Questions/Answers

Please briefly describe the initiative, what issue or challenge it aims to address and specify its objectives (300 words maximum) Answer : Trenggalek Regency is situated on the southern part of East Java Province with the numbers of women, children and elderly people reaching to 70%. The details are as follows: Population Male (M)= 377,232/Female (F)= 373,019 Children M= 91,673/F=86,373 Persons with disabilities (PWDs) M=3242/F= 2114 Female Head of Household: 42,555 Male Head of Household: 225,282 Vulnerable groups consist of: Poor families :108,590 households Migrant workers M= 878/F=2,799 Ex-Migrant workers M=711/F=2341 Some of the problems faced in the Villages and Regency were: 1. Women’s participation in development was still represented by the female elite group that may not reflect women’s interests. Also, development process still ignored the participa-tion of people with disabilities (PWD), children and vulnerable groups. 2. Development programs and activities were not inclusive. Budget for women, children, PWD and vulnerable groups were not allocated and affirmed. 3. The proportion of women in the Village Council was 26% and in the Regency’s was 4,8%. 4. There was no village regulations/policies that supports women, children, PWD and vulner-able groups. 5. There were no services for women and children victims of violence, including the referral services for PWD and vulnerable groups at the village level. Development Planning Consultation Forums in Indonesia had been participatory, however they have not fully accommodated women’s and vulnerable groups’ interests due to the lack of adequate capacity building. As a solution, Trenggalek Regency launched the Voice of Women and Vulnerable Groups (SU-PER KEREN) program, an innovation to open opportunities from two sides - providing a forum dedicated for women and vulnerable groups in development planning, which is held before regular consultation forum, and developing their capacity in policy and budget advocacy through community school - so that they can fully participate and have access and control in development.

Category 3 on Promoting Gender Responsive Public Service to Attain SDGs. SUPER KEREN encourages gender mainstreaming through two main approaches: first, organising a development planning consultation forum dedicated for women, PWD, and vulnerable groups at village, sub-district and regency levels; Secondly, establishing capacity building programs in the form of schools for women, children, PWD and vulnerable groups so that they can access, receive, manage and oversee regional development. These community schools have produced 25 mentors for regency level and 476 village cadres as gender champions who are able to advocate for policies and budgets, organize communities, and participate in consultation forums throughout the village.

SUPER KEREN focuses on achieving SDG 5.1. End all form of discrimination against all women every where, particularly participation in regional development and SDG 5.2. Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation. To strengthen the program, several policies have been issued: a) The Draft Regional Regulations (DRR) on Mainstreaming Gender and on Child-Friendly Cities. b) Regulation of the Regent Number 1/2019 on Consultation Forum for Women and Vul-nerable Groups. c) Regulation of the Regent on Comprehensive Services for the Victims of Violence Against Women and Children up to Village Level. d) The Regent’s Circular Letter Number 473/797/406.001.2/2020 on Prevention of Child Marriage and counsellors for preventing child marriage in 100% of the Sub-Districts and Regency. The achievements in SDGs are that 55% of villages are committed to being Women Friendly and Care for Children, 14% of villages committed to being disability-friendly (which is stated in Village Regulations and the Drafts), 14% of Villages have women’s and children’s shelters and inclusive policies, and 24% of villages have Family Learning Center for gender education.

SEPEDA KEREN (Schools for Women and other Vulnerable Groups) produced 500 cadres who are active and consistent in organising and advocating. MUSRENA KEREN (Consulta-tion Forum for those groups ) were held in all villages and sub-districts to accommodate women’s voice in regional development. To sustain the innovation, the policies issued are: a) The Regent’s Regulation Number 1/2019 on Consultation Forum for Women and Vul-nerable Groups. b) The Regent’s Decree on Mobilisation Team and Working Group for Gender Main-streaming. Regional Regulations on Gender Mainstreaming and on Child Friendly City are being draft-ed and expectedly will be issued by the end of 2021.

