 Aside from avoiding errors of inclusion (giving subsidies to those who do not need them) it isimportant to avoid errors of exclusion - leaving out young people who need to be reached (the world bank 2007)
BACKGROUND
Indonesia has a long history of societal development, a multi-complex process involvinga wide spectrum of change. In many developing societies one would witness that resulting from globalization, the uneven -- some would even label it as unjust, levels of development, especially of social development is vast indeed. Even among ASEAN countries where proximity is an advantage, the disparities are striking. The most apparent issue at hand is to seek ways to narrow the gap.
One would also witness that there are tangible instances where policy decision-makers are not in concert with the needs of the grass roots, and thus needing sustained advocacy. The more basic issue of awareness-raising among policy decision makers is still very much at the center of priorities.
The world could be a better planet to inhabit with the endorsement of most nations on the ideals of the MDGs. Those goals are in essence also the tangible aims of social development. Furthermore the intrinsic derivatives of the MDGs should comprise the strategic and sustained solutions of present day's societal maladies.
Whereas national, sub-national policies and priorities dictate programs at those specific spheres, the need for cross-national and regional cooperation and sharing is real indeed. International and cross-national alliances in specific programs, such as meeting the needs of children, and making pregnancy safer, have intrinsicallyenhancedimprovementsinthoseprograms. It is therefore advocated that such cooperation be made a firm agendaforaction.
Furthermore it is categorically encouraged that all of those schemes and activities are implemented at the grass-roots such that actions are focused on fulfilling the real needs of local population, by and through local community participation and commitment. This will further enhance the mobilization of social development potentials of local communities.
As social development embraces a vast spectrum of interests and activities, a special capacity enhancement program will be offered to the elderly with the express aim of "unveiling" their potential and capacities for social development, at the same time mobilizing their participation. This special program will be known as the "Silver College"
It should go without saying that to all of the above, the niveau should be both national and trans national, i.e. that national and regional groupings are no longer appropriate. With regards to the "Silver College", the target sphere is circumscript - the elderly, but the fields of interest will be diverse.
Those are the background for establishing the Center for National and International Cooperation and Training in Social Development
Enhancement and Cooperation in Social Development which is further elaborated as the following.
EMERGING ISSUES IN SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
Endeavors in societal development is always a raceagainsttime. Asgainsareachieved, newchallenges arise. It is a virtual self perpetuating incremental cycle, spiralingto noend.
As aforementioned, worth noting is the phenomena where the potentials of certain segments of the citizenry is virtually untapped or wasted. A case in point is the fact that a certain proportion of the elderly still are able to contribute to development, yet they are left by the way-side. The physically handicapped also have their considerable untapped potentials. They are by no means problems to development, on the contrary they can actually be mobilized to accelerate social development.
On the contrasting scenario, one would readily observe that the younger generation also have their aspirations and would very much like to see their futures being addressed to favorably. They also desire to have tangible goals to strive for'and be appropriately guided to attain those.
Further illustrations are among others the emerging problem of the impact of demographic transition on youth and adolescents; or the challenges in children's welfare resulting from working parents; or the increasingly rampant incidences of violence in households; or the impact of working parents on the demand for guality social services.
Those illustrative emerging issues are actually incumbent in many societies, both in the national and international spheres. In order to optimize the appropriate formulation of strategic policies, it is advocated that international and national sharing among the various levels of policy decision-makers and implementers is imperative. These are aptly reflected in the world-wide response to the implications of the annual Human Development Reports and ultimately on the world's commitmentto attaining the MDGs. No less important is the inter-country cooperation in research and development in social issues. It is therefore envisioned that the establishment and strengthening of this center is timely and appropriate.
Whereas the above are concerns at the macro levels, the plight of the grass roots are more important to be addressed to. In a capsulated format, those in need are all the segments, beginning from conception and the newborn infants, to school-going children, the adolescents, parents and ultimately the elderly. Aside from the needs that they have, they also possess potentials that need to be put to bear for social development purposes.
INDONESIA'S PRINCIPLES FOR SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
As a follow through of the background, it would be beneficial to present a brief note on the incumbent platform governing policies on social development.
