KOMPAK program is a governance facility funded by the Australian government to support the Indonesian government in promoting good governance in rural areas. As stated in Law No. 6/2014 on Villages (Village Law), good rural governance is the key to strengthening democracy and autonomy at the local level. Through the second phase of the social accountability field, KOMPAK program is aimed at strengthening rural governance, including increasing the participation of women as well as poor and vulnerable groups, in the village development process.
The program is testing two major approaches, namely (i) improving the skills and knowledge of the Village Consultative Body (BPD) and members of the community with relation to the village administration processes and (ii) improving aspiration and feedback channels between villagers and the village administrators.
Nearing the end of KOMPAK facilitation period in 2020, there was a need for a study to document how the villages have learned about the program’s implementation and how they have benefited from the program to help them achieve inclusive development. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic should be included as a phenomenon that has affected the program’s implementation and has implications for the process and results of village development.
The main objective of this study is to identify what contributions the second phase of KOMPAK program has given in the field of social accountability to good rural governance, related to the aspiration, participation, and accountability aspects. This study also elaborates on factors that influence the program’s implementation as well as the benefits of the program.
This study combines quantitative and qualitative methods. It compares the development conditions of the villages that received KOMPAK’s intervention (treatment villages) with those of villages that did not receive the intervention (control villages).
In general, the quantitative study is aimed at measuring the program’s output and outcome, whilst the qualitative study is aimed at indentifying factors that influence the difference in the program’s outcome, such as factors in the input and output components, relationship between actors, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
