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Indonesia uses SWA Building Blocks to plan universal sanitation by 2019

Sanitation and Water for All Secretariat
28 Mar 2019
In 2017, Indonesia joined SWA and is now on a steady path of providing universal sanitation access in the country.

The strategy for achieving universal access is to expand the sanitation service coverage based on the need. For instance, basic sanitation access for 15% of the households that are in areas with low sanitation risk and low density. On the other hand, improved sanitation access for the remaining 85% of the households that are covered by both on-site and off-site treatment system, with the underlying target of become 100% Open Defecation Free (ODF). Thinking beyond toilets, solid waste management is a crucial component of sanitation development in Indonesia, especially in urban areas. By 2019, the target is to reduce solid waste generation by 20% and to collect and treat 80% of solid wastes at the final processing site.

Key challenges

Indonesia has identified four main challenges in its path towards universal access:

  • Low capacity and commitment of local government in providing sanitation services.
  • Inadequate coordination between stakeholders, especially between health sector who conducts public awareness program and public works sector who provides infrastructure.
  • Poor awareness of good sanitation practices, with difficulty in sustaining behaviour change.
  • Insufficient financing at central and local government bodies and also at the level of community.
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Multi-pronged Approach to Achieve Universal Access

To achieve universal access, Indonesia has adopted a multi-pronged approach by adapting SWA Building Blocks for effective convergence in sector planning, coordination, financing and monitoring.

Indonesia uses SWA Building Blocks to plan universal sanitation by 2019

 

  • High political priority to WASH: In Indonesia, universal access to sanitation is mandated by law in National Long-Term Development Plan 2005-2025 and is also emphasized by the Presidential Regulation on Acceleration of Provision of Drinking Water and Sanitation. Additionally, a Presidential Regulation on SDGs also calls for goals and indicators to be set, non-government stakeholders to be involved, coordination and task distribution to be ensured, and a roadmap and National Action Plan to be developed. As a mid-term strategy, the country has also set a goal of “universal access to sanitation in 2019” in its Mid-Term National Development Plan 2015-2019. This Plan was developed by the Ministry of National Development Planning (Bappenas) through cooperation and consultation with related ministries, National Working Group on WASH and also development partners, such as UNICEF and WHO.
     
  • City Sanitation Strategy: In Indonesia, sanitation is full responsibility of Local Government by law. Since 2010, cities and districts had prepared their plans on a single platform, called the City Sanitation Strategy (CSS). The CSS is a decentralized government plan that guides investments in domestic sanitation and wastewater/sludge treatment facilities at district or city level. Moreover, the Regency/City Alliance for Better Sanitation (AKKOPSI) was established to consolidate commitment of cities/districts towards sanitation– this alliance has grown from 12 cities in 2009 to 491 cities/districts in 2018.
     
  • WASH Forum, an ad-hoc coordination forum for policy, programs development and monitoring and evaluation system has been established. The forum is organized at national, provincial and city/district levels. It helps in reaching agreements on the target/indicators for sanitation including for SDGs, improved WASH programmes, mobilisation of new mechanism of funding, and inputs to formal planning and budgeting process.
     
  • Almost a 9-fold increase in budgetary allocation by central government from approx. USD 183 million over 2005-2009 to approx. USD 1.3 billion over 2015-2019, especially for Environmental Health Sector (PLP) at the Ministry of Public Works and Housing dedicated for sanitation.
     
  • Mobilisation of new and innovative financing mechanisms for the sector, such as the performance-based sanitation grants, use of zakat (religious blended finance), microfinance, special allocation fund, and the village fund.

 

The Road Ahead

Despite the progress, the country still faces many challenges in achieving the expected acceleration towards its goal of universal sanitation access. Therefore, over the coming years, Indonesia will continue to intensify the multi-pronged approach, by creating a comprehensive database of sanitation, improving advocacy to and building capacity of the local governments, strengthening knowledge management through national WASH conferences, capturing lessons from city sanitation summits of AKKOPSI, and retaining momentum with innovative schemes of financing.

Indonesia regards its membership in SWA partnership as a highly strategic effort in supporting the country to achieve universal access of water and sanitation, as well as a means in sharing the country experiences with other countries to achieve global universal access in sanitation.