GWP Southeast Asia and its partners in Indonesia formulated a multi-stakeholder position paper which was accepted by Parliament after a series of meetings and workshops co-organized by GWP Southeast Asia together with UNICEF Indonesia, the Center for Regulation Policy and Governance (CRPG), and Jejaring AMPL (Indonesia’s Water and Sanitation Networks). The recommendations and suggestions helped decision-makers understand the perspectives of different stakeholders which led to prioritizing the issues that need to be addressed.
Right to water
Water has always been a part of human life and the aim of the sustainable development goal on water is for people to have access to safe, sufficient, and affordable water to meet their basic needs such as drinking, sanitation, and hygiene; to safeguard health and well-being; and to fulfill basic human rights. People from Indonesia were facing issues regarding low service accessibility and weak coordination in the water and sanitation sector. The drinking water and sanitation network (AMPL) was formed from multiple actors and observers in the water and sanitation sector in Indonesia to solve these issues. The Water Resource Law draft proposed has not incorporated the role of community-based water and sanitation programmes and rather focused more on the commercialization of water services. However, community-based water and sanitation programmes will contribute 60 percent of access to safe water and 80 percent of access to safe sanitation against the 100 percent universal access targets.
Power of voice
The water and sanitation stakeholders were not satisfied with the Water Resource Law and were voicing their concern to get the attention of the decision makers. GWP Southeast Asia came aboard and designed the series of discussions with the AMPL network and the people’s representative council which led to the development of a multi-stakeholder position paper. The name “Multi-stakeholders Position Paper” itself was chosen to show that the stakeholders united to voice their concerns.
GWP Southeast Asia and its partners in Indonesia successfully formulated a position paper on the inclusion of a community-based water and sanitation program for the Water Resource Law Draft of the Republic of Indonesia. The paper was presented and accepted by Parliament after a series of meetings and workshops co-organized by GWP Southeast Asia together with UNICEF Indonesia, the Center for Regulation Policy and Governance (CRPG), and Jejaring AMPL (Indonesia’s Water and Sanitation Networks).
The multi-stakeholder position paper (MSP) helps to reach out to a wider range of stakeholders and their efficient and effective contribution to the policy-making process where decision-makers could understand the multi perspectives of stakeholders, helping them anticipate and prioritize which issues need to be addressed.
Changing decisions
The meetings and workshops collected recommendations in written form that directly pointed out the respective articles that needed revision. This helped to increase the understanding of the decision- makers to incorporate community-based water supply and sanitation services as part of the water and sanitation delivery system; to ensure sanitation services as part of the human rights to water and sanitation; bottled water should not be considered as part of the water supply delivery system and access to safe water. These outputs were the result of smart discussions, cutting through many political issues that might have deviated the efforts along the way.
The development of the MSP is challenging and difficult task so it should be concise, clear, and specific so that decision-makers can follow it properly. From the success of this process, the technical experts from the Parliament requested GWP SEA to produce more position papers on different water-related issues, such as water-related hazards and water for economic activity and development.
Photo: Stilted houses in village on Bintan, Indonesia, by Mostphotos.com/Max Dominik Daiber