by Lia Marpaung and Sugiyanto
On 17 and 18 May, KSI organised an international workshop to review and reflect on the results of the five-year implementation of KSI Phase 1. The workshop was held in the Hotel Crown Jakarta and was the last of three workshops being conducted from January to May. The focus was to gain inputs from strategic partners, the Government of Indonesia and high-level advisers. A small number of international experts were also invited to provide international views and perspectives on the evaluation results. Inputs obtained from the discussion will be used to finalise the KSI Phase 1 Review.
Dr Leonard Tampubolon, Bappenas Deputy on Economy, and Dr Nicola Nixon, Counsellor, Poverty and Social Development at the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, attended the workshop. Dr Tampubolon said that since 2013 KSI had contributed significantly to the development of the knowledge sector, more specifically for Bappenas-related work. He emphasised the continuation of that contribution to the second phase of KSI. Dr Nixon said the partnership between KSI and the two governments of Australia and Indonesia had been significant. She said the development of knowledge, research and evidence-based policy would be invaluable.
Panel discussions centred on the KSI team’s achievements, other DFAT funded projects, international experience, and the Indonesian national pathway to addressing research challenges by representatives of the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education. Focus group discussions, ‘Ted Talks’ and stories of change were also organised. These were very popular with participants.
Presentations by international speakers captured participants’ interest as they provided another lens through which to view the knowledge sector, as well as experiences of other countries. Jenny Lah, independent consultant and author of a global study of think tank donors presented on the reduction of global funding for the development sector. She said the world should think about other ways to face funding challenges, one of which could be crowd funding (local, CSR, philanthropy, private, etc.). Ahmedi Vawda from the Department of Monitoring and Evaluation of the President’s Office of South Africa presented experiences using monitoring and evaluation strategies to support the effectiveness of the national development goals of the South African Government. He explained how the use of monitoring could impact on the effectiveness of development. Samar Verma, a Senior Program Officer for the Think Tank Initiative, presented his experience from a Global Think Tank Initiative on organisational strengthening.
The two other international speakers were Julie Brittain, the Executive Director of INASP, and Veronica Taylor, professor of Law and Regulation at the College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University (ANU). Ms Britain discussed the knowledge system and research that needs to be strengthened to develop a productive knowledge sector environment. She addressed the importance of supplying room for research publications that are accessible to various knowledge actors and described experiences from Uganda, Ghana, Sri Lanka and Mongolia, which have been successful in establishing a publication environment system.
Ms Taylor discussed new approaches taken in Australia to bring researchers and policy makers together. Australia has a public policy ‘incubator’, a ‘place to cook new policy’. It invites colleagues from NGOs, government and civil society to be involved in intensive discussions to look at public policy. Ms Taylor highlighted the need to speed up the process of policy making, as sometimes policy has to be announced quickly. Australia incentivises this collaboration, enrolling civil society, business and government to create applied policy solutions.
Other experiences from Indonesia were presented by Prof Dimyati from the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education, and Prof Jamaludin Jompa from the Indonesian Young Scientist Academy (ALMI). Prof Jompa said the creation of ALMI was a strategic step achieved in Indonesia to promote the national science agenda, while Prof Dimyati shared current significant progress achieved by Indonesia in addressing research problems. Prof Dimyati said some regulations had been revised, new partnerships for research had been flourishing, and some research impediments had been addressed. He concluded that making progress on research in Indonesia would need more strategic steps and more collaborative action between Indonesian knowledge stakeholders.