Indonesian South-South Cooperation: Stepping Up the Institution and Strategy for Indonesias Development Assistance

This paper reviews Indonesia’s South-South Cooperation (SSC) efforts with an aim of providing policy recommendations to improve Indonesia’s management and implementation of its development assistance. The National Coordination Team on South-South Cooperation (NCT-SSC)—the current national institution mandated with SSC in Indonesia—is suffering from fundamental constraints in terms of coordination, organization, and institutionalization. Furthermore, the efforts to further the institutionalization by establishing a single agency for SSC have been progressing very slowly due to a lack of firm legal basis on one hand, and a proclivity for practical, business-as-usual approach on the other. To improve the institution and programming of Indonesian development assistance, a number of recommendations are suggested. First, a strong legal basis through the issuance of a Presidential Regulation on SSC management should be pushed to serve as a precursor to the single agency. Second, better public communication and outreach should be conducted to promote the SSC programs. Adequate monitoring and evaluation system should also be developed to measure program impacts. Moreover, Indonesia needs to have a strategy to promote the participation of business sector in SSC, such as by promoting firms’ participation as contractor or a source of fund for projects in beneficiary countries. Finally, expertise in specific fields, such as agriculture and tsunami and earthquake risk management, should be promoted as a niche branding of Indonesia’s assistance.