Keeping up with Democracy: Civil Society Needs Capacity Building

Jakarta, (20/7) – The existence of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) is crucial to maintain the flow of democracy in a country. International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID), as an NGO that has been doing advocacy work since 1985, captures the urgency of CSO empowerment programs to strengthen their resilience in delivering efforts to nurture democracy. The notion turns into an act, INFID signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) in Jakarta on July 20th, 2023 to run a capacity-building strategy titled “Building Organizational Resilience and Financial Sustainability for CSO in a Post-Pandemic Era”.

JEONG, Yun-Gil, Country Director of KOICA Indonesia (left) and Iwan Misthohizzaman, the Executive Director of INFID (right) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to run a capacity-building strategy titled “Building Organizational Resilience and Financial Sustainability for CSO in a Post-Pandemic Era”, Jakarta, (20/7).

“We humbly thank KOICA for such meaningful support. This capacity building is vital to the sustainability and growth of Indonesian CSOs. There is no better day to equip CSOs with strategic knowledge, but today. We have seen how the COVID-19 pandemic gave a catastrophic impact to the world, to the society and CSOs were not capable to mitigate, mostly due to the absence of resilience capability”, said Iwan Misthohizzaman, the Executive Director of INFID, during the MoU signing process.

The program consists of training and workshops to provide INFID members across the country with the prowess and capacity to perpetuate the sustainability of their organizations and to be able to expand their strategic planning. The training encompasses the topic on strengthening organizational capacity, project management, systems and processes. It addresses the critical issue of declining financial support from donors and lack of organizational mitigation due to unforeseen events such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

KOICA is the implementing agency of the Korean Government’s ODA grant. KOICA has provided assistance of 300 million USD to Indonesia since the establishment of KOICA office in Indonesia in 1992. KOICA has supported various bilateral cooperation programs in the fields of public administration, public health and transportation environmental protection.

“KOICA’s program has been focused on Government-to-Government program, but through the signing of MoU and the implementation of capacity building program with INFID, KOICA started to collaborate with CSOs in Indonesia. Through the momentum of this MoU signing, KOICA will widen its cooperation with Indonesian CSOs in the field of achieving SDS goals in Indonesia,” said JEONG, Yun-Gil, Country Director of KOICA Indonesia.

A survey conducted by INFID in 2020 finds that the majority of CSOs (72%) experienced a downsizing due to reduced, delayed and cancelled programs. In general, Indonesian CSOs’ responses to the pandemic are grouped into 4 categories; secure (36%), survival (11%), risky (31%) and critical (23%). Furthermore, around 46.4% of the 69 member CSO described their financial resources were drastically insufficient due to the impact of the pandemic. 73.9% also reported a limitation in funding, whereas 37.7% reported limitations in skills and capacity of the organizational management.

Another factor that adds to financial insecurity is the lack of organizational skills as a CSO. There are various areas where these skills are lacking, ranging from proposal design, project management to organizational public branding. Additionally, the mastery of stakeholder partnership and donor knowledge is also deemed poor.

“These barriers happened due to numerous reasons, such as financial constraints, lack of access, and limited resources. Most of INFID’s members acknowledged that they need capacity building on proposal-drafting and project development that is essential to sustain their work and organizations”, asserts Iwan.

The capacity building will be conducted in the form of a 6-week intensive online training. This training is developed with a curriculum guided by selected facilitators and will involve experts. This program is expected to strengthen the resilience of Indonesian CSOs which leads to a better democratic climate at the local and national level. (END)

Contact Person:
AD Eridani, Program Manager on Inequality, Partnership & Membership, INFID

Email: [email protected] 

About the International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID):

INFID is a civil society organization that has fought for development in Indonesia since 1985. INFID is accredited by the United Nations (UN) and holds Special Consultative Status for the UN ECOSOC. INFID works on three programs; 1) Reducing Inequality, 2) Sustainable Development Goals, and 3) Human Rights & Democracy.

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