Countries

Indonesia

In Indonesia, we fostered powerful coalitions to support the national fisherfolk union and a grassroots organization representing the urban poor to demand accountable delivery of services. Together we have improved access to fuel subsidies for fisherfolk and cash assistance for urban poor households respectively.

Open Budget Survey Results

Public Participation

24

Budget Oversight

61

Transparency

70

View Results

Initiatives in Indonesia

1.7m

fisherfolk received direct cash assistance.

4,424

urban poor households gained access to social protection assistance.

SPARK initiative

Indonesia’s fisherfolk

Summary

The International Budget Partnership forged a powerful coalition of budget reform allies to support the National Union of Traditional Fisherfolk in ensuring that the Indonesian government delivers on promises to support its fisherfolk. Our coalition identified three barriers to fisherfolk accessing the government’s fuel subsidy: 1) the complexity of the subsidy registration process; and 2) government deviating subsidy allocations meant for fisherfolk to other sectors; 3) lack of availability fuel stations.

Impacts to date:

Honed the budget advocacy skills of a nationwide union representing 300,000 small-scale fisherfolk.
Secured $95 million USD in COVID relief for 1.1 million fishers and $4.2 USD million in credit facilities.
Conducted budget analysis revealing 74% of the fuel subsidy allocation for fisherfolk was diverted to other sectors.
Secured 34,375 fuel subsidy vouchers for fisherfolk in Central Java from 2020-2022.
Persuaded officials to simplify the registration process for the fuel subsidy—facilitating access for 2.6 million fisherfolk.
Secured a Memorandum of Understanding with national and regional Ombudsperson offices to have a say in how services are provided to fisherfolk.

Strengthening Public Accountability

Our Strengthening Public Accountability for Results and Knowledge (SPARK) program flips traditional public finance management work on its head by putting underserved communities at the center of budget advocacy.

There are things we overlooked. These events allow fisherfolk to express their concerns and be heard

Alan Frendy Koropitan, expert in maritime affairs, Indonesian presidential staff office referring to the value of our convenings and data sharing Tweet

82%

The percentage of fisherfolk who said they could not access subsidized fuel in a social audit conducted in Medan, Indonesia.

SPARK initiative

Indonesia’s urban poor

Summary

We forged a powerful coalition of budget reform allies to support the Indonesian People’s Struggle Association in expanding access to the social protection program known as the Family Hope Program. Our coalition identified two barriers to urban poor families accessing the social protection program: 1) the government’s limited budget allocation for the program and; 2) a cumbersome registration process.

Impacts to date:

Honed the budget advocacy skills of a grassroots organization representing primarily urban poor women.
Ensured that 3,140 households are successfully registered in the government’s integrated data system for social protection.
Secured regular social protection assistance for 4,424 urban poor households.

Strengthening Public Accountability

The role of the Indonesian People’s Struggle Association and the civil society coalition is essential to accelerate poverty reduction.

Agnes PB Ginting, a planner in the Regional Development Planning Board of Jakarta Tweet

The number of community information centers we set up with partners to collect data on social assistance delivery during the COVID pandemic.

Budget Credibility Initiative

Summary

Budget credibility refers to the extent to which a government’s actual spending deviates from its approved budget. In Indonesia, we found that although the government on aggregate has low rates of underspending, at the sectoral level they do underspend on key sectors.

Impacts to date:

Flagged information gaps that led the Ministry of Finance to improve its website to provide greater transparency around the COVID relief budget.
Conducted research assessing spending patterns in the federal budget on sectors relevant to the Sustainable Development Goals. We found the highest rates of underspending on agriculture and food (by 10 percent), clean water and sanitation (by 7 percent), and gender programs (by 5 percent).
Conducted assessments that revealed that while the government spends 99% of its fuel subsidy budget, the fisheries sector only gets about a quarter of its allocation. The rest is diverted to other sectors due to red tape complicating fisherfolks’ access to the subsidy.