The first inter-ministerial coordination meeting for the launching of Joint-SDG Fund in Indonesia
Responding to the devastating impact of COVID-19 on the socio-economic and food security status of the extremely poor, the vulnerable and the middle class in Indonesia, the Ministry of National Development Planning (Bappenas) and the United Nations in Indonesia held the first inter-ministerial session on September 8th, 2020 to address policy initiatives that will ensure no one is left behind by the pandemic and the social protection system in is more responsive to future shocks. The meeting which was attended by 112 participants from 16 government ministries/bodies, the UN Resident Coordinator Office (RCO) and five UN agencies also marked the launch of these two joint programmes: Joint SDG Fund and COVID-19 MPTF.
During the strategic meeting, initiatives were explored to support long-term policy reforms in the field of social protection. The topic is also aligned with the current National Medium-Term Development Plan 2020 – 2024, which aims to reform the social protection towards Adaptive Social Protection (ASP) that are responsive to climate change and disasters.
Joint SDG Fund leverages the critical expertise and delivery capacities of UN Agencies, harnesses the resources of the public and private sectors, and offers whole-of-government and whole-of-society approaches to help close gaps in country preparedness and response plans and safeguards progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. The Joint SDG fund is supporting the Government of Indonesia to lay policy foundations and test operations ASP system during the period of 2020-2021. Within this timeframe, the goal is that the Government will have launched a comprehensive operation of cash in an emergency response with the support of the UN in Indonesia.
In response to the two joint programmes, Ms. Rd. Siliwanti, Director Multilateral Foreign Funding, Bappenas said: “We appreciate the UN Agencies that have emerged itself to create better coordination to respond to the extraordinary moment. Despite the pressing timeline up to December 2020, we need to keep optimistic in finding a coordination mechanism to monitor progress and achievement, share integrated system in terms of planning, financing and monitoring to ensure everything will be harmonized and achieved.”
“We are optimistic that the collaboration with the UN through this joint program will support the Government of Indonesia in laying policy foundations with evidence on fiscal space, contributions towards a multi-stakeholder roadmap, policy revision, identification of vulnerable groups, information systems, standard operating procedures, and an accountability system,” said Mr. Maliki, Director for Poverty Alleviation and Social Welfare Development, Bappenas.