Local Authorities in Indonesia are democratically elected and empowered to design local policies and deliver of key municipal services, under a community participation principle. Under their responsibility is local development, spatial planning, health system, environmental control, and public investments. Nevertheless, Municipalities are struggling with problems such as low effectiveness and poor governance, also due to lack of cooperation with the communities and civil society in the management of natural, social, environmental, and economic resources.
Municipalities in Indonesia struggle with the translation of needs of vulnerable groups such women, mothers, people with disabilities, indigenous people, etc. into a meaningful participatory dialogue on public space management. Addressing waste-management problems is important for making cities and communities more sustainable, but most local governments, have failed to reach the targets set by new regulations. That issue is followed by insufficient safety, accessibility and hygienic standards of green markets, where waste are mostly dumped at the spot or disposed at the landfill, with no segregation, processing or recycling. Their premises are barely safe and hardly accessible, not sufficiently adjusted to special needs.
Besides, the civil society institutions lack of applicable, modern tools to gather, analyze and communicate to the authorities citizens needs and expectations, which, as consequence, limits their influence on the decision making process, including on-line consultative tools. That technological gap coming from low access to modern, flexible, adjustable green technologies and low awareness of existence of smart solutions for green economy, affects significantly implementation of citizens’ engaging management solutions.
The project addresses multiple of cross-cutting issues: strengthening urban governance, by the implementation of national urban policies on local level, such as: inclusive urban management, waste limitation, segregation, and processing as well through the analysis, consultation, and implementation of measures for a smart, tangible, inclusive, participatory, and sustainable urban management in line with the principles of territorial approach to local development. The project engages stakeholders from multiple levels of the government into establishing decision-making schemes.
Project gives special attention to engaging the vulnerable and at-risks groups into a meaningful participatory dialog on genuinely common public spaces and the design of urban planning due to ensure social inclusiveness of cities, which is aimed at addressing pressing needs by improving safety, active prevention of marginalization and exclusion, and translating their needs into concrete actions which involve improvements of local infrastructure and services provided by the municipality. The project responds to women’s needs, addressing safety and security in urban public spaces as well as other challenges such as access to higher food safety to secure the right to live in a healthy environment free of waste and pollution.
Project aims to improve resilience and greening of cities as the project elaborates, implements, and tests measures for improving the environmental quality through circular economy solutions such as biowaste and biogas, decreasing the amount of city waste and promoting good behaviors through green city policies or environmental local public policies, as efficient green market management and its solid waste management chains has been pre-identified as the most urgent challenge. Project limits the negative impact of the city on the surrounding ecosystems, addressing one of the biggest challenges for Indonesia, such as ocean pollution from plastic waste and excessive production of non-segregated and unprocessed waste. The goal is also to empower the local authorities to lead environmental actions, raise eco-awareness and implement smart, eco-friendly solutions.
Additionally, project promotes prosperity and innovation in cities via establishment of e-tools to support interactions between the civil society and the Local Authorities, contributing to dialog and innovative urban policies and application of communication technologies such as online tools to engage the public and the civil society into genuine decision-making processes.
The project goal is to establish a long-term and practical partnership for urban development between the local authorities of the regency of North Halmahera from Indonesia and Municipality of Góra Kalwaria from Poland.
Development Policy Foundation is an author of the idea and key provider of expertise know-how, supporting the project management and its implementation in cooperation with Municipality of Góra Kalwaria.