KELAPA DUA HUMAN DEVELOPMENT PROJECT

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INDONESIA

PROLEGOMENA

I

THE LOCATION

The Kelapa Dua Human Development Consultation was the initiating step in a comprehensive demonstration project by the people of Kelapa Dua, a remote rural village located in the Tangerang District of the Province of West Java, Indonesia. Kelapa Dua is 36 kilometers southwest of the teeming capital city of Jakarta and lies in the midst of sprawling, terraced rice lands. m e Kelapa Dua Human Development Project includes the three interrelated kampungs of Asam, Nurdin and Dahung which, along with five other kampungs, understand themselves to be the Kelapa Dua area. m e project is a comprehensive effort that involves both the social and economic development of the village. It was begun through a cooperative effort by villagers and concerned citizens of Tangerang and Jakarta with the knowledge and encouragement of government officials. Their intention is to expand the economic base of the community to move beyond a subsistence economy, to develop functional forms of education, to create structures of community services, and to release the creative vitality of the community and its individual residents. This project is seen as a demonstration of methods which can be used by any rural community in Indonesia and which, therefore, could be duplicated elsewhere.

In 1969, the Republic of Indonesia, the fifth most populous nation in the world, initiated the first Five -Year Plan to stabilize its economy. In spite of enormous barriers and occasional setbacks, the country's natural wealth and resources began to be channeled and made productive. Agriculture expanded, hydroelectric and steam power production made substantial increases and new oil sources were tapped. With the second Five-Year Plan of 1974, Indonesia has turned her attention to broadening the development effort, and so has demanded of herself a new self-reliance as she focuses on the development of local leadership and the rural areas. With 80 percent of her 132 million people living outside major cities, responsible leaders stress the importance of village development for the nation's future. Only comprehensive social and economic development of Indonesia's 55,000 villages can provide

JARARTA

The enormous local energy and resolve needed to continue Indonesia's determined growth. Recognizing the dangers inherent in over-crowded cities, the government now discourages new movement into Jakarta and seeks to reverse the tide of rural to urban migration. m e development of rural channels of participation and local incentive can be seen as a key to balanced economic development. At the beginning of the fourth decade of her nationhood, Indonesia is facing this challenge forthrightly. The nation's intensified efforts at socio-economic growth and rural development are being followed closely by other ASEAN nations and the world at large, eager to witness Indonesia's slogan "unity in diversity" effectively at work. In this milieu, the Kelapa Dua Human Development Project promises to be of significance for Indonesia as a pilot effort in comprehensive rural village development.

Jakarta, capital city of Indonesia, stands on the Sudanese plain of West Java and through its central location along a 5440 kilometer wide archipelago links Java to the four larger islands of Sumatra on the west, Ralimantan (Borneo) on the north and Sulewesi (Celebes) and Irian Barat (West New Guinea) on the east. Two-thirds of Indonesia's 132 million people live on Java, making it the world's third most densely populated region. Founded 449 years ago by a conquering Bantanese sultan, Jakarta has from its origin brought together first the Sudanese, Bantanese and Javanese peoples, then peoples from a great variety of nations and cultures. Today an estimated 90 percent of the city's six million inhabitants come from other regions and give reality to the nation's slogan of "unity in diversity". For approximately 350 years the city bore the Dutch name of Batavia. After Independence in 1945 it was officially renamed "Jakarta" which reclaims an early Bantanese name meaning "Great Victory", to symbolize the birth of the new nation. As political center and as center of Indonesia's vast efforts in economic development, the city's magnetism has had to be discouraged by a governmental decision to close off unnecessary migration. Freedom Square in the city's center, sleek skyscrapers, modern arteries and new industrial and residential complexes contrast with teeming slums and districts lined with hawkers and stand as signs of the nation's hope in the midst of the overwhelming weight of development. City leaders have recently created a system of museums and restored historic buildings to capture and display Indonesia's cultural heritage. Today Jakarta continues its traditional role in commerce and trading even as a new industrialized base begins to take form. Urban planners project a Jakarta sweeping far across the plain, drawing neighboring cities such as Tangerang into its orbit, and making it absolutely necessary that a Human Development

TANGERANG
KELAPA DVA

Project begin to deal with imperding social dislocation in the surrounding rural society.

