From Local to National: Learning from SurveyMETER Study

KSI supported SurveyMETER in its efforts to produce the three researches mentioned above and undertake advocacy processes that promote policy improvements. KSI provided an adaptive funding scheme so that SurveyMETER could design and implement their planned advocacy research

From Local to National: Learning from SurveyMETER Study

SurveyMETER is a non-government research organisation whose objective is to help provide a better understanding, accurate information, and reliable data to policymakers and the general public regarding factors influencing sustainable public policies. To achieve this, the organisation, which was established on February 20, 2002, collaborates with knowledge organisations, policymakers, and domestic and international researchers in designing, planning, and implementing high quality data collection. Their experience of conducting large scale surveys since 1993, such as the Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS), a very rich and comprehensive household and community panel survey, serves as the driving force behind the establishment of this organisation. This initial experience has become a standard in carrying out high quality data collection, and a motivation to continue to do so in other studies. In time, SurveyMETER has not only collected data, but also carried out scientific writing study from the survey data, including conducting independent studies and policy advocacies.

Studies for policy improvement currently being undertaken by SurveyMETER include the Replication and Scaling Out the Integrated System to Manage Stunting Based on Household and Individual Data (Sistem Terpadu Penanganan Stunting Berbasis Data Rumah Tangga dan Individu (SiTepatRamah)), subsequently called the Village and Local Data Integration System (Sistem Integrasi Data Desa/Kelurahan dan Daerah (SIDKD)) in Nganjuk District, the Community-based Elderly Health Study related to Community Health Center (puskesmas) services, Integrated Service Post (posyandu) and elderly conditions, and the Early Childhood Education (PAUD) Study in implementing the curriculum adaptation services during the pandemic in Yogyakarta Province.  SurveyMETER hopes to help improve the design of social, economic, education, health, and disaster management policies by improving research quality serving as the basis for these policies.

Replication and Scaling Out

The SIDKD Program is a replication and scaling out program from the SiTepatRamah, previously named the Integrated System to Manage Stunting at the Puskesmas Level (Sistem Terpadu Penanganan Stunting di Tingkat Puskesmas (STPSP)), which was carried out by SurveyMETER on 2018 in Patianrowo Subdistrict, Nganjuk District. It is called a replication because it uses the same procedure, but with a wider data theme beyond mother and child health data. This replication and scaling out program aims to present demographic data (individual and household characteristics), mother and child health data, village characteristics data, and supporting data for policymaking at the village/subdistrict, Puskesmas, and district levels. Information is presented through an integrated dashboard, starting from the Neighborhood Association (RT) level all the way to the district level.

In addition to available information in the dashboard, SurveyMETER also tries to develop stakeholder capacity from the village to district level on good data collection, reading and analysing data, and periodically updating the necessary data. Data collection is done through a census in 20 villages across five subdistricts in Nganjuk District by Health Cadres of the Youth Association (Karang Taruna), subsequently named Data Cadres, supervised by facilitators from SurveyMETER. Referring to the Presidential Regulation Number 39 Year 2019 on One Data Indonesia and Nganjuk District Head Regulation Number 43 Year 2020 on One Data at the Local Level, the database development team of Nganjuk District is under the coordination of the Communication and Information (Kominfo) Office as the data trustee, the Local Planning and Development Agency (Bappeda) as the supporting data trustee, and all Local Working Units (OPD) as data collectors, managers, as well as analysers and users.

 

Data collection was temporary halted due to high number of confirmed COVID-19 positive rate in Nganjuk District in mid-December 2020. When it was stopped, the census data aggregate had reached 81% of the population target. This was a good achievement. Based on the achievement of the study and program logic development, SurveyMETER agreed on long-term and short-term goals for the sustainability of this replication and scaling out program.

