Turtle Eggs and Sustainable Development: Indonesian NGOs and funding
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Local/Global Encounters
Turtle Eggs and Sustainable Development: Indonesian NGOs and funding
ANTONIO PRADJASTO AND INDRIASWATI DYAH SAPTANINGRUM 1
ABSTRACT Antonio Pradjasto and Indriaswati Dyah Saptaningrum explore the financial arrangements of civil society during the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Bali, 2002. They look at the role played by NGOs, in particular at how they balanced donor priorities with their own interests. KEYWORDS associations; civil society; north–south dialogue; ODA; Prepcom; WSSD
Introduction The Preparatory Committee Meeting IV (Prepcom IV) of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Indonesia was held in the midst of an increase in poverty, circle of debts, conflicts over natural resources and the increased domination of TNC/ MNC and industrialized countries.2 The contested arena between north^south interests and bottom-up and top-down approaches shaped the outcome of the event, including the statement of the Chair and the plan of action for sustainable development. The conference gave a platform to industrialized countries to dictate the future orientation of sustainable development.3 This complex background shaped the engagement of Indonesian civil society actors. On 1 June 2002, a peaceful demonstration was held by 300 persons to protest the domination of industrialized countries and multinational corporations and resulting marginalization of the voices of civil society in the formal process. (Daily Kompas, 2002) The multi-stakeholders-dialogue (MSD) was a formal mechanism in the Prepcom that failed to promote meaningful participation, as it provided a very limited opportunity for CSOs inputs. The division of CSOs into different major groups prevented a consolidated common platform of CSOs into the formal process. Despite making use of formal mechanisms such as becoming members of the Indonesian State delegation, a coalition of CSOs’activists assembled in Indonesian People Forum (IPF) decided to organize a parallel event. This people’s forum primarily aimed to accommodate the needs of local, national, and international civil societies that were not addressed in the formal forum. The organizers of the ‘counter event’ were Indonesian and non-Indonesian major groups coming from the caucuses of forest, mining, water, climate change and debt. The parallel event included workshops, public lectures, discussion, testimonials, exhibition, and competitions. Development (2006) 49(2), 102–107. doi:10.1057/palgrave.development.1100244
Pradjasto and Saptaningrum: Indonesian Civil Society Most civil society participants were strongly critical of the result of Prepcom IV. They felt that it failed to represent vital interests of grassroot communities and had no practical result. For example, a CSO campaigning against the conduct of mining industries called as Jatam (Jaringan Advokasi Tambang) considered that the chairman’s statement failed to take into account ecological justice and human rights as issues in sustainable mining. Such discontent extended to groups of indigenou
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