US-AEP Countries - Indonesia - Accomplishments

The public awareness campaign aimed, first, to keep pressure on the government to follow through with its commitments on time, and second, to prepare the public for using unleaded gasoline. The campaign sought to increase the public’s level of understanding about the dangers of lead, the benefits of unleaded gasoline, and increase public acceptance of a fuel price increase. The campaign targeted car users, street vendors, bus and minivan drivers, the automotive industry, students, national Muslim organizations, key government offices, and other stakeholders. Representatives from each target group helped design an action plan to prepare for the use of unleaded gasoline.

Through the end of 2001 and in 2002, KPBB held public debates and forums, distributed data on the new fuel composition, and reported on independent testing results of gasoline lead content in Jakarta which confirmed lead levels had dropped. The campaign has raised awareness of the dangers of lead and has provided the most consistent and focused pressure to date on the government and PERTAMINA to follow through with the commitments to phase out leaded gasoline. The Jakarta area has enjoyed unleaded gasoline supply without interruption for one year as of July 2002.

US-AEP partnered with Swisscontact and a host of Indonesian government agencies to support the printing and social integration of a unique set of school textbooks for students and teachers: Air Pollution from Motor Vehicles: Efforts to Raise Awareness. The textbook introduces students from grades 4 to 6 to air pollution’s causes, effects, and prevention in urban areas.

US-AEP supported distribution of 5,000 sets of the books to 900 schools in Jakarta, together with brightly colored large posters. In addition, the Jakarta Department of Education, on its own budget, distributed another 20,000 sets to the total 4,000 elementary schools in the Jakarta area.

US-AEP also supported training workshops that engaged 131 teachers in discussions about Jakarta’s air pollution problems and teaching methods for this subject. Reflecting the need for such training at an early age, the Ministry of Education officially integrated the air pollution textbook into the formal national curriculum for all Indonesian schools.

Counterparts from other Asian countries have found the book so innovative and useful that they have begun translating the book to their languages. In the Philippines, the books are soon to be printed in English.

US-AEP deployed its regional cooperation capabilities in order to share lessons learned regarding solid waste management from Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines and the United States. US-AEP, together with the Singapore Ministry of Environment and the Indonesian Ministry of Environment, held an international workshop in Jakarta, “Developing Urban Municipal Solid Waste Management Systems and Institutions,” in May 2002. More than 100 participants attended from 22 metropolitan areas across Indonesia, including Mayors, city sanitation and finance departments, research institutes, NGOs, and the Ministries of Environment, Health, and Technology.

The Philippine speakers shared their successes in social and economic contexts similar to those currently in Indonesia, including the Philippines Ecological Solid Waste Management Act. Of particular interest to the Indonesian audience was the Philippine experience building partnerships between community groups, local governments, and local companies to manage urban waste.

U.S. speakers presented management techniques that could lead to full cost recovery in the municipal waste sector. The speakers also presented experiences conducting stakeholder participation processes for disposal siting and other contentious issues, as well as information about U.S. technologies. The Singapore speakers shared successful waste minimization and recycling programs in a space-limited context, including operation of an off-shore landfill.

The Indonesian participants identified principles for better integrating community and government efforts to manage solid waste at the local level. Participants outlined ways to improve compost operations as a key strategy for minimizing waste volumes and transport costs in urban areas. A visit to the Rawasari demonstration treatment site provided participants with a first-hand view of one community-operated waste minimization project.

The workshop provided Indonesian decision-makers with useful information about regional Asian experiences at different levels of development. Participants developed ideas for new roles for community groups, such as creating NGO-city agreements that would improve city services. The organizers are awaiting a follow-up proposal from the Singaporean Ministry of Environment.

With financial and logistical assistance from US-AEP, representatives of water utility associations in the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand met in Hanoi in August 2002. There they established the Southeast Asian Water Utilities Network (SEAWUN) for information sharing, advocacy, and regional cooperation for better delivery of piped water. The head of the Indonesian Water Supply Association was elected SEAWUN's first chairman.

The initiating members of SEAWUN include the Indonesian Water Supply Association, the Vietnam Water Supply Association, the Philippine Association of Water Districts, the Malaysian Water Supply Association, and the Thailand Provincial Waterworks Authority. Collectively, the five founding associations represent over 2,000 water utilities. Increased regional cooperation among the associations in the areas of performance monitoring, benchmarking, and training will accelerate improved delivery of piped water for urban areas.

During its first three years, SEAWUN will create and develop print and electronic outreach materials; prepare profiles of member utilities; and identify mechanisms to make SEAWUN a long-term, sustainable network. The establishment and development of SEAWUN demonstrates the value of US-AEP’s regional presence and expertise.

Poorly established training programs often become tar babies for donors. If donors stop funding them, they die, but if they continue funding them, the training programs often cling to life without improvement, continually in debt and continually in need.

The Indonesian Water Supply Association’s Board of Governors determined that in order to be more relevant and more cost-effective, centralized training should be dispersed to the provinces. Yayasan Pendidikan Tirta Dharma (YPTD), the training arm of the Indonesian Water Supply Association, asked for US-AEP’s assistance in making a master plan for an effective and cost-recovering training program in the provinces.

The seven week Pre-feasibility Reconnaissance for Education in the Provinces (PREP) study was launched in March 2002. The team used a questionnaire to conduct interviews at training sites and in water enterprises on Java and in the provinces.

The team conducted interviews with about 100 people with emphasis on officers in the cities of Medan and Makassar where the first two training centers will be located. They determined local training needs and resources. In addition, the team identified physical locations that could be used for training and the materials and equipment that would be needed. At the end of the study, their findings were incorporated into a detailed cash flow plan showing break-even points under different scenarios.

In May 2002, at a one-day workshop in Jakarta, the PREP team presented its recommendations to YPTD, other stakeholders, and donors. Although it was prepared in only seven weeks, the plan was so thoroughly thought-out that it was accepted by the YPTD Board as a full-fledged feasibility study. Because the Medan and Makassar training center plan was shown to be self-supporting and sustainable, it was very popular among the donors who viewed support as being less risky. To date, a donor has committed to providing $300,000 worth of equipment for the two centers, and other donors are considering program support. The committed assistance alone is worth more than 8 times the US-AEP contribution.

Implementation of the plan is expected to provide a method for decentralization of training that can be used in other provinces. Because of the intensive contribution of the US-AEP-assisted PREP study, YPTD now has a “bankable” plan that is attracting donor start-up support. If it is followed, the master plan will provide demand-driven professional water enterprise training on a sustainable basis.

Between December 2000 and July 2001, through a US-AEP grant for Water Enterprise Functional Training (WEFT), a team of Indonesian water curriculum experts prepared training modules for a three week-long water enterprise directors’ management course to be offered on a cost-recovery basis. Due to recent decentralization reforms, a one-time input of up to 200 water enterprise directors (out of 300 directors nationwide) was expected in 2001/2002. The modules were designed to help new managing directors understand the lessons learned from previous programs, decentralization effects, and the new consumer protection law.

For the first time in Indonesia’s history, new water enterprise managing directors received training before managing local governments' water supply assets.

In the first year, the WEFT grant leveraged the training of 47 directors. Tuition was $700, paid by the water enterprises, resulting in a gain of $32,900. The leverage will grow proportionately greater in subsequent years. Thus, US-AEP’s assistance not only provided training for new water enterprise directors, it also helped create an asset (a highly-regarded set of training modules) that increases professionalism in the water sector while enhancing the sustainability of the training institution, Yayasan Pendidikan Tirta Dharma.