Indonesia has just begun another of its
prominent roles overseas. It is hosting another meeting of the High Level
Panel of Eminent Persons (HLPEP) on the post-2015 development agenda in
Bali, from 25-27 March.
United
Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, has appointed President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono to cochair the panel, along with President Ellen
Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia and UK Prime Minister David Cameron. The
meetings have previously been held in New York, London and Monrovia.
The inception
of the HLPEP signifies the commitment and awarness of state parties to
achieve their foremost objectives for 2015, namely the Millenium
Development Goals (MDGs), and the future of the MDGs after 2015.
Accordingly, the panel focuses on poverty eradication and promotion of
sustainable development.
Why was
Indonesia appointed as cochair? The UN secretary-general affirms that the
work of the panel will reflect new development challenges while also
drawing on experience gained in implementing the MDGs, both in terms of
results achieved and areas for improvement.
This
statement implies that Indonesia has a perceivably good record in
attaining its MDGs. For example, since 1990, Indonesia has been able to
reduce the number of people living in poverty, from 20.6 percent in 1990
to 11.9 percent in 2012.
Nevertheless,
the cochairmanship job poses challenges and opportunities. Indonesia’s
key means of tackling poverty lies in its capacity to manage population
growth.
The scarcity
of basic needs, such as food and energy, is the challenge while a
population explosion occurs. The more the population grows, the more
scarcity strikes the country, thus poverty is seemingly inevitable.
“On the
population factor, our success in tackling poverty depends on our success
in managing our population growth. The global population has increased by
2 billion in less than three decades, surpassing 7 billion in 2011. Such
a scale of population growth will impact on our ability to provide food,
energy and other basic services,” said President Yudhoyono.
Critics say
that Indonesia still suffers from poverty. Although the poverty rate has
decreased, the number of families living on or below the poverty line
remains significant.
The World
Bank reported that in Indonesia 75 percent of low-income workers were in
the informal sector; more than 60 percent of poor families depended on
income from agriculture; 55 percent of the poor had limited primary
education and 16 percent were illiterate; and 50 percent of the poor
lacked access to clean water (The Jakarta Post, Feb. 13, 2012).
However,
Indonesia is not dismissive about tackling stumbling blocs to poverty
alleviation. Accordingly, Indonesia has established the Master Plan for
Expediting Poverty Eradication (MP3K) aimed at achieving a poverty level
below 6 percent by 2025, as well as the Master Plan for the Acceleration
and Expansion of Indonesian Economic Development (MP3EI) which focuses on
accelerating the infrastructure development process.
These
measures represent Indonesia’s commitment to the post-2015 agenda which
integrates economic growth, social inclusion and environmental
protection, as prescribed in the communiqué from the meeting in
Monrovia.
Despite the
challenges, the position as the cochair allows some opportunities. The United
Nations Development Group (UNDG) has entrusted Indonesia with conducting
multi-stakeholder dialogues and inclusive consultations.
As a result,
these consultations will allow the UN in Indonesia to present to the UNDG
a synthesis of voices from across the country at a grassroots level, as
well as at both the national and sub-national levels.
For
Indonesia, this crucial role will help to improve economic and social
measures to eradicate poverty. The President has emphasized that measures
should focus on human development which include education, health,
equality for girls and women, as well as infrastructure, job creation,
social protection, accountability, justice and non-violence.
Consistent
with the focus of the post-2015 development agenda — poverty reduction
and sustainable development — the “blue economy” can be one of the
alternatives. Gunter Pauli promotes the blue economy as an instrument to
generate value, jobs and social capital in order to build initiatives
that respond to the needs of the people and compete in the world market.
In other
words, the blue economy can help local communities to employ all their
available resources, bringing them into production and consumption
activities with minimal social and environmental costs. (the Post, March
11).
Moreover,
Indonesia could articulate more deeply ideas and solutions — including
but not limited to the blue economy — for sustainable economic
development along with the broad pariticipation of many stakeholders.
For instance,
the Bali regional meeting on the post-2015 development agenda which opens
today will be a valuable channel to promote the solutions to youth, civil
society and the business community; hence, the principles of social
inclusion and economic growth can be exercised hand-in-hand through this
proposal.
Now it is
time for Indonesia to renew its commitment to the MDGs. By being the
cochair it has the motivation for the country to develop, even though
challenges and opportunities remain. Thus, Indonesia’s leadership in the
post-2015 development agenda should articulate those challenges and
opportunities in order to fulfill its commitment to the MDGs. ●
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