Firstandforemostisthattheplatformisfounded on the constitution of the nation, i.e. PANCA SILA, and the National Constitution of 191*5. The constitution states that every citizen has the right to participate and to enjoy the benefits of development. Implied is the principle that all have the potentials to enhance and to pursue their physical and spiritual needs. The state has the obligation to facilitate all of those. In that respect the guiding principles dictating all policies on social development are the following.
-Democratic decisions based on the needs of the people;
-Recognizing prevailing values and norms;
-Intersectoral efforts and endeavors which are shared in common responsibilities;
-Empowering the community, the stakeholders, the individual families, as the implementers and
beneficiaries of societal development;
-Decentralized policy decision making and implementation, using national standards and
measurements;
-Equitable and just sharing of responsibilities and benefits of all efforts in social development;
-Utilizing community participation as base of mobilizing development resources.
The application of those principles in reality is the synthesis towards an integrated service delivery locus found at all villages, commonly known as the POSYANDU (Integrated Post for Family Planning and Health). DAMANDIRI is at the moment endeavoring to further develop the Posyandu into POSDAYA (Integrated Post for the Empowerment of Families). POSDAYA is one of the models for providing services for all segments of the community, including infants and under-fives, school-going children, the youth and adolescents, married couples, responsible parents and parenthood, up to the elderly. In addition to empowering those segments of the society in their specific roles and needs, the POSDAYA mobilizes the potentials of those who are able to contribute to the overall efforts in social development. In essence the POSDAYA approach is the actual manifestation of the MDGs at the grass roots level. In fact it is envisaged that the POSDAYA will comprise the crux of social development, both in the conceptual as well asempirical spheres.
OBJECTIVESOFTHECENTER
Based on the above considerations the overarching objectives of the Center For NationalAnd International Cooperation And Training In Social Development is to enhance skills and capacity of individuals and institutions in social development both at national and cross-national spheres.
In specificterms, the objectives are:
1. Developing appropriate models for social development at the grassroots level, built on empowerment, participation of all, and for the benefit of all, i.e. the POSDAYA model approach;
2.Training and sharing the skills in identifying the needs and incumbent potentials to address those;
3.Sharing and training in the knowledge managementof social needsand programs;
4.Sharing and training in the planning and management of social development intervention programs;
5. Sharing and training in social preparedness and responses in long- and medium term human resourcesdevelopment;
6. Establishing a firm network of social development institutions in the government, nongovernment and community spheres;
J. Enhancing the potentials of the elderly and the handicapped in social development.
FRAMEWORKOFTHECENTRE:
TOWARDS THE DESIRED LEVELS OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
In order to achieve the desired levels of attainment in Social Development, there are at least the following requisites to be applied and fulfilled, and thus comprising the substance of the training in Social Development programs. Those are the following.
-Instituting Visionary Leadership, i.e. leadership with tangible vision of what to achieve in the future;
-Applying the wisdom of democracy in collective decision makingtowardssocietal development;
-Broadeningaccessofsocial servicestoall segments ofthesociety;
-Optimizing the leveraging & mobilizing of the increasingly scarce and limited
resources;
-Endeavoring organizational development of both the implementers and the
beneficiaries of societal
development, such that they are able to maximize the benefits of all efforts;
-Empowering both the benefactors and the beneficiaries of societal development;
-Ensuring sustainability of all activities such that even if the assistance are taken away
the impact of present and past efforts will remain in place and enduringovertime;
- Building commitment, which is the underlying element of all efforts, and coming
from all levels of decision making;
- Instituting the Eight Functions of the Family;
- Enhancing the potentials of the elderly in social development.
With regards to the Eight Functions of the Family, a brief note should be called for, i.e. that it comprise (i) the religious function, (2) the social function, (3) the educational function, (k) the sanctuary function, (5) the economic function, (7) the reproductive health function, and (8) the environmental function.
