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Advocacy Discussion Village Cash Management for Poor Communities

Thursday, 28 November 2019,

With FORMASI (Civil Society Forum) Kebumen, AKATIGA held a discussion “Policy Advocacy Strategy: Natural Resources/Land, Agriculture, Job Opportunities for Young People in Rural Areas. The discussion was held at Formation Headquarters, Jl. South Ring No. km. 4, Pakeyongan, Podoluhur, Klirong, Kebumen.

Attended by representatives of village officials and youth representatives from the villages of Bonorowo, Sinungrejo, Podoluhur, Sidomulyo, Kritig and Kalibeji. Also present were Rajif Diw Angga from IRE (Institute for Research and Empowerment) Yogyakarta and Agus Nahrowi from CSE (Centre of Social Excellence) Indonesia. The discussion is scheduled to share views regarding advocacy efforts to encourage village treasury land management so that it can be accessed by the poor and young people.

To open the discussion, Yusuf Murtiono from FORMASI explained that the function of prosperity land/village treasury is to make the village residents prosperous. For this reason, FORMASI is trying to encourage reform of wealth management/village treasury in Kebumen so that it can be accessed by poor residents who have nothing to cultivate.

Since the past, rental money from village treasury land auctions has been Village Original Income (PADes) which is needed for village operations. However, after the Village Fund Allocation (ADD) and Village Fund (DD), the village government should be able to let go of dependence on land rental proceeds from the village treasury. What needs to be understood is that poor people’s access to village treasury land is actually a concrete manifestation of improving people’s livelihoods and maintaining food security in the village.

Nofa from AKATIGA added about how access to village treasury land should also be allocated to young people. AKATIGA’s research found that even though young people today want to enter the world of agriculture, they are still hampered by many things. Among other things, there are difficulties in accessing land and a lack of knowledge about innovative farming that can provide better income. In this case, by allocating land for young people to access, it will be an opportunity for them to enter agricultural employment.

From the initiative driven by FORMASI, there are already several villages in Kebumen that provide access to village land to underprivileged residents and young people. One of them is Sidomulyo village in Petanahan District. Since 2014, Sidomulyo Village started this system. The benefits have been felt by the community and government in the village.

The hope is that this good practice can be transmitted to other villages in Kebumen. For this reason, it is necessary to create written references (regulations) for village treasury land management with good practices such as in Sidomulyo, which can be used as guidelines for other villages in Kebumen.

Policy Advocacy Principles and Strategies

Regarding the advocacy efforts that will be taken, Rajif from IRE and Gusrowi from CSE shared their experiences and knowledge, to provide lessons for advocacy for village treasury land management in Kebumen.

Rajif said that in IRE’s experience, the policy advocacy process started by formulating one issue or problem. Starting with mapping problems that must be seen as a whole, whether they originate from existing policies (eg. RPJMN in implementing the Village Law), or phenomena that have not been accommodated in policy.

Then locate the problem being addressed, and examine the facts at the micro level, comparing expectations and reality. After that, develop a more precise policy proposal formulation. Next is policy communication, namely conveying to related parties what must be done to change policies. Then collaborate with the parties to oversee the process of entering the proposal as government policy.

On the other hand, Gusrowi from CSE explained important principles in the public policy advocacy process. He began his presentation by clarifying the meaning of advocacy, namely the process of accompanying and defending what is the community’s rights. That is a principle. Gusrowi emphasized that in advocating a public policy, empathy is very important, namely sympathy followed by action. We need to think about the good and bad impacts that will arise and who they will affect.

The parties involved have the right to know about this, especially those affected by the negative impact. If there is resistance in the process, don’t see it as a dead end/need to go against each other. Don’t just look at the surface that seems different, but explore the depth of each other’s interests, so you can see where their interests can meet. That is the key to enabling the parties to collaborate.

Village Representative Response

When the discussion forum was opened, the responses from village representatives were quite varied and interesting. There are those who express doubts and tend to disagree. Basyuni, Bonorowo Village Official, explained that he thought the idea of ​​village treasury land management was interesting, but he chose to first study how it would be useful in other villages. However, he hopes that there will be clearer and more directed guidelines. For example, district level regulations.

Meanwhile, Kukuh, a representative of Sinungrejo village officials, revealed that they were not yet interested in the idea of ​​village treasury land for youth. Apart from the reason that village youth prefer to work overseas, according to Mas Kukuh, currently the village’s need for income from land rentals from the village treasury is still high.

On the other hand, positive responses and support also emerged from village representatives. Ruslin, a representative of Sidomulyo Village officials, said that currently they have provided poor people with access to village treasury land using a rotating auction system. And it has also provided access to young people through youth organizations.

Asrodin, Head of Podoluhur Village, assesses that this initiative is a good opportunity to reorganize treasury land in their village so that it can open up opportunities for young people. This is supported by the BPD which will draw up the village treasury land regulations.

Then Agus, a Kalibeji Village official, revealed that although the methods were different, this proposal was in line with the Kalibeji government’s vision and mission. The Kalibeji village government is currently conducting a trial of agricultural commodity diversification, namely planting bitter melon on the village head’s bent land. In the future, it will be expanded to other land areas by involving young groups as farmer partners.

Regarding Village Treasury land, even though it has been used for RT incentives, representing the Village Head’s view, Agus sees that there are still opportunities in the future. For example, if village treasury land is managed by youth, it can be optimized so that the profit sharing can meet the incentive needs for the RT.

Response and Input

Based on responses from village representatives, Rajif then provided input that could be implemented for the future advocacy process. Are as follows ; a) inventory of village treasury land and its use. Based on the PP on the implementation of the Village Law, district governments can be asked to facilitate the identification and inventory of assets in villages. b) take advantage of hamlet deliberations and village deliberations to reconcile respective interests. c) Villages need to think about how to develop an inclusive and democratic local economy. d) it is necessary to mainstream social inclusion, so that we prioritize the most disadvantaged. e) to advocate for district level regulations, apart from assessing village land governance, the villages involved need to also be facilitated to agree together on what changes are expected, so that they are taken into consideration in the policies being advocated for.

Meanwhile, Gusrowi reminded again that there is a term, deso mowo coro (every village has a way), which needs to be considered in this process. Each village has a way to solve problems, don’t let this advocacy be unable to accommodate this. To get there, you may need to come from the village government first, encourage them to think about the welfare of the people, not yet go to higher level regulations in the district.

The entry strategy uses methods and language that are easily accepted in each village. What needs to be discussed first is how all residents care about disadvantaged residents by giving part of the village treasury land that they jointly own.

In closing, Lia from AKATIGA explained that the current discussion process is in the initial process of bringing together common interests. In the future, we will continue to gather knowledge about how much land is used and for whom the village treasury is used so that we can encourage more appropriate and better policies.