U4 Theme: Donor coordination in anti-corruption

Indonesia: donor support to the Partnership for Governance Reform

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Institutional Set-Up of the Partnership

The Partnership for Governance Reform in Indonesia is a coop arrangement between Indonesian government, civil society organizations, private sector and Indonesia's international partners (including all U4 partner agencies), aimed at facilitating and supporting governance reform in Indonesia.

A Partnership office has been established in Jakarta in late 2000 as the vehicle to coordinate an integrated and coherent approach to international support for governance reform in Indonesia with national ownership. The Partnership office functions under the authority of a Governing Board, consisting of key Indonesian leaders as well as representatives of international donor missions and organizations - among them the ambassadors of Sweden, Canada, the Netherlands and Great Britain.

The office comprises both the Partnership Facility and the Indonesian Governance Trust Fund.

1. The Partnership Facility fosters dialogue and analysis on governance issues by engaging with, and bringing together stakeholders, in the process of reform; acts as a catalyst for the development of reform strategies and programs of action; connects governance reform activities with international experience and expertise;
   
   
2. The Indonesian Governance Trust Fund aims to support activities that directly or indirectly promote governance reform in Indonesia. This fund is directly disbursed to Indonesian institutions both government and non-government.

The Partnership formally started as an UNDP project, as a means of facilitating administrative arrangements and ensuring accountability for all donor funding. Under this arrangement, Bappenas, the State Planning Agency acts as the executing agency for the Partnership, and UNDP provides direct implementation support to the Partnership as it carries out its responsibilities for both the Facility and the Trust Fund. It is, however, the Executive Board of the Partnership that has responsibility for all decisions relating to the strategy, work plans and budget allocations of the Partnership. In 2003 the Partnership has obtained its own legal status as an association, however, the process of independence is gradual and the administration of the trust fund remains with UNDP for the time being.

The Partnership focuses its work on six priority sectors, which are fundamentally interlinked. These six priority sectors consist of four programs: legal and judicial reform, representation reform, security and police reform, and civil service reform; and two crosscutting programs of decentralization and regional autonomy and anti-corruption. To complement the six priority sectors, the Partnership conducts activities to further enhance its multi-stakeholder perspective to strengthen engagement of civil society and the corporate sector with governance reform.

U4 Partner Agencies' Support

From 2000 to 2004 U4 member countries have committed the following amounts to the Partnership:

At the moment there is no breakdown available on how much of the U4 countries support in particular went to the Anti Corruption Program of the Partnership. The challenge is to reconstruct whose money went into which project before 2004, since most funds were not earmarked and Finance Unit has just recently started to assign funds to certain projects based on accountancy.

Coordination with Other Donors

Since 2000 the Partnership regularly facilitates donor meetings of those donors supporting or just interested in anti corruption initiatives in Indonesia. Since the Anti Corruption Commission was established in late 2003, the Partnership has also facilitated four donor meetings particularly for and together with the Commission. The anti-corruption donor working group meetings are also attended by U4 donor representatives, the most having been the Royal Netherlands Embassy, DFID and GTZ. Since Anti Corruption activities in Indonesia funded by the Norwegian and Swedish Embassy (Sida) have mostly been channeled through the Partnership, a good working relationship exists. A regular output of these meetings is the so-called Anti Corruption Donor Matrix, which is entirely based on self-assessment. All donors considering their projects as "anti-corruption" may include information on their projects.

Although the Policy Advisory Committee of which UNDP, World Bank and ADB are members does not meet regularly anymore, the Partnership maintains a very good working relationship with the Deputy Country Director of ADB, the Governance Units of the World Bank and UNDP.

Relevance of the Partnership

The Partnership does not consider itself merely an agent for donor concerns, but as a vehicle for governance reform, a door-opener and agenda-setter. In general the Partnership has better access to policy- and decision-makers and CSOs than other donors, since prominent and trustworthy Indonesian nationals are active on both board and executive levels. "National ownership" can indeed make a difference when it comes to approaching sensitive issues and persuading government officials to try doing things in a different, more transparent and participatory way.

The Partnership has achieved a lot and, despite weaknesses in the conduction of monitoring and evaluation induced by system and resource limitations, three major achievements can be stressed: A wide network of reform-oriented individuals and institutions could be established, and this nurtured our partner's improved understanding of governance issues and the development and building of bridges between different sectors of society.

Major lessons learned at Partnership level

1. Multi-stakeholder approach essential to accelerate the reform agenda
   Applying a multi-stakeholder approach in project development and management provides the projects with more resources in introducing the initiatives and implementing activities, as well as more opportunities and guarantees in obtaining supports for project improvement and replication.
   
   
2. Local stakeholders are important to maintain initiatives at local level
   Working with local partners helps the projects and Partnership to have a better understanding on local conditions and gain more support from local stakeholders in the development and management of the initiatives. These partners have been useful in maintaining initiatives at local level, to ensure sustainability of the initiatives, especially when support from Partnership or other donor agencies has ended.
   
   
3. Combining 'capacity from within' and 'pressure from without' to accelerate reform
   Promoting comprehensive reform strategies of "capacity from within, pressure from without", by strengthening capacity of state institutions and policy makers, and improving capacity of the public to control over policy-making process and policy implementation, helps the projects to effectively achieve reform objectives.
   For further information see: http://www.kemitraan.or.id/lesson.php

Anti-Corruption Lessons Learned Publication

A booklet on lessons learned of 10 of the anti-corruption partners that where supported by the Partnership with donor funds has been printed in May 2006.

During its first two years, the Partnership for Governance Reform produced in-depth diagnostic work on the problem of corruption in Indonesia. Based on this research and a comprehensive public consultation process undertaken to develop a national action plan to fight corruption, the Partnership started to implement the strategy and suggestions in 2003. The Partnership has launched a number of initiatives on its own, but has also supported selected partners in the implementation of projects that fit within the Partnership's strategy.

To date, the Partnership has supported and been party to a number of efforts and achievements that deserve to be made public beyond the short-lived coverage normally provided by the print and electronic media. They need to be reported in more detail as they demonstrate unique and inventive approaches to tackling corruption. Therefore during 2005, 10 of our grantees were selected and their spokespersons were asked to write their lessons learned led by a number of key questions. Simultaneously to the Indonesian version an English version of the publication has been prepared, since English language information on lessons learnt beyond project reports has been sparse.

The purpose of this publication, "Fighting Corruption from Aceh to Papua" (Melawan Korupsi dari Aceh sampai Papua), is to encourage discussion and replication in Indonesia and other parts of the world. The book will be available for download from the Partnership's website in July 2006.

An external evaluation of the Partnership's and its grantees achievements was conducted in January and February 2006. The result will be shared with all Partnership donors and probably beyond.

References used and widely quoted:

• Partnership for Governance Reform in Indonesia Annual Reports 2002, 2003, 2004. http://www.kemitraan.or.id/publications.report.php
  
  
• Leaflets:
  1. Partnership for Governance Reform in Indonesia. Frequently Asked Questions.
     
     
  2. Vision & Mission
     

For more information please contact:

Communication and Knowledge Management Division
Partnership for Governance Reform
Surya Building 10th floor
Jl.M.H. Thamrin Kav. 9
Jakarta 10350
Indonesia
ckm@kemitraan.or.id

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