SCOPE OF WORK
The scope of national and international cooperation and training in social development will embrace all segments of the society and of institutions who are endeavoring to alleviate social maladies at varying degrees of magnitude. Those include,
A. The Clientele
Caring fortheinfants and children
Social issues among the youth & adolescents
Nutrition care by families, communities, and enterprises
Programs for making pregnancy safer
Enhancingthepotentialsoftheelderly
Caring for the disabled and handicapped
Capadty enhancement for poverty alleviation
B. Those In-Need
Health caremanagementforall.andforthose underprivileged segments of the society
Out-of-school education for the urban and rural, and displaced children
Coping with gender ineguality in the educational system
Management and care for the physically and psychologically handicapped
The Providers and Implementors
Planning and managing social development issues by government organizations
The active role of non-government organi-zations in coping with social development issues, including that of professional organi-zations
Activementoringand participationofproviders
with the people 4- Implementing Corporate Social Responsibili-
ties (CSR) 4- Capabilities in disaster preparedness
D, The Institutions
Designing and implementing national health systems and other development programs
Designing and implementing special social intervention programs
Designing and implementing regional and special educational programs
Mapping target families and the population in general
Skills development and enhancement for facilitators in social development programs
Special programs on Social Safety Network and preparedness
Establishing capacity enhancing institutions for social development
E, The Scheme and Activities
Coping with issues in poverty alleviation and social safety networks
Enhancing community preparedness in coping with social maladies
Instituting Income Security activities, which constitute an up-scaling of the known income generating schemes
Instituting micro credit schemes
The provision of soft skills training in communities and institutions
Establishing special education programs for theelderlyand handicapped persons
Instituting the POSDAYA concepts into grass roots realities
All of the above will contain five basic elements of social movements and development, i.e. (i) needs assessmentand identification, (2) knowledge manage-ment and analysis, and (3) planning and implementing respective intervention schemes, and fa) strategic lead-ership in such program, and finally (5) managing the institutional arrangements of such programs.
MEANSAND METHODOLOGY
The major methodology in this endeavor is the sharing and capacity enhancement in social development approaches and in its means, for special segments of the population and to national and international participants. In conductingthese capacity enhancementactivitiesandtrainingprogramsthecentre is entitled to receive tuition to offset the organizational and institutional costs.
The means and methodology is presented in two categories, i.e. (i) the capacity enhancement for the elderly (the "Silver College"), and (2) the national and international training in social development.
A,Capacity Enhancement for teh elderly (silver college) for social Development
This specific program is labeled as the "silver College" indicating the special physical feature of this potential segmentofthe population, i.e. their gray hair.
B. National and International Training in Social Development
Training and sharing will be done with the composition of 30 percent class orientation and discussion, and 60 percent of field observations. The remaining 10 percent will be for participants to synthesize - adapt to their respective environments, and formulate action plans upon return to their respective places of work.
The class orientations will be given by experts and practitioners in their respective fields, whereas the field observations will visit actual sites of social development institutions.
Courses offered will include those listed in the previous paragraph. For each of those listed, concise training modules will be designed and applied. Sustained improvements to those modules will be a continuous agenda.
In order to maximize the training and sharing programs, the center will endeavor to forge and strengthen the networks and networking with relevant institutions in and outside Indonesia.
An important element in the methodolo-gy deserving underscore is that of establishing and strengthening linkages and partnerships. In this re-gard linkages and partnerships will be forged with national and international agencies and institutions, both governmental and non-governmental. Pre-vailing linkages with ICOMP (International Coun-cil on the Management of Population Programs) based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia will be further strengthened. Existing links with UNFPA and UNDP will be nurtured. Cooperation with YKB (Yayasan Kusuma Buana) will befortified, as well as further links with YPI (Yayasan Pelita llmu), an NGO who is expert in HIV/AIOS in Indonesia. Linkages will also be made with faith-based organizations. Mutual benefits will be sought with BKKBN who is the mandate bearer of FP and RH Programs in Indonesia.
GAINS AND BENEFITS
Participants to the training programs will comprise of (i) Indonesian officials and practitioners endeavoring to gain from exposure and experiences from other programs in other countries, (2) international participants who are envisaged to gain from the Indonesian experience in social development, and (3) invited experts from Indonesia and overseas who will enhance their knowledge from interacting with national and international participants. To maximize the benefits of this training program, special and customized classes and sessions can be designed to fit the needs of specific regions and/or according to the stages of their development.
WorthnotingisthattheaforementionedPOSDAYA model will provide participants with a real-life frame of activities at the grass-roots level where improvements and adjustments are done as progress are being made. Furthermore, from the academic perspective the model will be Operations Research (OR) based upon which relevant program interventions are applied and evaluated. Those models are developed in various geographic areas, and are open for field observations. Among those is the Banjar - based POSDAYA model in Bali.
PDF Version... |
