A Study on Implementation of Community Driven Development Programsin Decentralization Era of Indonesia
Bagus Pambudi1
ABSTRACTThe meltdown of Indonesian economy in 1997 and the collapse of New Order regime in thefollowing year were a fundamental period for the country to search for a new way of thinking on
poverty reduction. In the midst of social and political uncertainty, the Government of Indonesia (GoI)
assisted by the World Bank (WB) made a major decision to introduce a pilot project, the KecamatanDevelopment Program (KDP), as part of social protection programs during the crisis.
The program was widely believed to be the first poverty alleviation program in Indonesia to employ
new development approach, the so-called community driven development (CDD). CDD, which has
been adopted by WB as integral part of its policy and practice, is an approach to development thatgives control over planning decisions and resources to community groups and local governments.
On the basis of its perceived advantages, the World Bank’s investment in CDD has beenenormous, averaging almost US$ 2 billion a year during the last two decades. KDP which thenchanged the name to National Program for Community Empowerment in Rural Areas (PNPM Rural)
was believed to be the largest CDD program in the world viewed from the cost and scope of location
covering about 70,000 villages in 4,805 rural sub-districts of Indonesia. However, although theprogram has been considered as effective in improving poor household welfare, it was finally ended
in the beginning of 2015 after almost a seventeen year period of implementation.
The GoI, under President Joko Widodo administration, has decided to decentralize to the village
level as mandated by the Law No. 6 of 2014 about Village. The World Bank, nonetheless, has claimed
that CDD approach is applied in this new policy seeing that some key principles of both KDP andPNPM are adopted to the Law. The issues of CDD implementation in Indonesia have becoming moreinteresting with regard to decentralization policy that has been applied from 2001. Many argue that
this policy can enhance the opportunity of local community to participate in the development agenda.
This benefit would make decentralization has a symbiotic relationship with CDD to improve
livelihood of poor villagers.
Thus, with aim at providing a comprehensive view from both theoretical and practical side, thisstudy attempts to compare the original design of CDD as proposed by the World Bank and thoseactually adopted by KDP and PNPM. The further discussions on outputs and outcomes of theprograms will also be provided based on field studies conducted at the village level.
Qualitative and mixed-methods approaches will be employed in this study. Data collection will
be undertaken through quantitative analysis of customized survey data, focus group discussions,participant observation, interview and secondary data collection. The study is expected to recognize
the similarities and differences between the original design of CDD and the adopted design in bothprograms. To be more detail, it will provide evaluation result of the processes, outputs, and impacts ofthe programs.
The implications of those expected results for academic contribution are the deeper
understanding of the substantive scope and nature of CDD, decentralization and poverty related issues.
In practical, findings and understandings obtained from this research will provide valuable
information for the GoI to improve the design and implementation of CDD programs in rural areas.

1Doctoral Student, Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies, Takushoku University