(back row) Sahat Sinurat – GAMKI, Ajay Banga – President of the World Bank, La Ode Syarief – Kemitraan, One Kahkonen – Head of World Bank Representative
Jakarta, The PRAKARSA – Several leaders of Indonesian civil society organizations (CSOs) accepted the invitation to meet the President World Bank, Ajay Banga to share expertise and share experiences of participating in development according to the focus of their respective organizations. The meeting was held at the World Bank Indonesia office in Jakarta on Wednesday (6/9).
Accompanied by the Head of World Bank Representative for Indonesia and Timor Leste, Satu Kähkönen, this meeting with CSO leaders was part of a series of Ajay Banga agendas in Indonesia besides attending the ASEAN Summit in Jakarta.
Victoria Fanggidae, Deputy Director of The PRAKARSA, was present on behalf of Ah Maftuchan, Executive Director PRAKARSA who was attending the Global Alliance for Tax Justice board meeting in Santiago, Chile, at the same time.
During the discussion, Victoria conveyed several relevant development issues from research findings PRAKARSA.
"Even though the social security and social assistance programs from the central government have proven to be very useful for citizens and can be a way to reduce inequality and poverty, we see disparities between regions due to differences in regional ability to accelerate these programs with regional policies and budgets," said Victoria. .
“Inequalities between regions in Indonesia cannot be separated from fiscal gaps and less effective fiscal decentralization practices. "Decentralization and governance need to be reviewed for their effectiveness after more than two decades of implementation," he continued. Apart from that, another important issue is the harmonization of social and economic development between development actors at both the central and regional levels.
Victoria hopes that the World Bank can play its role as a development learning center, collecting, studying and sharing lessons from regions or countries that have implemented good socio-economic policies, budgeting and programs so that they can become examples and inspirations for other regions and countries.
One Kähkönen added that the World Bank in Indonesia coordinates intensely with the Indonesian government in providing technical assistance to increase budget management capacity so that regional budgets are used effectively and produce the expected results, namely increasing people's welfare.
Responding to questions from CSO representatives regarding the World Bank's involvement in working with governments in various regions, Ajay Banga added that the World Bank has strategic priorities in each country so that it may not be able to work in every region and for all issues, but tries to optimize existing collaborations to the aim of upholding democracy, gender equality and increasing welfare. CSO leaders who were also invited and attended were Alissa Wahid from the Gusdurian Network, Yenny Wahid from the Wahid Foundation, Sahat Sinurat from DPP GAMKI (Indonesian Christian Youth Movement) and La Ode Syarief from the Indonesian Partnership.
