KSI Update, February 2017

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Greetings!

President Joko Widodo’s recent visit to Australia and the high level discussions between the two governments were summarised in a Joint Statement which importantly highlighted a number of development cooperation investments, including the Australia Indonesia Science Symposium as an example of key people-to-people links with innovation and science as new areas for bilateral collaboration between the two nations. This follows successful presentations made by KSI Partners (SMERU, PSHK and PKMK-UGM) at the Australasian Aid Conference to share experiences in advocating evidence based policies. This month was also highlighted by the Data Revolution for Policy Makers Conference held by Pulse Lab Jakarta with KSI support. Other updates on Gender Equity in Research and Higher Education and a range of other February events show the increasing momentum across Indonesia’s knowledge sector as KSI moves towards the second phase.

Enjoy and we look forward to your comments and input!

Salam KSI!

International Conference on “Data Revolution for Policy Makers”

Over 300 researchers, policy makers, activists and data analysts, Government of Indonesia representatives, entrepreneurs, UN agencies, and civil society organizations gathered in this conference which took place under the theme of “Expanding the Evidence Base: Government Demand for Advanced Data Analytics in Indonesia” (learn more)

Prof Ocky Karna Radjasa, the Director of Research and Community Services opened and delivered the knowledge sharing remark in Jakarta said: “Hopefully there will be a productive discussion to obtain the good recommendation to support female scientists in Indonesia and to contribute to better gender equity in higher education and research”.

Government committed to increase the number of research grants for women

KSI in collaboration with The Australian National University (ANU) and Kemenristekdikti conducted two knowledge sharing sessions on Gender Equity in Research and Higher Education in Hotel Luwansa Jakarta on February 1, 2017 and in UIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta on February 3, 2017. As a result of these events, Kemenristekdikti, through the Directorate for Research and Community Service, has committed to increase the number of research grants given to women and to ensure that more women are included the academic writing clinics. The introduction of GESI criteria for all of research grant schemes will be implemented next year. The Directorate will also host a round table discussion with the Ministry of Religious Affairs (for Islamic universities) and LAN/KemenPAN-RB (for civil service colleges) to encourage consistency GESI implementation in higher education. (learn more)

“Local actor-led policy development” - KSI and Partners at the 2017 Australasian Aid Conference

The aim of the 2017 Australasian Aid Conference was to bring together researchers from across Australia, the Pacific countries, Asia and beyond, who are working on aid and international development policy to share insights, promote collaboration, and help develop the research community. KSI organized one breakout session in the conference on “Local actor-led policy development: new evidence-based approaches from Indonesia”. Three KSI partner representatives (SMERU, PSHK and PKMK-UGM) presented papers in this session which described the different ways the three KSI-supported organizations have been able to influence public policy and highlighted an increase in responsiveness under the present Jokowi administration. (learn more)

“The Financial Benefits to Using Data for SDGs” with Dr. Luis Crouch

In his visit to Jakarta to attend the Data Revolution Conference, KSI was fortunate to have Dr. Luis A. Crouch, RTI’s International Development Group’s Chief Technical Officer, to share his insight on using data in a knowledge sharing event entitled “The Financial Benefits to Using Data for the Sustainable Development Goals” – a paper co-authored with Julio Rank. Dr. Crouch started his presentation with “it is not just about knowing the cost of information, but also knowing the value of information”. Using a number of mathematical models, he shared his modeling results using data from education in Africa - a comparison of the impact/value of standard practices (“business as usual”) versus best practices.  (learn more)

“Meritocracy and Open Promotion System” – Revisions to the 2014 Civil Service Law

As part of a series of advocacy events to discuss the possible revision of the 2014 Law on Civil Service (UU Aparatur Sipil Negara, or ASN) with special attention to merit-based recruitment and open promotion, FITRA (Indonesian Forum for Transparency of Budgets) with the support of KSI organized a half day national seminar on 8 February 2017 at Akmani Hotel. (learn more)

Bridging the Knowledge Gap to Inform Policy Making (Village Study Forum)

On 9-10 February 2017 in Bandung, the eight institutions involved in the Forum Kajian Desa got together for internal peer review of the studies they are implementing. Eko Cahyono, the Executive Director from SAINS appreciated the dynamic debates in the forum as feedbacks for improvement of the study and inputs from fellow partners are enriching SAINS’ analysis for rural development issues. Each partner is an expert on specific perspective within the research sphere and therefore by having these consolidated perspectives in the study it is expected to give a comprehensive analysis useful for policies. (learn more)

The complexities of "smart" practices across Indonesia

Bappenas’ Knowledge Centre with support from KSI visited the provincial Bappeda of North Sulawesi on 6-8 February 2017 to identify and verify smart planning and budgeting practices. The Knowledge Centre Team recognises the value and importance of conducting surveys to identify and verify smart practices, instead of preparing questionnaires for self-assessment by initiator of smart practices. (learn more)

The Research Excellence Alliance: Indentifying Assets

Members of the Alliance for Research Excellence met in Jakarta on 7-8 February to formulate its program, including identifying their assets and its contribution to improving research quality, and key activities. (learn more)

Supporting GoI’s Strategic Policy Formulation: MoU between KSP, AIPI and ALMI

On 13 February 2017, the Executive Office of the President (KSP) signed a memorandum of understanding with the Indonesian Academy of Sciences (AIPI) and the Indonesian Academy Young Sciences (ALMI) to collaborate on scientific and technical support in areas of common interest including the study and management of strategic issues around social issues, culture, and ecology. This cooperation is expected to support the programs and activities of the national priorities by providing input or scientific research in support of government's strategic policy formulation on the basis of evidence-based policy making. More news: https://bit.ly/2lL1C0x

AISS Follow-up: Continued discussions and collaborations

AISS was mentioned in a Joint Statement between the Government of Australia and the Government of Indonesia during President Joko Widodo’s visit to Australia on 25-26 February 2017. As follow up from its inauguration on 1-Dec-2017, 10 discussions for further collaborations between scientists from the two countries continued to evolve. (learn more)

Estimate Return on Investment of Policy Research and Policy Engagement

SurveyMETER and KSI are continuing testing the estimation of the return on investment of policy research and policy engagement, using the metholdogy developed by the Think Tank Initiative to three cases of policy influence by SurveyMETER on ederly friendly policies and programmes in Balikpapan, Denpasar and Jakarta. (learn more)

Infographic: “The Knowledge Sector in Indonesia: Academic Publications Performance”

This colourful infographic shows Indonesia’s number of academic publications compared to other countries, its increased outputs between 1996 and 2014, number of publications cited in journals and Indonesia’s co-authorship in publications. (download)

“Policy Journal Diagnostic Study”

Despite being the fourth most populous country and the fourth largest democracy in the world, Indonesia lags behind its neighbouring countries in explaining itself to the world. Only ten percent of international publications on Indonesia are written by Indonesian researchers and academics. This poor performance has been linked to the educational policies of past government administrations, which narrowed the role of universities and restricted their ability to provide input for development strategies. (download)