Guntur Sutiyono and Saeful Muluk, CPI Indonesia Consultants, delivered a presentation on opportunities for district governments to align fiscal instruments including Village Fund to support sustainable land and resources management in their jurisdiction. Village Fund is one of fiscal transfer instruments from the national government to empower villages and spur rural economy. Village Fund aims to meet villages’ development priorities with a bottom-up approach. The district governments are charged with the responsibility to coordinate and provide guidance on the allocation, utilization, and reporting of Village Fund.

The focused group discussion is convened by the Ministry of Finance’s Climate Finance Unit (PKPPIM) and also attended by officials from the Directorate General of Fiscal Balance. This is part of a series of discussion between Ministry of Finance, think-tank organizations and academia to identify policy improvement opportunities particularly that relates to effectiveness of climate-related public resources. At this forum, participants discussed the progress, challenges, and opportunities from the Village Fund for sustainable land and natural resource management including prevention and suppression of forest and land fires.

CPI’s presentation was developed from early findings of Village Fund study supported by the Packard Foundation. Full report of this study is upcoming soon.