| 4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
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Every year Musrena is started with a preparation at the village level. The women, with the instruction of the village head, hold a meeting at the village level and choose two representatives for musrena meeting at the district level. Based on this meeting, elected representatives gather aspiration/input/ideas of the women in the village to be brought to the district level.
At the district level, the working groups are formed based on district. Each working group elects a leader and a secretary of the group. The leader of the group is responsible for the work, time and output of the group. The expected output of this meeting is a proposal containing priority of the group in upcoming development plan. In short, this initiative uses bottom up approach in its process.
Since there are 9 sub-districts in Banda Aceh, Musrena at district level is conducted 3 times. Each meeting is attended by the representative from three sub-districts, with two representatives per district.
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| 5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
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This initiative was designed by the government of Banda Aceh and GTZ-SLGSR. Stakeholders who are involved in the implementation of Musrena are marginalized people such as women. Musrena is conducted by Banda Aceh Municipality Development Planning Agency (Bappeda) with the assistance of the local government working unit (SKPK) and other relevant stakeholders such as NGOs, which concern with gender mainstreaming issues.
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| 6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
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The budget for the implementation of Musrena and its output are provided by the government of Banda Aceh Municipality through local government budget. Besides government, this initiative is also funded by donor agencies such as the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency (BRR), state owned enterprise (BUMN), international and local NGOs.
Since there is a limitation in regional budget, the proposed activities derived from musrena need to be sorted according to development priority of the region. So, not all proposed activities can be accommodated in regional budget. Then, a meeting with international and local NGOs, donors and partners is conducted to decide which activity can be accommodated and funded next year.
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| 7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
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1. The public understanding of the regional budget planning and monitoring mechanisms, especially women's increased. Gradually, the community especially women understand the meaning, function and mechanism of regional budget.
2. Women participation and capacity in regional development planning and budgeting increased.
3. Gender equality approach in planning and budgeting processes strengthened.
4. The accountability of local government increased.
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| 8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
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Bappeda is the agency that responsible in monitoring and evaluation process of Musrena. A results-based monitoring and evaluation system is utilized to monitor and evaluate the initiative. The monitoring and evaluation are conducted at planning and implementation stage. At the planning stage, proposed activities are noted as expected output of the program. While at the implementation stage, activities realization data from government working unit are collected and verified. Unfinished activities are listed and discussed whether it will be reconsidered or eliminated next year.
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| 9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
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Despite a media to accommodate the input of women has been provided, not every participant understands the importance of their participation. To solve this issue some steps were taken, i.e.:
1. Establishing a coordinating team for Women's Empowerment to increase the understanding of Gender Mainstream program in Banda Aceh,
2. Establishing gender mainstreaming working group to ensure that all government working units formulate gender responsive policy
3. Forming a focal point team to ensure that every program conducted by government working unit promotes gender equality.
The lack of knowledge has made most of the people assumed that gender mainstreaming program was contrary to the teaching of Islam. To solve this issue the government improved gender knowledge of the community, especially women representatives, village representatives, women and children NGOs.
Besides lacking of knowledge, lack of capacity in development planning is also constraining the initiative. Therefore to address that obstacle Musrena is conducted two days. The first day is allocated exclusively for a discussion session on development planning and budgeting. The aim of this session is to increase the participant capacity and understanding of national and regional development planning and budgeting process.
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