Indonesia: Empowering Communities to Solve Problems

Sleepy Tirtomoyo, a tiny Indonesian village 100 km south of East Java's capital city Surabaya, may have to change its name. Tirtomoyo," which literally means "lack of water," due to the village's chronic condition, is one of 20,000 villages across Indonesia benefitting from the Kecamatan Development Program (KDP) -- the largest community-driven development program in the world.

The basis of KDP is the provision of block grants directly to villages for financing grassroots-level development initiatives. The residents of Tirtomayo held meetings to discuss how they planned to use the grants. They knew exactly what they wanted: improved access to water. With the help of facilitators and technical experts, they worked together on a plan to translate this dream into reality. An underground deep well was then dug with machines rented from the city, high-capacity pumps were brought in, and a network of pipes were then installed.

"In the past, development programs were handed down to us, and people up there decided our needs," said one proud villager. "The KDP empowered us to make our own decision based on the real need on the ground. We were involved in the process from the very beginning and we're happy with the result."

Sense of ownership is also evident. The people in Tirtomoyo have gone to great lengths to maintain the water system and think of ways to maintain it. And they themselves decided that a certain fee needed to be collected to keep the service going.

"What's interesting about the KDP is that it promotes grassroots democracy and accountability," said Andrew Steer, Country Director for Indonesia. "And the story in Tirtomoyo provides a compelling case that when people are empowered, things gets done better because they have a direct interest for it to succeed. The Bank is very proud to be associated with the KDP and we are now going through the third phase of the program which will expand it further to around 28,000 villages across the Indonesian archipelago."

KDP has grown from 25 villages in 1998 to the current level of 28,000, serving approximately 35 million rural poor. The Bank lent for the first two phases of KDP and is providing some $250 million for the third phase, for a total of $845 million, a blend of IBRD loans and 200 million in IDA credits.

Task team leader Scott Guggenheim thinks that three factors account for KDPs spectacular growth. First, KDP came at a historically crucial time for Indonesia, with economic, administrative and political crises creating an urgent need for new ways to reach the suddenly increased numbers of poor. Second, KDPs modular design and reliance on village capacities allows for quick adjustments, without the drawn out tenders, mobilization and coordination problems that other programs face. Finally, KDP draws on the private market for its technical and social facilitators instead of using government staff, so skilled people can be recruited and deployed from a much larger pool.

Updated January 2004

The Kecamatan Development Project (KDP) was one of 11 field visits that led up to the Shanghai Conference on Scaling up Poverty Reduction (May 25-27, 2004). For more information on the KDP Field Visit, click here.