Palangkaraya, Kemitraan - On 15th February 2010 Central Kalimantan’s Provincial Government signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Partnership for Governance Reform in Indonesia on Support and Program Development to Improve the Implementation of Good Governance Principles in Local Administration in Central Kalimantan. The Governor of Central Kalimantan, Agustin Teras Narang representing the Central Kalimantan’s Provincial Government as the first party and the Partnership Executive Director, Wicaksono Sarosa representing the Partnership as the second party signed the MoU.
The MoU is the extension of the first MoU signed in 2008 which ended on December 2009. Both the Partnership and Central Kalimantan’s Provincial Government notice that many projects under the first MoU are still on-going, thus it is important to sign new MoU to confirm the legal basis.
“(The signing of the MoU) shows Partnership’s commitment in supporting the establishment of good governance principles in local administrations in Central Kalimantan,” explained the Partnership Project Manager, Joko Waluyo, when asked about the background of the extension and the signing of the MoU.
Teras Narang said that the signing of the MoU proves the cooperation between the Partnership with Central Kalimantan’s Provincial Government is positive. He further hoped the Partnership could assist the local administrations in central Kalimantan in implementing good governance principles.
During the same occasion, aside from signing the MoU, both parties (the Partnership and Central Kalimantan Provincial Government) also signed the Letter of Agreement (LoA) on the Central Kalimantan REDD implementation preparedness. Central Kalimantan regional secretary, Thampunah Sinseng and the Partnership Program Director, Nurul Almy Hafild signed the LoA.
Based on the MoU and LoA document (paper), the scope (area) of cooperation between the Partnership with Central Kalimantan Prov Gov are among others:
1. Environment and Peat Land Development Master Plan. The cooperation in these areas includes: Peat Land Development Master Plan dissemination, public consultation, and experimental trials; customary land mapping and land ownership; local government officials and community capacity building in formulating a better public policy; and climate change campaign.
2. Economy and trade in the context of climate change. This includes: the formulation of academic paper and public consultation of the Draft of Central Kalimantan Regional Regulations on Climate Change.
3. The empowerment of the indigenous people living inside and around forest areas. This includes: construction of community-based forest management model
4. Good governance. The cooperation in this area includes: stabilization of the e-procurement system; development of the one-stop service system; and local government officials capacity building in implementing the District-level Integrated Administration System.
As the part of the MoU implementation, mainly related to the peat land development, the Partnership has conducted village-level public consultation in 228 villages in and around the Peat Land Development area, which was participated in by not less than 7,005 people. District-level public consultancy in 22 districts gathering 1,117 people. Currently, the Partnership is conducting public consultancy in the regency/municipality level in Palangkaraya city, Pulang Pisau regency, Kapuas regency and Barito Selatan regency.
Looking ahead, the Partnership is planning on organizing province-level public consultations on 27th of March 2010 in Palangkaraya. The results of these public consultations will be presented in a seminar on 19th of April 2010 in Jakarta.