The Indonesian government has improved the level of community participation by holding Development Planning Consultations (Musrenbang) at all regional levels as a condition for determining the direction of regional development. However, Musrenbang has two weak-nesses: First, women's participation is only represented by elite groups and does not re-quire representation from children, PWDs and vulnerable groups; Secondly, ignoring the importance of strengthening these vulnerable groups to access and possess advocacy skills in planning, implementing and evaluating development programs. Consequently, they tended to be passive and it was worsened by the patrilineal culture. To overcome this, Trenggalek Regency implemented SUPER KEREN by: 1. Organising MUSRENA KEREN before Musrenbang held. MUSRENA KEREN provides room for participation of women, children, PWDs and vulnerable groups in contributing to the development planning at village, sub-district and regency levels. 2. SEPEDA KEREN is a program of capacity development for women, children, PWDs and vulnerable groups so they can express their interests, fully participate, fill the control position in development from the village, sub-district to regency levels. This innovation has generated 500 gender champions from vulnerable groups to become volunteers who fight for their communities in the hope that none of the citizens are left be-hind in development.

Representations in MUSRENA KEREN come from women cadres, children's forums, PWD’s forums and vulnerable groups. To be able to identify their social problems, express aspira-tions, conduct policy and budget advocacy, their capacity needs to be enhanced through alternative education in the community so they can access, fully participate and oversee the development. In politics, there are 38% of women as legislative candidates.In the field of law, there has been education for law-aware families to be brave enough to report and 100% have re-ceived services. Meanwhile, 2000 female entrepreneurs received training, financial assis-tance, tool assistance, and digital marketing skills.

SUPER KEREN prepares women, children, PWDs and vulnerable groups to participate in prepar-ing and overseeing inclusive development programs. Some of the achievements are as follows: 1. Villages, Sub-Districts and Regency Governments hold annual MUSRENA KERENA and their delegates will bring their aspirations to the regular Musrenbang and will then be included in the priority proposals. 2. The improved quality and quantity of gender-responsive programs/activities by enhancing the capacity 500 cadres through basic and thematic modules as well as assistance in work-ing with community. Those include simple social analysis, assistance in program develop-ment, village governance, and assistance on drafting village law products so that they are capable of overseeing village policies/regulations. 3. The cadres actively organising communities in the forms of: a. Conducting disability assessments to determine the PWD’s practical and strategic needs, establishing disability forum, and making referrals to the rehabilitation ser-vices. b. Becoming facilitators in the village children's forum, assisting children’s forum to identify their problems and training them to become pioneers and reporters. c. Assessing micro, small and medium enterprises by identifying their passions, train-ing needs and linking them with the fund. 4. The establishment of women's and children's shelters as learning education centres that al-so provides community-based family counsellors.

A. MUSRENA KEREN (A Dedicated Consultation Forum) 1) Bappeda facilitated FGDs initiated by women's organizations by involving repre-sentatives of PWDs, children's forums and vulnerable groups to discuss with local officials about access, participation, control and benefits of development for them and agreed on the need for a consultation forum dedicated for them 2) Drafted the Regulation of Regent Number 1/2019 on Consultation Forums for Women, Children, PWD and other Vulnerable Groups to contribute to Development Planning. 3) Organized Musrena Keren in the village, sub-district and regency, and ensured that the group's proposals were included in the Village budget and Regency Government budget. B. The Cadre’s Capacity Development 1) Mentor Recruitment is openly conducted by Women Empowerment and Children Protection Division of Regional Social Affairs Office based on candidate’s working experience in the community, voluntarism, gender and inclusive development. 2) The training materials include facilitation techniques, human nature, gender and social inclusion, Women's Human Rights, Rights of PWD, Children's Rights, Gov-ernance, Community Organizing, Social Analysis and Advocacy, and Leadership. 3) Mentors facilitated capacity development for village cadres. 4) Mentors assisted the cadres in the advocacy process for inclusive village govern-ance that includes: - Open access and active participation of vulnerable groups in every stages of development and budgeting process at village, sub-districts and regency levels. - The involvement of women and vulnerable groups in filling positions as village officials, members of the Village Representative Body and participating in vil-lage head elections. - Encouraging the issuance of policies/regulations on women friendly villages, children friendly villages, disability friendly villages, and service networks for Women, Children, PWD and Vulnerable Groups. - Facilitation of communication media development at village and sub-district levels through citizen journalism training.

a. Some villages had not held consultations with women and vulnerable groups and not allocated them in village budgets or included them in regional priorities. Therefore, Bappeda issued technical instructions so that 30 percent is the result of consultation with those groups. On budget constraints, the consultation and capacity building activ-ities used shared-budget and e-learning. b. Mentors had not mastered regional development priority programs and were not in-volved in consultations. Therefore, their capacity building includes policy frameworks and development planning. c. Journalism skills are still low. To motivate them, their writings are published on local government social media accounts.

