by Irene A. Kuntjoro
As reported in February, an alliance of KSI’s sixteen policy research partners was established in late 2016. The Alliance have now agreed a name – Aliansi Riset Kebijakan Indonesia or ARK Indonesia – a work plan and common platform. ARK Indonesia’s creation recognised that university and nongovernmental research organisations in Indonesia face a common set of issues and constraints. ARK Indonesia aims to provide a forum to facilitate collective action to address these issues, to share knowledge, skills, and data, and to build and strengthen networks with other research organisations and policymakers. Although it currently consists of KSI’s PRI partners, it is anticipated that membership will expand to include new organisations.
Since its establishment, ARK Indonesia has put in place governance arrangements and is drafting a work plan for July-December 2017. Each of the member organisations has identified ways to align their existing activities to the draft work plan. ARK Indonesia has also established eight working groups, each coordinated by 2 PRIs (see Table 1) and a gender equity and social inclusion (GESI) taskforce directly under the secretariat.
