PNPM Daerah Tertinggal: Profile on Sub-District Facilitators in Kota Waringin Timur, Central Kalimantan

Contacts (In Jakarta):
Helena Hwang, (+62) 021 314-8175
hhwang1@worldbank.org

Facilitators during the interview

Kota Waringin Timur, 2 September 2008 –In Kota Waringin Timur, facilitators are from the community. They work with the project to provide technical assistance and capacity building training for community and government staff at the sub-district and village program management level. The community is 75% farmers (rice, vegetables, and coconuts), 10% fishermen, and 15% landowners who harvest and/or make their own food. The ethnic breakdown is 70% Malay and 30% Javanese migrants.

The biggest challenge the facilitators face is transportation to the field. For some of them, it takes seven hours to travel to the field from Sampit. That route requires taking a motorized canoe, which usually only leaves once a day.

Despite the challenges, facilitators have had success in capacity building and improving female participation. “Thanks to recent training programs, we can do needs identification and effectively brainstorm the underlying problems and potential solutions,” said one of the facilitators in Kota Waringin. In Cempaka Hulu the community health team is 100% female, and in Seranau the team is 50% female.

Long term goals for the Kota Waringin Timur facilitators revolves around the deep need to teach people about career development and how to establish the infrastructure needed for critical activities such as fishing and farming.

Published on: Tempo (english edition)