In development planning process in Indonesia, efforts have been made to increase com-munity participation through Musrenbang. However, women's participation was still lim-ited to elite groups and had not specifically involved disabled and vulnerable groups. What makes this innovation unique is that it opens access to and participation in consulta-tion forum. In addition, In addition, through community schools, capacity development for women, children, PWD and other marginalized groups enables them to identify problems, have ideas, propose activities for development planning, and oversee development imple-mentation.

Several cities and regencies in Indonesia have made innovations to eliminate discrimination against women. The city of Banda Aceh has special consultation forums dedicated for Gampong women. Meanwhile, Kuburaya Regency has community schools for women. What makes SUPER KEREN different is that, this innovation combines the two, namely providing a special space in development consultations as well as conducting capacity development, which targets not only women but also children, PWDs and vulnerable groups. This engagement uses a holistic approach in order to improve access, participation, control and benefits in development (holistic village development).

MUSRENA KEREN has been integrated into Regional Planning Information and Village Fi-nancial Systems. Aspirations are collected through social medias such as Whatsapp (0822-3334-3800) and Village government’s accounts. Some of the capacity building activities are conducted through e-learning and zoom meetings due to pandemic situation. Journalistic skills were improved by publishing in social medias. The cadres conduct community organ-izing via online disability data collection (https://bit.ly/form_disabilitasTGLK) and online re-ports of women and children requiring special protection (https://bit.ly/laporp3atrenggalek connected to the Women's Empowerment and Child Protection service unit in the Social Affairs Office).

The initiative has not been transferred and adapted to other context.

Super Keren is possible to transfer because many regions face similar problems. The ap-proach taken is to optimize the existing equipment and budget. Things that can be trans-ferred are: 1. The basic idea of innovation, namely providing broad access for women, children, PWDs and vulnerable groups in planning and overseeing the development process. 2. Establishment of Community Schools to increase their capacity in organizing, managing and advocating development. 3. On the systemic level, the MUSRENA KEREN is integrated into the Musrenbang so that the results of the Musrena can become a priority proposal. 4. Strengthening capacity for participation in consultation forum uses several learning modules, such as simple social analysis skills, programs/activities preparation, advocacy to government through formal and informal channels. The modules are delivered with adult learning method and knowledge sharing. The transfer process can be carried out because Trenggalek Regency has opened itself to become a learning house for other cities and regencies. Additionally, East Java Provincial Government facilitates regencies and cities in the East Java region to learn from Treng-galek. Until now, there are 3 regencies/cities, namely Probolinggo, Pacitan, Madiun, that have visited and studied.

1) The cost for preparing regulations and modules and training mentor is Rp. 450,000,000, while the implementation costs Rp. 12,000,000/village. 2) Human resources consist of: a. 15 members of mobilization team, consisting of Bappeda, Village Community Em-powerment Service, Inspectorate, Regional Finance Agency and other relevant agencies. b. 25 mentors are experienced volunteers with gender perspective who have worked in communities. c. 5-10 cadres per village. 3) Community awareness to learn independently by utilizing community consultation activities to help the government with limited resources and initiate replication by BPD women's forums in three sub-districts where they established independent learning fo-rums and aspiration posts.

SUPER KEREN is sustainable through strengthening government policies on gender devel-opment and collaboration between local governments and NGOs. The innovation has been regulated in the Regulation of the Regent Number 1/2019 on Consultation Forum for Women and Vulnerable Groups and the Draft Regional Regulation on Child Friendly Cities expectedly issued by the end of 2021. This program also involves collaboration with NGOs and receives financial support from Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Division of Social Affairs Office, Bappeda, Village and Community Empowerment Office, and village budgets.

Yes

The external evaluation was carried out by KOMPAK by collecting data through interviews and FGDs with informants involved in the design and implementation stages of the pro-gram. These informants were purposively selected based on their information qualifica-tions and positions. Internal evaluation is conducted by the local government and the Re-gent through an online form at https://bit.ly/desa-inklusifSDGs and through a self-assessment by each village government.

Evaluation by the Regent includes the implementation of MUSREN KEREN, number of ca-dres trained, budget allocation, regulation and establishment of women’s and children’s shelters. The indicators are: 1) Implementation of MUSRENA KEREN in every village 2) The involvement of women, children, PWDs and vulnerable groups. 3) Level of proposed programs and activities 4) Proposed programs and activities are accommodated in village to regency development planning 5) Policies that have been and will be issued 6) Number of Cadres organizing community 7) Availability of village children and disability forums and facilitation 9) Availability of referral services for women, children and PWDs.