The district of Tangerang lies 30 kilometers west of Jakarta on a highway connecting the two trading, exchange and entry points of Jakarta and Banten. me district's population of one million is a cultural mixture unique in the nation. In addition to Indonesian, the national language, diverse cultural groups speak Sudanese, Javanese and Malay. Large numbers of Chinese settled here at a time when much of the land was held by Chinese landlords. The name Tangerang itself is Chinese in origin, from 'tang' meaning the Tang Dynasty, and 'ren' meaning man, ­ literally 'Men of Tang'. The local people were known as hard workers in the fields, and the landlords prospered. Tangerang was also well known for its bamboo and straw handicrafts and as one of the largest sources of rice for the Province of West Java. From 1942, when Tangerang became a district, a significant period of expansion began. Today the district experiences a 2.3 percent annual population growth. This constantly expanding labor force is the key to the district's development, for it is attracting industry on an ever increasing scale. A new international airport is now being built 25 kilometers from Tangerang and large ­ scale irrigation projects promise a future of intense development and accelerating change. As Tangerang becomes absorbed into the greater metropolitan area of Jakarta, the struggle to emerge from a rural past will become more acute and the complexity of providing adequate services to the network of villages in the surrounding countryside will be intensified.

The project area is a complex of three village units called "kampungs", Asam, Nurdin and Dahung, bounded on the south by the Islamic Village and facing the rice paddies on the north, west and east. An unpaved road links the approximately 1500 inhabitants to the major town of Tangerang six kilometers to the north. Overlapping leadership systems relate the three kampungs in both traditional and modern structures for social care. The Islamic Village School, one­half kilometer distant, draws about ten percent of the school­age children, few of whom remain beyond the fourth grade. Illiteracy is estimated at 80 percent overall, and 95 percent among those over 25 years of age. One youth attends a technical high school in Tangerang. Dahung, located adjacent to the main road, sends a higher percentage of its children to the school than do As am and Nurdin. Marriage occurs for women usually during the ages from twelve to fifteen and most men are married before age twenty. Except for a local midwife, medical care requires a six­kilometer trip to Tangerang over roads sometimes impassable in the rainy season. Malnutrition is

AGENT
ORIGIN

a major problem. Bamboo and thatched homes, owned by villagers, house large extended families. Occasional glass windows, tile roofs or gasoline lanterns vary the normal pattern of the packed­earth floors, windowless walls, and oil lamps. One stream is used for both washing and human waste. Most households have transistor radios. There are four sewing machines and a very few bicycles in the kampungs. Approximately 50 percent of the families own and farm small plots, growing mainly rice and tapioca; other families engage in a system of share cropping; many keep goats, chickens and water buffalo. Stores attached to homes carry cooking oil and fuel, snack foods, tea and sundries. A few residents push wheeled soft­drink stalls or carry goods on yokes throughout the three kampungs. In the dry season some men find supplemental income by working in the nearby rubber plantation, making roofing from palm leaves, or gathering sand for construction companies; others work as vendors or pedicab drivers in Jakarta. Older women, with the help of young children, weave straw hats, mats, and baskets to augment incomes.


II
THE CONSULTATION

The Institute of Cultural Affairs is an intra­global research, training, and demonstration group concerned with the human factor in world development. The ICA is coordinated with the Ecumenical Institute and is incorporated in the State of Illinois as a not­for­profit corporation. The Institute has headquarters in Brussels, Bombay, Chicago, Canberra, Hong Kong and Nairobi. In addition there are ICA offices in more than one hundred major cities serving 23 nations. The Institute's programs around the world are supported by grants, gifts, and contributions from government departments and agencies on the federal, state, and municipal levels and from private foundations, corporations, trusts, and concerned individuals.

