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INCENTIVE CARD CHILD Smart Steps Improving Child Welfare in Surakarta
Office of Population and Civil Registration Surakarta

A. Problem Analysis

 1. What was the problem before the implementation of the initiative?
Until 2013, 60% of all children in Surakarta City don’t have birth certificate, with 8% are high risk children, who are children from poor family; neglected; live in detainment centers; or who are born from extra marital relationships. Of five districts in Surakarta, the one with the lowest rate of Children Incentive Card ownership is Serengan District with 11.5% ownership, and the highest is Banjarsari District with 31.4%. The majority of those who have not receiving CIC are female children. The above are caused by: a. Society’s lack of understanding on the importance of CIC, which are: • Providing identification for children below 17 years old. Since common ID card are not to be given to children, CIC serves as the alternative identification method. • Giving incentive for the children so that their welfare can be guaranteed. b. The lack of socialization. c. The procedure for obtaining Birth Certificate is complicated and unclear. d. Bureaucratic nature of Birth Certificate administration that creates reluctances in society. e. Services are delivered ineffectively in the Civil Registration Office. f. The children who own Children Incentive Cards have not utilized it to its full potentials. g. There have not been enough private partners in the program. Children Incentive card is felt to have little use by the society due to the fact that it is less useful compared to common civil ID Cards. Individuals are commonly required to submit copy of their ID card for public administration such as in commerce, for obtaining driving license, and social security. It was realized then, that the scope of CIC’s ownership must be increase to maximize its potentials.

B. Strategic Approach

 2. What was the solution?
Civil Registration Office of Surakarta City Government, with the cooperation from business community and an NGO named Peduli Anak (Child Aware) initiated a strategic program to provide identification card for children under 17 years old in Surakarta. The system is expected to improve children’s welfare and provide identification. The program was launched in December 2009 through a pilot project in Banjarsari District, and in July 2010 the card was inaugurated in all district in Surakarta City. The holistic approaches to solving the problems are as follows: a. Cooperating with other NGOS such as KAKAK Foundation, KIPPAS (Independent Commission on Children and Women Protection in Surakarta), SPEKHAM (Women Solidarity for Humanity and Human Rights), PKK (Family Welfare Education) and other related institutions such as Hospitals, Maternity Clinics, Midwife Practices, and City Government’s Health Affairs Office. The involvements of all those parties are expected to accelerated information dissemination and effectiveness. b. Public campaigns through printed and electronic media. c. CIC service cooperation with: • PKK Organizing Team in the city, district, and municipal level. • Dikpora (Education, Youth and Sport Affairs Office) of Surakarta City Government and all 5 of its service units. • Surakarta Children Forum • Districts, Municipals, and Residential officers/apparatus. CIC is issued with the objective of: a. Provide identification for children under 17 years old as alternative for ID card given to adults in Indonesia. It is a breakthrough in public service and is applicable in all regions in Indonesia. b. Provide incentives for children who have the card thus increasing their welfare. c. Ensure children’s security because the card can be used to verify children’s identity for security purposes. d. Create equal treatment for children in public administration by allowing them to have identification similar to adult’s ID cards. Our partnership with business community is a win-win solution. With their involvement in Children Incentive Card, businesses can have additional segment in their marketing as well as a method for their promotions of their goods and services. Children who own the card are benefited by discounts and ease of access to certain services provided by the private. CIC is attributed with 34 data; name, gender, date and place of birth, parents name etc. The data is used for the purpose of further policy analysis in providing incentives such as scholarship, health insurance etc. The data is connected to Surakarta City’s Health Affairs Office and Education Affairs Office.
 3. How did the initiative solve the problem and improve people’s lives?
As a formal identification card, CIC creates equality between children and adults. It helps the government in reducing the disparity of services provided to children and adults. Efforts in creating age-group equality are uncommon in Indonesia. Admittedly, its visible benefit is in providing discounts in the private partner’s counters, but from the perspective public administration, equality is needed to encourage children and their parents to register themselves. The cards are issued by Civil Registration Office of Surakarta City Government, and online registration can be done individually and collectively. The card: a. Is made of PVC, sized 5.5x8.5cm. b. Lists name; civil registration number; gender; birth sequence; date and place of birth; parents’ names; birth certificate number; address and valid time. It is equipped with barcode. c. Takes 5 minutes to issue.