Achievements until mid-2021 are: 1. SEPEDA KEREN has been established in 11 sub-districts (78.5% of the total 14 sub-districts in) with a total of 500 cadres produced and spread over 86 villages. Despite having limited time and budget, the target number of cadres reached 96.4%. 2. 65 villages already have a system and mechanism for collecting data on vulnerable groups. 3. More than 800 persons with disabilities have voices their needs to village and re-gency governments 4. 85 villages are committed to becoming Women Friendly Villages 5. 78 villages are committed to becoming Child-Friendly Villages 6. 20 villages are committed to becoming disability-friendly villages and migrant-care villages. 7. 153 villages (100%) have organized Musrena Keren, while 84 villages have allocated budgets for activities to empower women, children, PWDs and vulnerable groups. 8. There is representation of women in Village Council. For all villages to play an active role in gender perspective development, the require-ment is the strengthening of pro-gender regulations. Also, the commitment of mentors in assisting cadres needs to be strengthened with technical/thematic materials related to village budgets, ethics in understanding disability, child facilitation, family counsel-ling and entrepreneurship training.

The Bupati's Decree on the Gender Mainstreaming Working Group assigned 1. Bappeda to facilitate and foster MUSRENA KEREN in the Sub-Districts and Regency. 2. Village and Community Empowerment Office and Village Facilitators to mainstream a gender perspective in village policies and budgets. 3. Women's Empowerment and Child Protection Division of the Social Affairs Office to pro-vide technical assistance to community schools, assist in data collection on disability, pro-vide referral services for women, children, and PWDs. 4. Legal Department to assist in the preparation of village legal products. 5. Sub-district offices to oversee priority proposals resulting from women’s and vulnerable groups’ consultations. 6. Other related institutions in accordance with thematic learning materials. Institutional supports from non-government institutions (with MoU): 1. BPR Jwalita provides capital with very low interest and without collateral. 2. BAZNAS provides social protection and other vulnerability issues. 3. JAPRI and Indonesia Hebat (Femalepreneur) collaborate with the Government of Indone-sia to foster 500 entrepreneurs 4. Child Protection Agency provide services for children with special protection and chil-dren's forums. 5. CSR Forum provides financial support for women's economic empowerment and social services. 6. NGOs assist in thematic coaching for women, children and disability issues.

Government 1. Regency Government, through RPJMD (Regional Mid-Term Development Plan) and Re-gent’s Regulation No. 1/2019, stipulates gender mainstreaming and participation of women, children, PWDs and vulnerable groups in development. 2. The Village Government allocates a budget for the implementation of consultation fo-rums and capacity building for women and vulnerable groups, as well as preparing vil-lage policies/regulations. Communities: 1. The Indonesian Women's Coalition, Institute of Society and Development Studies, FITRA, SABDA, Children Protection Agency and PUSPA FORUM prepared technical guidelines, community school modules, as well as evaluation and monitoring guidelines. 2. Women and Children Organization and religious organizations build service networks and synergize by becoming family counselors and service systems for women and chil-dren who need special protection. 3. Children's Forum as a place for children's participation as pioneers and reporters 4. Disability Forum as a place to participate in conveying aspirations and data collection, and to receive empowerment, rehabilitation services and referral services. 5. Baznas provides empowerment programs in response to the need for social protection and economic empowerment, which cannot be financed by village, district, provincial and central government budgets. Private Sectors The CSR Forum provides financial support to improve social services.

a. The participation of women and vulnerable groups has been accommodated in the consultation forum. For villages and sub-districts to consistently hold this forum, a cir-cular letter from the regent will be issued every year. b. An improvement in the quality and quantity of gender responsive programs in the vil-lage requires guidance by technical offices for a better impact on women and vulnera-ble groups. c. Mentor's commitment in assisting village cadres will be strengthened by providing technical/thematic materials, such as: village budgets, ethics in understanding disabil-ity, child facilitation, family counselling and entrepreneurship. d. There was an increase in the village's commitment to being female-friendly and caring for children (55% of villages), disability-friendly (14%) and have children's and women's shelters (24%). These villages will be further assisted for the preparation of accountable village legal products. e. Networks of protection services have been established in villages and have used the in-ternet for reporting and data collection on disability. f. Several outcomes have been achieved, but evaluation and monitoring guidelines are needed as well as evaluation forums to improve the quality and quantity of output. g. Advocacy will continue to be carried out to the mobilization team and gender focal point in the village and regency.