HIGHLIGHTS
- KOMPAK was an Australian-Indonesian program to improve basic services and economic opportunities for poor and vulnerable Indonesians.
- The Abt-led project provided technical assistance on best-practice governance processes to strengthen systems for public services such as health, education, and civil registration in a decentralized context.
- Over 7.5 years, KOMPAK improved services to poor and vulnerable households by strengthening sub-national systems, improving village governance, and expanding economic opportunities in 24 districts and 496 villages in seven provinces.
PROJECT
Kolaborasi Masyarakat dan Pelayanan untuk Kesejahteraan (KOMPAK) Governance for Growth
The Challenge
Despite steadily increasing resources, in 2015 Indonesia continued to experience unequal access to quality government services. The causes were many:
- Lack of transparency and community engagement
- Inconsistent policies
- Limited institutional capacities, especially at the sub-national level
- Inadequate accountability mechanisms
- Ineffective use of public funds
As a result, many Indonesians struggled with poverty, unemployment, a complex regulatory environment, and unequal regional resource distribution.
The Approach
Under the Kolaborasi Masyarakat dan Pelayanan untuk Kesejahteraan (KOMPAK) Governance for Growth project, Abt delivered technical assistance, pilots, and analytics to improve government capabilities to manage and deliver basic services (health, education, and legal identity) and promote local economic development. We worked at the national, provincial, district, sub-district, and village levels. Integral to the success of the program was the approach to collaborative governance, multi-stakeholder planning and coordination, inclusive and accountable local governments, and performance-oriented and efficient public financial management systems.
KOMPAK focused on the Government of Indonesia’s two key poverty reduction objectives: improved access to and quality of frontline services and increased opportunities to sustainable livelihoods. The project placed an explicit focus on gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) at its core. Abt developed KOMPAK’s GESI strategy to provide KOMPAK teams, strategic partners, and counterparts with guidance on designing GESI interventions and mainstreaming gender and social inclusion. Key GESI interventions included inclusive planning and budgeting at the village level and engaging communities to improve access and quality of services to marginalized groups, working in partnership with civil society organizations.
The Results
Over its 7.5 years, Abt’s work to implement a large, local-level development initiative using adaptive management principles strengthened governance and built capacity in Indonesia’s core systems and processes.
KOMPAK helped strengthen sub-national systems to deliver responsive and accountable frontline services and pilot innovative solutions to reach marginalized communities. We supported local governments to improve data for planning, budgeting, and targeting of core services.
We facilitated community-driven development at the village level, and villages beyond the 496 KOMPAK villages benefited:
- 343 villages received technical assistance from the sub-district to improve governance and services
- 456 villages in seven provinces implemented a Village Information System to improve service quality
The program also increased the productivity and income of micro and small businesses:
- Eight business groups earned an average annual profit of AUD 4,500 in 2021, a three-fold increase from the initial profit before KOMPAK support
- Income of water hyacinth artisans in West Aceh increased from AUD 1,500 in 2018 to AUD 14,300 in 2020
- By the end of the program, AUD 28 million in government budget allocations and private contributions was made available for the development of micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises
By 2021, KOMPAK had contributed to a significant improvement in socioeconomic indicators across the project’s target areas. Compared with 2015, these areas had seen a drop in poverty rates from 17.27 percent to 15.13 percent, an increase in the Human Development Index from 64.44 to 67.55, and a decrease in the Gender Inequality Index from 47.48 to 32.