AUICK's Strategy Development in Indonesia

Following the annual meeting of the AUICK International Advisory Committee (IAC) in Surabaya, a delegation flied to Jakarta, and visited the Indonesia Office of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Indonesia Office of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on 5 December 2006, to discuss the possible future collaboration between the both bodies in promoting AUICK's strategy development in Indonesia.

Visit to the UNFPA Indonesia Office

First, the AUICK delegation, composed of Dr. Hirofumi Ando, President, Dr. Haryono Suyono, Indonesian Member of the International Advisory Committee; and Mr. Yoshikane Fujimoto, Executive Director; and Mr. Nobuyuki Morimoto, Deputy Executive Director, visited the UNFPA Indonesia Office and met with Dr. Bernard Coquelin, UNFPA Representative; Dr. Ghazy Mujahid, Advisor on Population Policies and Development; and Dr. Richard Joanes Makalew, Programme Coordinator for Population and Development Strategies.

UNFPA engages in an extensive planning process to develop its multi-year country assistance programs. This includes integrated planning together with other UN agencies, Indonesian government offices, universities and non-governmental organizations. The current UNFPA country program focuses on the most needy provinces and districts. In these areas, it assists in building data bases for district level programs especially in fields of reproductive health, HIV/AIDS and gender empowerment. There is also a new effort to integrate country level planning with UNFPA regional plans, under which AUICK is supported.

After a detailed presentation of UNFPA planning processes and current strategies, Dr. Haryono Suyono identified two different approaches used by UNFPA and AUICK and suggested ways of integrating the two. For example, UNFPA now focuses its efforts on a select number of provinces and districts considered the neediest. These have the lowest scores on various indices, such as the poverty index, human development index and gender empowerment index. AUICK, on the other hand focuses on developing model cities programs. Through effective training and data collection, the nine AUICK Associate Cities can become models of how to collect and use data for more effective management of urban population and welfare problems. These can become models for better urban administration throughout the country. In one area, there is already close affinity between UNFPA and AUICK strategies: the issue of South to South cooperation. AUICK already uses urban administrators from its nine cities to help each other develop effective population and development strategies.

Dr. Haryono also suggested important ways that the AUICK and UNFPA strategies can be more effectively integrated. For example, Surabaya can hold workshops for people from UNFPA provinces and districts. These workshops can provide information on the experiences Surabaya urban administrators gained in their AUICK trainings. Surabaya can also provide assistance in data collection and use in urban administration. Under AUICK assistance, Surabaya has completed a baseline data collection exercise and uses the data in STELLA modelling to examine possible future scenarios. These dynamic modeling exercises provide a useful way for urban administrators to examine their current conditions, plot about possible future developments and plan to enhance positive trends and alter negative trends.

The meeting provided an important opportunity for exchange of information on UNFPA and AUICK strategies and activities in Indonesia. The both parties agreed to remain in close communication on possible future collaboration between the two organizations.

Visit to the JICA Indonesia Office

The AUICK delegation also visited the JICA Indonesia Office, and met with Mr. Keiichi Kato, Resident Representative.

Mr. Kato briefed the delegation on the current support programs for local NGOs conducted by the JICA Indonesia Office. The delegation discussed with him and his staff possible collaboration between the JICA Indonesia Office and Dr. Haryono so as to promote his plan as mentioned at the meeting in the UNFPA Indonesia Office. The participants in the meeting agreed to further communicate with each other.