Civil Society Strengthening

In order for local government policies and services to meet the needs of the community, citizens must be able to advocate for service improvements and monitor the performance of their local government. LGSP works with citizens and local civil society organizations (including journalists) to ensure that citizens have the necessary information and training to participate actively in local planning, budgeting, and policy-making. LGSP helps to increase opportunities for citizen engagement while strengthening citizens’ capacity to make constructive and effective contributions to public policy.

During the final stages of the project, LGSP has also ensured that a support structure is in place for these local civil society groups and coalitions, including support organizations. Known as LGSP-Link, this network organization will function as a resource center and information sharing hub for LGSP staff, service providers and local partners. In addition, the civil society and legislative strengthening work will be supported in the future by four LGSP partners that will act as clearinghouses for LGSP’s training materials, as follows

The Indonesian Forum for Transparency in Budgets (FITRA) will support the CSO budgetary work;
PATTIRO will support the civil society oversight work;
The Citizen Forum Caucus (Kaukus 17) will support the work on town-hall meetings, citizen forums and other new forms of deliberative democracy;
The Center for Legislative Strengthening will support the work on local regulations, including the role of citizens in legal drafting.

Recent Documents

Good Practices in Civil Society Engagement in Budgeting and Public Service Oversight (Jun 2009)

Citizen’s Guide to Evaluating Social Justice Budgets (Jun 2009)

Public Consultations for Local Government and DPRD (Apr 2009)