Category: Deputy II

The Executive Office of the President (KSP) has expressed its readiness to collaborate with organizations committed to supporting Indonesia’s national strategic programs, particularly in the area of special needs education for disabled individuals.

On Tuesday (31/1), representatives from the Nippon Donation Foundation, a Japanese foundation that focuses on peace and disabled education, met with the Chief of Staff to the President Dr. Moeldoko at the Bina Graha Building in Jakarta.

During the meeting, the founder of the Nippon Donation Foundation, Yuma Muranushi, expressed his concern for the promotion of education for children around the world. The foundation has already donated to education programs in Yogyakarta, Surabaya, and several cities in Indonesia.

“The Indonesian government has several programs, such as the Indonesia Pintar card and the Kartu Pra Kerja program, which ensure that Indonesian youth have a good future. However, we also welcome and appreciate those who have a good spirit to contribute to education in Indonesia,” said Moeldoko.

In addition, Moeldoko hopes that through collaboration with Japan, disabled students can be given knowledge transfer in technology, graphic design, and pop culture.

“Japan is famous for its pop culture, manga, and anime. Many Indonesian children, including disabled children, actually have a lot of potential in graphic design. It would be great if disabled students could be given special education in graphic design for pop culture such as anime and manga, which have a huge market in Japan,” Moeldoko continued.

The retired TNI general also hopes that this collaboration can provide financial assistance for education in schools.

Despite the government providing affirmative scholarships for disabled children, the limited number of special schools is still a barrier for disabled children to access these benefits.

“As many as 70% of experts in KSP are millennials who also care about education issues. They are the ones who handle the nation’s problems here. So, KSP is ready to be a bridge between the needs of the disabled community for access to education and international parties committed to helping realize progress in education in Indonesia,” concluded Moeldoko.

Banyuwangi – The Deputy Chief of Staff for Human Development, Abetnego Tarigan, said that President Joko Widodo has paid special attention to the “social forestry” program administered to grant welfare and rights to communities.

He told the forest village community in the Gombengsari sub-district and Kalipuro sub-district, Banyuwangi, East Java, that the government has aimed to reallocate 12.7 million hectares of state forest to be given to the local communities under the so-called social forestry program.

“It’s not only about granting land rights to the people, but it is also about providing opportunities for the people to get the economic benefit from the land. That’s what the President wants,” said Abetnego.

As part of his official visits to Banyuwangi, Monday (20/6), Abetnego praised the joint-effort between state-owned or private companies and local communities to manage forests.

There are 458.40 hectares of land belonging to the state-owned forestry company, Perum Perhutani. The land is currently managed by the North Banyuwangi management units (KPH). in collaboration with a local Forest Village Community Institution (LMDH) Kemuning Asri.

The partnership is well implemented under Government Regulation No. 23/2021 on forestry administration, referring to the Environment and Forestry Ministerial Regulation No 9/2021 on social forestry management, as well.

As Abetnego applauded such collaboration, he also hinted that the Executive Office of the President (KSP) has been pushing for the issuance of a Presidential Regulation (Perpres) on Integrated Planning for the Acceleration of Social Forestry Management.

The urgency of the Presidential Decree, he said, was to provide a roadmap in accelerating the social forestry program, so that the reallocation target of 12.7 million hectares of land could be achieved with collaboration and support from civil society. 

“So that the empowerment of forest village communities can be further improved and the program can provide an economic boost as expected by the President,” said Abetnego.

Chairman of the Forest Village Community Institute (LMDH) Kemuning Asri Fakhurrozi admitted that the Collaborative Forest Management had made a positive impact on the community itself, especially in Gombengsari village.

He further said, partnering with Perhutani has been providing job opportunities and allowing an increase in production from the use of non-timber forest sources. Both in the agricultural, plantation, and livestock sectors.

“We are now starting to try to produce semi-finished or finished products so that they have more selling value. Such as coffee, corn and cassava,” said Fakhurrozi.

“We will always support Pak Jokowi’s programs as we have witnessed the goodness coming from it,” he added.

Forest ecosystems in Indonesia support nearly 50 million Indonesians, many of whom live under poverty. Thus, the aim of the social forestry scheme is not only to curb deforestation, but also to reduce poverty by giving people access to manage forests and get economic benefits. 

Up until January 2022, the program has granted a total of  7,479 land titles for ​​more than 4.9 million hectares of state forest to more than a million households.

Jakarta – The United Nation’s sexual and reproductive health agency (UNFPA), on Monday (13/6), has announced the Indonesia’s National Population and Family Planning Board (BKKBN) as the winner of it’s 2022 UN Population Award.

The Senior Advisor to the Presidential Chief of Staff, dr. Brian Sri Prahastuti has applauded the Award as the global acknowledgment towards the successful works of BKKBN. Furthermore, she praised the family planning field officers and consultants for their unending commitment in providing family planning services, especially for fertile age couples.

“The presence of the family planning field officers and consultants has proved the BKKBN as a strong institutionalized agency that plays a leading role on population issues, raising the quality of family life,” said Brian, Tuesday (13/6).

The UN Population Award has honored individuals and institutions for their outstanding contributions to population, development and reproductive health, since 1983. 

One of the many outstanding results of BKKBN’s demographic initiative is the reduction of the total birth rate (TFR) from 5.6 to 2.2 births per woman from 1970 to 2000. The decline in the birth rate slows the rate of population growth and affects the quality of public services.

According to Brian, Indonesia’s success in suppressing the rate of population growth must be followed with the improvement of the quality of family life.

Further, she added, Indonesia would soon face a demographic bonus. Thus, the agency should not only dwell on the issue of the number of children and the distance between births. It should also talk on the matter of family resilience in various fields; health, economy, children’s education, as well as happiness, nutrition, quality of sanitation, and the environment.

“Stunting or malnutrition should become one of the top problem priorities to be solved,” she said.

Stunting, low height for age, carries long-term development risks and lowers future productivity, hampering the development of future human resources.

President Joko Widodo has put his concern over the matter by launching a childhood stunting policy through Presidential Decree (Perpres) No. 72/2021 on the acceleration of stunting reduction among children under five years. This new policy effectively underpins the National Strategy to Accelerate Stunting Prevention 2018-2024.

“It is indeed not an easy job to reduce the stunting rate to 14 percent in 2024, while it is still at 27.6 percent at the moment. But the government has been very optimistic with BKKBN and their family planning initiatives. The task now seems not to be so difficult to achieve,” said Brian.