USAID Kolaborasi Invites Papuan Local Champions to Voice Out their Aspirations
Jayapura (October 7, 2022) - Public awareness and participation in voicing their aspirations are very important in the regional development governance process that is pro-people. Responding to this, USAID Collaboration invited 20 local champions or 'Great Brothers' from the City and District of Jayapura, Papua Province, to take part in Policy Training (Policy Bootcamp). Interestingly, this activity also involves Youth, Women, and People with Disabilities who are expected to be able to become a motivator and a bridge for aspirations. The activity lasted for 5 days starting from 3 -7 October 2022 at Jayapura.
At the close of today's activities, Billy Mambrassar, Special Staff to the President of the Republic of Indonesia, was also present, who conveyed reinforcement to all 'Great Brothers' to continue to actively participate in the process of creating prosperity in Papua. "The President's instructions are very clear, that the acceleration of development in Papua must be based on Indigenous Papuans (OAP). Therefore, he advised, it is very important to ensure that indigenous people are involved in the process of conveying aspirations according to their basic needs, are involved in the planning process, and are also involved in the simplification of the program, "said Billy. This native Papuan man also expressed his appreciation to USAID Collaboration which has seriously taken part in efforts to accelerate development in the Land of Papua.
From the participant's point of view, Alex Imanuel Yaku, a community representative for persons with disabilities, said that this training activity had given him new insights, especially regarding regulations in voicing the needs of people with disabilities. Alex feels that the government's attention and support for the needs of people with disabilities need to be increased.
“We have a lot of needs, but we don't understand how we can get them. Praise God, through this training activity we know who to convey these needs and through what. Hopefully, this can be a way for all people with disabilities to be heard and cared for more,” said the man who works as a priest. Alex also hopes that USAID Kolaborasi (Collaboration) can carry out useful activities like this throughout the Land of Papua.
USAID Kolaborasi (Collaboration) is an initiative program related to increasing the capacity of collaborative governance in Papua and West Papua. This program aims to increase the optimization of Special Autonomy (Otsus) so that it can help accelerate the welfare of the Papuan people. USAID Kolaborasi is a program jointly designed with Bappenas and the Ministry of Home Affairs funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by Wahana Visi Indonesia (WVI) together with INFID and the Kitong Bisa Foundation (KBF). This was explained in a speech by the Chief of Party USAID Collaboration, Caroline Tupamahu, which was delivered by her staff.
Concluding the activity, the Main Director of KBF, Jouhannes Faidiban, emphasized his hopes for all 'Big Brother' participants of the Policy Training to truly understand, represent the aspirations of the community, and help realize community welfare through involvement in deliberations starting from the village to the provincial level.