C. Execution and Implementation

 4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
The stages for its implementation are as follows: a. Identifying target group; children aged 0-17. b. Identifying potential business partners in Surakarta City c. Consolidating its distribution with Education, Youth and Sport Affairs Office of Surakarta City Government. d. Extensive publication and socialization. e. Extending the existing cooperation with business partners. The next step is construction an action plane that consists: a. Inviting more private and public partners to get involved in the program. b. Coordinating its legality with Legal Division of Surakarta City Secretariat. This legality aspect includes Mayor decree and regulations, business contracts with private institutions etc. c. Conducting Communication, Information and Education to accelerate the process of it socialization. d. Conducting roadshows, in cooperation with NGOs, community leaders and business partners, to schools, municipals and residences as a proactive effort in registering the children. Civil Registration Office of Surakarta City Government has continuously promoted public participation in Children Incentive Card program. The Office has signed various MoUs in the following batches: a. Batch 1, December 1st 2009 with 11 partners. b. Batch 2, August 3rd 2010 with 19 partners. c. Batch 3, January 17th 2012 with 12 partners. d. Batch 4, May 28th 2012 with 3 partners. To this day 45 business partners have joined the Office in supporting the CIC, and many more have shown interests. Aside from that, Civil Registration Office of Surakarta City has improved its cooperation with schools, NGOS, public organizations and lower vertical institutions to proactively register the children for the program. Other forms of socialization have also been done, especially to those children who are disadvantaged, through printed and electronic media. The link to such promotional materials are found in the following links: • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_eHY3ybNoM&feature=player_detailpage#t=3 • http://dispendukcapil.surakarta.go.id/20XIV/index.php • http://surakarta.go.id/ Details on the promotional efforts can be seen in the action matrix attached.
 5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
The stakeholders are as follows: a. Regional Planning and Development Agency as Program Coordinator b. Society and Women Empowerment, Children Protection and Family Planning Agency as executor of Child Friendly City program. c. Local Business Enterprises as business partners. d. Transmigration, Labor and Social Affairs Office as coordinator of High-Risk Children program. e. Education, Youth and Sport Office as school coordinator. f. Health Affairs Office as maternity helpers coordinator. g. Law and Human Rights Division as coordinator for legal affairs. h. Cooperation Division as the coordinator of cooperation with business partners. i. District and Municipalities Apparatus whose responsibility is to coordinating the program in their region. j. KAKAK Foundation, KIPAS, and SPEKHAM as supporting partners. k. 45 business partners as of 2012 who provide benefits for card owners. l. PKK (Family Welfare Education) as socialization partners. m. Midwives and medical staffs in hospitals, Maternity Clinics and Midwife Practices. n. Residential apparatus. The above parties are committed to get involve from the socialization and card’s distribution, to coordinate in quarterly meetings that we held, and to participate in training programs for the implementation of CIC.
 6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
Internal human resources involved in the initiative are all civil servants and employees in Civil Registration Office of Surakarta City Government. Externally, the initiative is supported by Executive Team of Family Welfare Education in City, District and Municipal levels; NGOs; and other private and government institutions. A computer application is used for the implementation of the initiative and for the integration of system with Civil Registration Administration Information System. Financial supports come from: a. Allocation from Surakarta City annual budget, which has been varied each year (IDR230.000.000 in 2014). b. IDR95.890.000 grant from UNICEF in 2012 and IDR150.000.000 in 2013 for its monitoring and evaluation and service piloting for integrated birth registration. c. Private/public participation in the form of child incentives. The resources are mobilized through active participation of all stakeholders in improving the scope of birth certification. Quarterly meeting is held with 2.708 neighborhood heads; 602 residence heads; 51 municipal registration staffs; 23 maternity helpers from 7 hospitals, 16 maternity clinics and midwife practices; 5 religious affairs officers and 1 staff from Religious Court Office.
 7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
The outputs are as follows: a. Increasing number of children who own Children Incentive Card: in 2013, 40.048 children aged below 17 had been registered, with Banjarsari District contribute the most (12.577 individuals), the least is Serengan District with 4.609 individuals. b. Allowing better identification of the children thus ensuring better civil administration, providing securities, and improving their welfare. c. Creating equal treatment of children and adults, especially in treatments regarding public service administration. d. Encouraging synergy between various government institutions and between public and private sectors. e. Increasing frequency of CIC usages in various business places, especially in education-related stores and service providers.
 8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
The following systems were put in place to monitor the progress of the implementation of Children Incentive Card: a. Workshops and field inspections to identify and document its implementation to later on review the policy, programs, activity, structures, progress and outputs, disparity and challenges. b. Group discussion on secondary and field data collections, with system-based development approach and SWOT analysis. c. Problem analysis with bottleneck method. d. Constructing reports on the result of workshop and field inspection. e. Validation seminars and constructing recommendation. f. Finalizing the monitoring and evaluation, and constructing follow-up plans. g. Annually publish the results of monitoring and evaluation. In monitoring and evaluation, the Office accommodate all stakeholders to identify the effectiveness of the program by involving them in discussion and field inspection and ask them to fill out the evaluation forms. The initiative also encourage children to get involve in monitoring and evaluation through various forums in schools and other educational organization thus ensuring that their inputs as service users are taken into account.
 9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
The obstacles are: a. The lack of communication between Civil Registration Office and other business partners. b. Difficulties in socialization to and in reaching certain groups of the children, especially those who live in orphanages or come from poor families, and those are homeless or disable. c. Difficulties in negotiating with business partners. d. Some children are reluctant to register for the program. The solutions for those obstacles are as follows: a. Proactively initiate cooperation with related parties. b. Monitoring and evaluation through workshops and field inspections. c. Utilizing social media like facebook (dispendukcapilkota surakarta), twitter (@dispendukcapilkotasurakarta) and other web based services like email (dispendukcapil@surakarta.go.id) and web page (http://dispendukcapil.surakarta.go.id). d. Monthly and bimonthly meetings with business partners. e. Conducting outdoor discussions between Civil Registration Office and business partners. f. Providing visible information such as banners and posters to inform the society that certain business place is part of Children Incentive Card program. g. Improving data connectivity in the Office to allow easier access for the information that we provide online.

