The Australian Government and Indonesia’s National Development Planning Agency have designed a 15-year joint initiative to improve the quality of public policies in Indonesia through the use of research, analysis, and evidence.
The ‘Australia-Indonesia Partnership for Pro-Poor Policy: the Knowledge Sector Initiative’ seeks to achieve this by building the capacity of Indonesian research organisations. This will improve the quality of their research and enable them to meet policy makers’ needs, who in turn will be able to develop more effective solutions for the country’s poor. As such, communication and outreach between (and among) policy makers and research organisations are a vital element of the project’s first phase.
ODI will work in a consortium with RTI, the Australian National University and the Nossal Institute for Global Health at the University of Melbourne to implement the first phase of the program. ODI will work on the ‘demand side’ of the KSI, working with Indonesian policy-makers and associated agencies from health, education and poverty sectors to increase their use of research-based evidence in the policy-making process. To meet the needs of each individual agency, the implementation team will provide tailored activities ranging from technical assistance and workshops to short courses and partnerships with existing Australian Government agencies and programmes.
The project will also seek to improve government systems and regulations to better support research-based policy making and develop effective models for procuring and using research to strengthen policy making. In an effort to bring quality research to the attention of policy-makers, the project will help establish and promote networks of civil society organisations that use quality evidence in their advocacy work.
The project will work closely with and provide support to a number of Indonesian research organisations, including university study centres, independent think tanks and NGOs. The project will help improve technical research methods, strengthen organisation leadership and management, and extend advocacy and networking capabilities.