The long-term goal is the allocation of Nganjuk District’s budget to update data in the dashboard through the 2022 Village Budget and the SIDKD system, in which the date is regularly updated and used for local planning. Meanwhile, in the short-term, SurveyMETER targets the availability of 70% village profile data and subdistrict potential data across 20 villages/kelurahan in SIDKD. SurveyMETER also endeavours to integrate SIDKD with the One Data Indonesia (SDI) Program at the local level in Nganjuk District. Besides locally, SIDKD replication made for Nganjuk District was successfully developed by SurveyMETER as an Instrument to Develop the Information System for Elderlies (SILANI) in 2019, which is being used by Bappenas.

Feedback for Curriculum Adaptation and National Action Plan

SurveyMETER is engaged in a feedback study on the adaptation of Early Childhood Education (PAUD) and National Action Plan (RAN) on Elderly Health. The independent study on improving elderly services carried out by SurveyMETER disseminated information on study results and conducted piloting for Community Health Centers (Puskesmas) and Integrated Health Posts (Posyandu) within the study area. The background behind this study is that Indonesia is entering an aging population, thus there needs to be elderly treatment programs that are more comprehensive, high quality, and integrated between sectors, at the village, Posyandu, Puskesmas, and Health Office levels.

Study results show that the reach of health screening for elderlies still needs to be optimised and directly proportionate to the number of health staff. The needs to conduct screening is not only limited to vital signs for elderlies, such as measuring heartbeat, blood pressure, and looking at their weight, but there is also a need to measure their mental and cognitive status. Besides being concentrated at Puskesmas, it is also important to do these screenings at Posyandu. Elderly screening is not only about the ability of the health staff/Posyandu cadre, but also the willingness of elderlies to participate in said screening.

Other than screening, the study results also identify the need for dementia training for staff in Puskesmas and Posyandu. Study results show that more than 50% of staff have not received any dementia training, including geriatrics training. Based on data in these findings, SurveyMETER formulated six recommendations, namely the need for the Health Office to disseminate the Minister of Health Regulation Number 67 Year 2015 to Puskemas that have not received them, encourage Puskesmas to: conduct more dementia counselling at Posyandu and to the general public; give more staff training on geriatrics, and preventing and handling dementia; provide more training on elderly health screening to its cadres; extend cross sectoral collaboration and cooperation with the private sector through the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) scheme, and upgrade Puskesmas that still in the Primary (Pratama) level to improve to Intermediate (madya) and madya to Complete (paripurna) level.

The study related to PAUD curriculum adaptation during the pandemic in Yogyakarta Province shows that the curriculum is used in 12 modules across 23% of PAUD institutions. These 12 modules issued by the Ministry of Education and Culture to assist learning in PAUDs during the pandemic are very useful, and school supervisors/owners/principals/parents said that they can be used next year, namely the 2021/2022 school year. However, diagnostic assessment at the beginning of the learning has not been carried out optimally, not all teachers have conducted affirmative mentoring to students, and learning about character values and six aspects of student development was not delivered during the pandemic, and we all need to pay attention to this.  This result has been presented to the District Education Office with several principals, PAUD managers, and school supervisors/owners, and has yielded various responses. Based on the study result and presentation, SurveyMETER developed a program logic with a long term goal of the inclusion of study result recommendations, namely scaling up its supporting program for digitalisation literacy, increasing the use of 12 modules at PAUD units, and the need to encourage, motivate, and mentor teachers and all parties to improve character learning and learning about six student development aspects in policies/practices/budget related to PAUD teaching and learning.

Support from Knowledge Sector Initiative (KSI)

KSI supported SurveyMETER in its efforts to produce the three researches mentioned above and undertake advocacy processes that promote policy improvements. KSI provided an adaptive funding scheme so that SurveyMETER could design and implement their planned advocacy research. In addition to funding, KSI also provided support through mentoring to develop program logic, map stakeholders, and sharpen advocacy strategy so that SurveyMETER is able to strategically deliver their policy influence. KSI also introduced SurveyMETER to stakeholders at the national level, such as the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), enabling them to expand and strengthen their networks.

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