Indonesia Action Plan Review 2022-2024

Indonesia’s seventh action planAction plans are at the core of a government’s participation in OGP. They are the product of a co-creation process in which government and civil society jointly develop commitments to open governmen... includes promising commitments on open contractingA transparent procurement process, known as open contracting, increases competition, improves public service delivery, and ensures governments better value for their money. Technical specifications: C... More, access to justiceAccessible justice systems – both formal and informal – ensure that individuals and communities with legal needs know where to go for help, obtain the help they need, and move through a system tha... More, and combatting sexual violence. The implementation period offers an opportunity for targeted efforts to strengthen high-level government investment in open government reforms, and ownership from implementing agencies.

Indonesia’s seventh OGP action plan contains 15 commitments. Most of these commitments build on previous plans and continue efforts in areas such as open contracting, beneficial ownership transparency, access to justice, election data transparency, and local government social accountability. Other commitments introduce new initiatives focused on personal data protection, election disinformation, inclusive digital accessibility, sexual violence, natural resources data, and legal protection for environmental cases.

The Open Government Indonesia (OGI) Secretariat of the Ministry of National Development Planning led the action plan development process. A national civil society secretariat led by MediaLink mobilized civil society participation.[1] The House of Representatives did not submit an open parliamentEnsuring access to legislative information and creating mechanisms for public participation are critical to building an open, trusting relationship with citizens. Technical specifications: Commitments... More action plan concurrently as it had in the previous two cycles.

Co-creation followed a similar process to prior cycles but showed improvements in terms of outreach and reasoned response to civil society. Before the start of the formal co-creation process, the OGI Secretariat gathered input on strategic directions for the action plan through a survey that received 52 responses from government and civil society respondents. Through OGI Goes to Campus, the secretariat collected 361 problem statements and solution ideas from young people in Medan, North Sumatera. These proposals were categorized into several themes. During the first stage of the formal co-creation process, OGI opened a call for proposals from August to September 2022, receiving 27 commitment proposals from government and civil society. From September to December 2022, joint civil society and government working groups finalized the commitments—all of which emerged from civil society proposals.^[2] Overall, OGI was more proactive in facilitating opportunities for civil society and government meetings. However, engagement still primarily centered on the civil society and government stakeholders already involved in previous processes. OGI continued to face challenges in convening cross-government consultation, particularly in terms of reaching high-level officials and ensuring ownership of commitments.

Commitments are better designed compared to previous action plans. Each commitmentOGP commitments are promises for reform co-created by governments and civil society and submitted as part of an action plan. Commitments typically include a description of the problem, concrete action... addresses causes of the problem it is addressing and analyzes what has been done thus far as well relevanceAccording to the OGP Articles of Governance, OGP commitments should include a clear open government lens. Specifically, they should advance at least one of the OGP values: transparency, citizen partic... to open government values. They distinguish between proposed solutions and intended results and list expected outputs for each milestone, including stakeholders that will be involved. Some commitments could benefit if implementers were to revisit the milestones and identify more concrete targets (for example, Commitment 2).

Three commitments offer promising reforms in the areas of open contracting, judicial proceedings accessibility, and sexual violence. Commitment 1 would expand procurement information to be disclosed online by government bodies and support the implementation of a new public information service standard that mandates enhanced transparency. It also intends to improve the reporting procedures and support uptake of the e-complaints channel for public monitoring of government procurement. Commitments 11 and 14 build momentum to enhance the accessibility of the judicial system and policymaking process for marginalized groups. Commitment 11 aims to introduce guidelines on proper accommodation for persons with disabilities by the Attorney General’s Office. As the commitment does not plan for a regulationGovernment reformers are developing regulations that enshrine values of transparency, participation, and accountability in government practices. Technical specifications: Act of creating or reforming ..., its results will depend on sufficient budget allocation and strong institutional support. Commitment 14 would carry forward opportunities to participate in the development of regulations on establishing restitution funds intended for victims of sexual violence and local government units responsible for providing support to them. The commitment’s potential for open government results could be strengthened by substantially widening civil society involvement, compared to prior participation opportunities.

Several other commitments could strengthen their potential for results. Commitments 3, 4, 7, 10, and 13 touch on important policy issues, but do not clearly outline the necessary concrete steps to achieve their intended policy reforms. Beyond developing analysis, guidelines, regulations, and legislative bills, commitments could improve their potential by passing laws or implementing recommendations. Commitments 6, 8, 9, and 12, on the other hand, could widen their scope and extend the reach of their reforms. Commitments on local government social accountability, for instance, could be scaled up to reach a wider set of regions.

In 2021, the Co-Chairs of OGP issued a global call to action for all members to use their new and existing action plans to make ambitious commitments that address core challenges on civic space.[3] And while CIVICUS monitor has assessed Indonesia’s civic space as “obstructed,”[4] the action plan does not fully take up the opportunity to strengthen civic space. Proposed commitments in this policy area that were not included in the final plan addressed restorative justice for citizen protests as well as decriminalization of Criminal Code and Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law articles that limit civic space and freedom of expressionJournalists and activists are critical intermediaries connecting public officials with citizens and serving as government watchdogs, and their rights and safety need to be protected. Technical specifi... More. Commitment 5 plans to combat election disinformation, but risks incompatibility with international standards of free expression. As such, positive open government results will depend on careful measures to address potential civic space concerns.

The implementation period offers an opportunity for targeted efforts to strengthen government investment in the action plan among high-level and mid-level officials and raise awareness of OGP across government institutions and among the public. Following the national election in 2024, responsible government and civil society stakeholders could come together to confirm the action plan program and promote its initiatives using traditional and social media channels.

Promising Commitments in Indonesia’s 2022–2024 Action Plan

The following review looks at the three commitments that the IRM identified as having the potential to realize the most promising results. Promising commitments address a policy area that is important to stakeholders or the national context. They must be verifiable, have a relevant open government lens, and have modest or substantial potential for results. This review also provides an analysis of challenges, opportunities, and recommendations to contribute to the learning and implementation process of this action plan.

Table 1. Promising commitments

[1] Darwanto (MediaLink), interview by IRM researcher, 8 February 2023; “About,” MediaLink, https://medialink.or.id/category/about/; “Finalisasi Penyusunan Renaksi OGI 2023–2025,” [Finalization of OGI Action Plan 2023–2025], Indonesia Legal Aid Association, 5 August 2022, https://pbhi.or.id/finalisasi-penyusunan-renaksi-ogi-2023-2025-bersama-masyarakat-sipil/; “Usulan Pembentukan Working Group Renaksi OGI 2023–2024,” [Proposal to Form Working Groups of OGI Action Plan 2023–2024], MediaLink, https://medialink.or.id/6-usulan-pembentukan-working-group-renaksi-ogi-2023-2024.

[2] See minute of meetings in every proposed commitment: “Proses Ko-Kreasi,” [Co-Creation Process], Ministry of National Development Planning, https://ogi.bappenas.go.id/en/kokreasiRANVII.

[3] “Actions for a Secure and Open Civic Space,” Open Government Partnership, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/actions-for-a-secure-and-open-civic-space.

[4] “Indonesia,” CIVICUS, accessed 1 September 2023, https://monitor.civicus.org/country/indonesia.