German Development Cooperation with Indonesia

In 2009 the Georisk-Project together with CCOP(Coordinating Committee for Geoscience Programmes in East and Southeast Asia) conducted a workshop on government practice of risk reduction from natural disasters in Yogyakarta, bringing together representatives of Geological Agencies from all over South-East Asia.
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On the 27th of May 2006, an earthquake with a magnitude of Mw=6.3 hit the southern coast of Java and highly affected Bantul District in Yogyakarta Province. More than 5700 people were killed, tens of thousands got injured and became homeless. Getting to the bottom of the local site effects the Georisk-Project has carried out a comprehensive engineering geological and seismic building ground suitability assessment in the area of Bantul.

Capacity Building for investment promotion in Central Java
The development of the economy in central Java is often confronted with a lack of investors. To make the region more attractive, the local authorities get trained and workshops are held for investment promotion. In cooperation with the local authorities the DED supports the development of a „Business- and Investment Guide “ and thus strengthens the local economy.

Local Tourism – Community-based economic development
The community of the village Mas-Mas in Central Lombok is organizing tours for tourist through the village and its surrounding nature. The tour includes a visit of the Ketac-women. Until today the women produce table mats, baskets and other containers in a traditional way made of Ketac, a material similar to Rattan. Thus the tourist get to know more about traditional indonesian handicraft and about life in an indonesian village. The inhabitants benefit from the earnings of the tours. The DED and the local planning board for Central Lombok support the village community with marketing and organization of the village-based tourism and thereby contributes to strengthening the communal economy.
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Encouraging communication - promoting dialogues
In the priority area “Good Governance” the focus lies on the improvement of public services for society and the development of the local economy. This often starts with very small steps. Customer-orientation and direct contact with the population are not always prevalent in the civil service altough this is quite necessary for local economy development. But first achievements can already be observed. In central Lombok for example, the head of the department for economic development and his colleague are now conducting workshops for packaging techniques. An association of food-producers selling local snack-specialities is supported by DED together with the local authorities. The purchase of packaging machines was co- financed.
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Raising awareness
The handling of waste is a big problem in Indonesia. A lack of environmental awareness and of knowledge regarding alternatives, leads to an irresponsible way of waste disposal with severe negative impacts on the environment. Since the end of 2008, the DED and partners from official authorities and the private sector (as a so-called CSR - Corporate Social Responsibility Project) conduct a public awareness campaign about climate change in Kupang. Its focus is on reducing plastic waste, especially by avoiding plastic bags. In addition to posters, booklets, radio and newspaper advertisements, awareness is raised in eight schools and numerous markets with the involvement of officials from more than ten governmental institutions. In addition to the awareness campaign small projects in the context of climate change issues were established and financed.

Mangrove planting in Tarakan
In Tarakan, East Kalimantan, fish and prawn breeding is one of the largest industries besides the state oil industry. Planting mangroves in the breeding ponds increases the income of farmers and at the same time contributes to slowing down the climate change (so-called "Silvofishery“ method). Together with an Indonesian oil company and the local authorities DED has launched a CSR pilot project (CSR = Corporate Social Responsibility) which undertakes research about the suitability of the "Silvofishery" method for Tarakan. This CSR project is a good example for successful cooperation between industry, government institutions and implementing organizations.
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Promoting transparency
Corruption and unclear financial flows in Indonesia and other Pacific countries lead to the “paradox of plenty”: Although enormous wealth of natural resources exists, citizens of these countries do not benefit directly, and a majority lives in poverty. Together with the World Bank, InWEnt supports the “Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative” (EITI) and conducted workshops on implementing the EITI in the Asia-Pacific region. EITI is a global transparency standard that provides a mechanism by which both company payments to government and government revenues generated from petroleum, coal and mineral extraction are disclosed and reconciled under supervision of all stakeholders in a country. Civil society, executive industry and government work closer together, transparency increases, money is distributed more fairly and thereby poverty reduced.