D. Impact and Sustainability

 10. What were the key benefits resulting from this initiative?
a. The number of the users of Children Incentive Card is increasing each year. In 2013, the number is 40% higher than that of 2009. b. The initiative provides alternative method for identifying children. c. Provide incentive for the children and in the end would increase their welfare. d. Useful for children age 0-17 years old. e. A step forward in civil administration. f. Children Incentive Card duplicates good practices in developed countries. g. It can be replicated in all parts of Indonesia. h. Data attributions are useful for policy analysis in providing further incentives such as scholarships and social security network. i. Provides a tool to ensuring child’s safety since the authority can use it to identify the children outside their houses. j. Creates public administration equality due to similar function that CIC has with ID cards for adults. k. Encourages the society to register childbirths and obtain Birth Certificate for their children. l. Encourages cooperation between public and private sectors. m. Improves government’s service in Birth Certificate administration. It previously took 30 days to issue a birth certificate, and now it only takes 6 days. n. Provides transitions for the children before entering adulthood and obtain their own ID card. o. Integrates data processing between parties involved in civil registration, such as hospitals and maternity clinics, thanks to the adoption of the latest development in Information Technology. p. Creates transparency in public service q. Develops better tool to monitor children’s involvement through discussion forums in schools and other educational centers.
 11. Did the initiative improve integrity and/or accountability in public service? (If applicable)
Due to its usefulness, Children Incentive Card in Surakarta is a sustainable program for civil administration. Budget allocation is guaranteed each year thanks to its legal status as a product of government regulation (Mayor’s Regulation) and various contracts with business enterprises. The program is also supported fully by UNICEF especially in its evaluation and the empowerment of business entities involved in it. The number of cards issued has increased steadily at 20% rate each year, which shows that society’s enthusiasm is also increasing. The system is designed to provide non discriminatory services to all children in Surakarta, thus helps all children gain access to cheaper goods and services provided by private institutions. Its contribution is multiplied when children use it to access education-related goods and services: collectively it will increase the quality of children education. Civil Registration Office of Surakarta City Government has received a number of public officers from roughly 30 regions in Indonesia each year and it goes to show that its replication is very promising. Every region do have computers and all the necessary human resources to implement the same policy. The adjustments needed are only in its Standard Operating Procedures, in which variations in social and economic conditions need to be considered.
 12. Were special measures put in place to ensure that the initiative benefits women and girls and improves the situation of the poorest and most vulnerable? (If applicable)
The learned lessons are as follows: a. Extra efforts to optimize the existing infrastructure that a government has can easily produce such simple and useful system as Child Incentive Card; all that it need is active participation from all members of the society, and the case of CIC, various business enterprises. b. Providing an identification tool for children is an effective alternative for ID cards, which in Indonesia can only be obtained by individuals above 17 years old. c. It is beneficial to provide incentive for children who have Children Incentive cards because it can contribute to their welfare. d. Useful for children age 0-17 years old. e. A step forward in civil administration. f. Children Incentive Card duplicates good practices in developed countries. g. It can be replicated in all parts of Indonesia. h. Data attributions are useful for policy analysis in providing further incentives such as scholarships and social security network. i. Provides a tool to ensuring child’s safety since it can be used by the authority to identify the children outside their houses. j. Creates public administration equality due to similar function that CIC has with ID cards for adults. k. Encourages the society to register childbirths and obtain Birth Certificate for their children. l. Encourages cooperation between public and private sectors. m. Improves government’s service in Birth Certificate administration. It previously took 30 days to issue a birth certificate, and now it only takes 6 days. n. Provides transitions for the children before entering adulthood and obtain their own ID card. o. Integrates data processing between parties involved in civil registration, such as hospitals and maternity clinics, thanks to the adoption of the latest development in Information Technology. p. Creates transparency in public service q. Develops better tool to monitor children’s involvement through discussion forums in schools and other educational centers.

Contact Information

Institution Name:   Office of Population and Civil Registration Surakarta
Institution Type:   Government Agency  
Contact Person:   Drs. SUWARTA, SH.MM Drs. SUWARTA, SH.MM
Title:   Head of the Department of Population and Civil Reg  
Telephone/ Fax:   (+6271)639554, 642020 psw 533 Fax: (+62271)644808
Institution's / Project's Website:  
E-mail:   kp3m_anchy@yahoo.com  
Address:   Jl. Jendral Sudirman No. 2 Surakarta
Postal Code:   57111
City:   Surakarta
State/Province:   Central Java
Country:  

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