rp 852,000 (2018) per month.

Around 1,500 villages can be accessed only by boat and 100 villages can be reached only by airplane.

The 2018 data on village potential shows a number of improvements in villages. The percentage of families in villages with electricity connections rose from 94.78 percent (2014) to 96.85 percent (2018). As many as 82.37 percent of families have their own toilets (2018), up 67 percent from 2014. The number of families using wood as fuel for cooking dropped dramatically, from 47 percent (2014) to 28 percent (2018). The high achievements do not necessarily eliminate the challenges in village development. The 2018 data on village potential also shows that only 55.91 percent of villages have village maps. In fact, one indicator of the calculation of village funds is the area of a village. Without a village map, it is impossible to accurately measure the area of a village. Geographically, more than 1,300 villages have territory on two or more islands. Certainly it is difficult to provide basic services to a village spread over islands. Topographically, at least 6,253 villages are located at an altitude of more than 1,000 meters above sea level. At least 27.41 percent of villages are located on the edge of forests. Around 1,500 villages can be accessed only by boat and 100 villages can be reached only by airplane.

Village heads are certainly an important aspect in village development. The 2018 data on village potential shows around 3,700 village heads have had only elementary education or below. More than 11,200 village heads have only junior high school backgrounds. Indeed, leadership in villages is not entirely determined by the level of education. However, the ability to develop knowledge and adapt to technology tends to be better in those with higher education backgrounds.

Even though 89.63 percent of villages have asphalt roads, 5.3 percent of them are out of reach during the rainy season. In the context of social relations, more than 2,500 villages have problems with social conflicts, with the highest occurrence between community groups. However, the village community is getting used to living in diversity. As many as 71.26 percent of villages in Indonesia had more than one ethnic group in 2018, an increase from 2014 (68.94 percent of villages).

Efforts to reduce disaster risk at the village level are urgently needed to avoid destruction due to natural disasters.

Slash-and-burn land clearance is still common in many villagers. At least 37.72 percent of villages use this method to clear land. Efforts to improve practices at the village level can certainly reduce the potential for forest and peatland fires. Villages that have experienced natural disasters in the past year have risen, from 39.27 percent (2014) to 48.24 percent (2018). However, only 8.90 percent of villages have an early warning system for natural disasters. Meanwhile, 68,000 villages do not have an early warning system, so that they are vulnerable to the adverse effects of natural disasters. Efforts to reduce disaster risk at the village level are urgently needed to avoid destruction due to natural disasters.

Strategies in the future

There are at least four important policy points in the future development of villages. First, clarify the vision of village development. Building a village does not mean turning a village into a city. A village\'s vision to develop is to create a higher level of welfare and living standards for its inhabitants, while maintaining the village\'s central role as the basis for food security and environmental conservation.

The 2018 data on village potential show that villages experiencing water pollution have increased from 10.33 percent (2014) to 18.92 percent (2018), while villages that experience land pollution also rose slightly from 1.59 percent (2014) to 2.64 percent (2018).

Data show that 92.89 percent of the main source of income for villagers is agriculture. Village development must therefore be in sync with agricultural development. More than that, the function of a village in environmental conservation is also vital. The role of villages in protecting ecosystems to support sustainable development should not be overlooked. The 2018 data on village potential show that villages experiencing water pollution have increased from 10.33 percent (2014) to 18.92 percent (2018), while villages that experience land pollution also rose slightly from 1.59 percent (2014) to 2.64 percent (2018).

Second, the need to compile a list of village development activities. Repetition in development activities financed by village funds has the potential to lead to saturation. More than a few villages repeatedly repave roads, for example, for reasons of easy accountability or lack of ideas for other development activities. As an illustration, what we order at a restaurant cannot be separated from the menu choices provided.

Third, community-based monitoring mechanism. The amount of funds managed by villages is so large that it must be monitored properly so that spending does not deviate and have a negative effect a village\'s progress. However, no matter how good a surveillance system is designed, it is still not easy to supervise the use of village funds in 74,953 villages. Villagers would be the most effective at overseeing the use of village funds. Therefore, in the future it is necessary to establish a community-based village development supervision mechanism.

However, achievements in village development over the last five years is worthy of appreciation. It is the Cabinet\'s task to improve village achievements in developing Indonesia.

Fourth, improvement of official village records. The number of villages recorded is not necessarily the same as reality. In fact, village funds are allocated according to a village being registered. BPS in 2018 noted that a number of villages had changed their status to become subdistricts and some were found not to exist. Even though the number was small, improvement is still needed. A number of technical things can be improved. However, achievements in village development over the last five years is worthy of appreciation. It is the Cabinet\'s task to improve village achievements in developing Indonesia.

Sonny Harry B Harmadi, Deputy for the Coordination of People, Villages and Area Empowerment at the Office of the Coordinating Human Development and Culture Minister