Delegation of Indonesian local government reformers visits Making All Voices Count

Yesterday, a seven-member delegation of Indonesian local government staff, led by the Regent of Bojonegoro Mr Suyoto Ngartep Mustajab, visited the Insitute of Development Studies to share learning and experience about implementing Indonesia’s open government commitments.

The delegation, en route to Paris for the the Open Government Summit, were received by members of the research, evidence and learning component of Making All Voices Count, and programme director Dr Fletcher Tembo.

Bojonegoro is  a local government area in the eastern Java, and is one of 15 local governments from across the world which are participating in the Subnational Government Pilot Programme of the Open Government Partnership, working closely with civil society organisations to develop specific commitments to open government at the sub-national level.

Mr Mustajab gave a seminar about the ways that Bojonegoro Regency has been working towards practicing open government and open participation since 2008, and it has used a range of different tech and non-tech based approaches to achieving their goals.

I see myself not only as politician, but as educator, facilitator and spiritual leader transforming the local culture. In Bojonegoro, we are  transforming public service from "ego to eco, selfish to service" - Suyoto Ngartep Mustajab, Regent

More than 30 IDS staff and postgraduate students attended the seminar, with a great deal of interest. It ended with a lively session of questions, answers and discussion.

In Indonesia, the local government of Bojonegoro is currently incorporating and scaling the Making All Voices Count project Game My Village.

Following the seminar, the Making All Voices Count team met with the delegation to share the details of more than ten research projects that the programme is supporting which focus on accountable and responsive governance in Indonesia, including Kota Kita's research on participatory budgeting in ten Indonesian cities, and CIPG's research on public complaints mechanisms as accountability tools, which was partly carried out in Bojonegoro Regency.

Finally, Mr Mustajab was himself the subject of a research interview. IDS researcher Rhiannon McCluskey spent an hour learning about what motivates him as a government reformer for an IDS-Making All Voices Count research project on government champions of responsiveness and accountability.