The picture shows 3726m high Gunung Rinjani on the island of Lombok, being the second highest volcano in Indonesia. A team of volcanologists from the Geological Agency of Indonesia (Badan Geologi) and the German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) was on its way from Denpasar, Bali to Ende on the island of Flores. Their mission was to monitor the activity of some of Flores' volcanoes using a thermal camera.

Due to its numerous natural disasters Indonesia belongs to the countries with the highest risk level worldwide. To support communities in their efforts towards disaster preparedness several organisations, IT companies, IT developers, software users and coaches were trained in building up an open source Geographical Information System (GIS)with the focus on disaster risk management. The workshop was conducted as a cooperation of InWEnt and the International Open Source Network together with the Indonesian Ministry for Science and Technology (RISTEK).

High environmental and social standards in Indonesia: Employees of the garment producer Indo-Rama Synthetics (IRS) enjoy the benefits of an above average income, regular working hours, and health insurance provided by the company, which also covers their families. An additional school fee coverage allows them to send their children to school to learn reading and writing. International environmental standards regarding waste water management, emissions, recycling, cooling systems and electricity are met. Social working conditions and highly motivated employees have contributed to make IRS to one of Indonesia’s most successful businesses. Indo-Rama Synthetics was built up and is growing successfully also because of a long term financing concept on credit basis in cooperation with DEG – Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH.

Curious students are experimenting with basic electric circuits. SEQIP was a joint project of the German Financial (FZ) and Technical Cooperation (TZ). It introduced test and experiment kits to science classes in schools, which meanwhile are used nationwide in Indonesia.

Disaster Risk Management
To minimize potential destruction of new natural disasters, the reconstruction process in tsunami and earthquake struck Aceh has to take the exposition towards those dangers into consideration. At the same time it is also important to educate the population about the existing geo-risks. As a natural-risk-library on wheels the GEO-Van is visiting elementary schools and public exhibitions since 2007. Through songs, experiments, posters books and movies the young generation is taught in a playful way scientific knowledge regarding geo-risks and natural dangers. Practical information to reduce risks such as appropriate anticipation during earthquakes are discussed and explained.

Disaster Risk Mitigation
Since 2003 the German Development Cooperation supports Indonesia in natural disaster risk management. The cooperation focuses on the province and community level. Along with the decentralisation process the responsibility for disaster management and the protection of the population has been shifted from the central government to the local authorities. Together with Indonesia’s Badan Geologi the geo-risks of certain pilot regions is analysed. Possibilities for risk mitigation, especially through spatial planning, are explained, discussed and developed.

Spatial Planning Workshop for Women in Banda Aceh
As part of the rehabilitation and reconstruction programme in Aceh the German Development Cooperation contributed significantly to the spatial planning in the tsunami struck province. Especially women were given the opportunity to participate in the planning process. Together with the women association PKK of the sub-district of Kuta Alam in Banda Aceh a workshop was conducted. In an open discussion with the head of the sub-district and other officials all participants were invited to express there requirements, concerns and ideas for the future planning of their living environment.

“Mobile Population Administration Units: Services directly in the village – convenient and free of charge“
Due to the devastation and destruction after the tsunami the administration system collapsed in many parts of the province of Aceh. As part of the new and effective administration and to replace lost documents as soon as possible new mobile service units (on wheels) were used. Following the motto: “Services directly in the village – convenient and free of charge” the administrative process has become a lot easier for the tsunami effected population.

Students of vocational training in Solo (ATMI)
The German Development Cooperation is supporting the education and vocational training sector in Indonesia. For example through the “Indonesian German Institute” which focuses on the improvement and capacity building of teaching personnel and trainers.

Good Governance in administration population – national documents as a pre-condition to take advantage of public services
German Development Cooperation is supporting Indonesia in the development of good governance in the population administration sector. Besides assisting in setting up the legal framework the knowledge and competence of local administration officials has been strengthened through workshops, trainings and capacity building: For Indonesian citizens national documents are the pre-condition to take advantage of public services.

CAP - Community Action Planning
To guarantee a systematical and gradual approach towards the needs of the communities, so-called CAP-workshops have been conducted in the tsunami hit areas. In participative approaches and by creating 3-D models during the workshops the reconstruction plans for the villages have been developed.