Since 1970, the Institute of Cultural Affairs has been working throughout Indonesia with people who are concerned for reformulation of community life at the local level from its office in Singapore. Consultant teams composed of Asian and non­Asian staff traveled through Java, Sumatra, and Sulawesi. In 1972 the ICA was urged to place resident personnel in the country in order to intensify training by working together with graduates of various programs such as the International Training Institute. In 1975, a group of these graduates, along with members of the international team of the Institute, began the research .~ to locate a site for a pilot project which would

PA RTICIPANTS
















VISION 

demonstrate a comprehensive approach to community development. After giving serious consideration to a number of possible locations for the project, the Kelapa Dua complex was chosen for further consideration. Because of its isolation and obvious social and economic need, this r~ral community seemed to be a suitable place for the project. Indeed it would be difficult to locate a place which would be more typical of both the need for and possibility of human development. The residents and local leadership of Kelapa Dua demonstrated much enthusiasm for holding the project in the three kampungs of Asam, Nurdin and Dahung, and invited the Institute to take up residence in the village to conduct the consult there. Their enthusiasm together with the concern of the government and social agencies for this particular region helped the Institute to decide upon these three Kelapa Dua kampungs for the Human Development Project site.
The Consult took place in Kelapa Dua from August 8­15, 1976. The team of consultants numbered 155, 70 of whom were local residents. Approximately 450 additional residents were indirectly involved through the field work contacts. Each day Consult teams spent many hours visiting and talking with local people in their homes and places of work, as well as visiting social agencies, hospitals and schools in Tangerang and Jakarta. Of the 85 non­resident consultants, 32 came from Indonesian cities of Tangerang, Jakarta, Bandung, Malang, Padang, Palembang, Medan, Manado and Bima; the balance came from 10 other nations including Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Sweden and the United States. Visiting consultants represented both the public and private sectors and attended the Consult at their own expense. The expertise represented by these people covered a broad spectrum of skills and experience. Specific professions included all aspects of education, several different sectors of the business community, a broad range of representatives from the medical professions, including nutrition, people in all levels of community planning and development, construction, and agriculture. Citizens of Asam, Nurdin and Dahung attending likewise represented a wide range of occupations and expertise: merchants, farmers, home­makers, factory workers, a carpenter, students, bricklayers, hat makers, stoneworkers, and a bakery salesman.

This diversified group of consultants acted as a unified research body using methods of comprehensive community reformulation. First, the Consult charted the Operating Vision of the people of Kelapa Dual Second, they discerned
the Underlying Contradictions which are blocking the realization of that vision. Third, they built a set of overall Practical Proposals for dealing effectively with
the Contradictions. Fourth, they created a set of Tactical

IMPACT
















FOLLOW­UP

Systems by which the proposals could be realized. Finally, they discerned the necessary programs which would allow the application of the Tactical Systems. The aim of the Consult was to assist the citizens of Kelapa Dua in accelerating the expansion of the project and empowering its impact upon the neighborhood.

Kelapa Dua was surprisingly ready to begin the Human Development Project. Working teams which met in the kampungs daily grew in size as local residents, who initially watched from a distance, sat down and began to suggest solutions for community issues. Children gathered in ever increasing numbers at evening songfests as the week progressed. Village leaders escorted one team around their land holdings, offering plots for the demonstration farm. Another who is a non­resident landowner offered his land without cost to be used for agricultural development. One leader commented, "Kelapa Dua Project is exactly what this community needs". At the closing meal, the community's eagerness was articulated by an elder of the village who remarked that he did not have the words to thank the people ror their  participation in the Consult. He expressed his amazement because a village preschool was scheduled to begin in days rather
than the years such proposals often take to be actualized.  "Nothing like this has every happened in our remote and  silent village". Throughout the week, guests from outside community agencies were frequently present. one man heard of the Consult on Friday and drive out after work, arriving after midnight, to see the final day. Foreign consultants were also deeply struck by the villagers' determination. After a week of work with local farmers, one agriculturist offered to return to train villagers to construct platform terraces for an orchard. Another asked if he might send his colleagues to Kelapa Dua to learn its methods. "I came because I didn't believe it was possible," said one consultant, "but it really is".

The task following the Consult is to initiate implementation of the tactics which are focused in the Actuating Programs reported in this document. First, this will involve the ongoing meeting of local leaders, the Kelapa Dua residents who participated in the Consult and other interested people to plan the program implementaries. Second, initiation of special training sessions will be needed for the villagers who will bear responsibility for major aspects of the project. Third, project initiation will require continuing and expanding relations with the public sector. It will also be necessary to develop support systems in the private sector with the Indonesian business community and with professional and business contacts beyond the nation. Finally, project initiaticn requires that a catalytic

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ECONOMIC

staff reside in the community to begin the training and the building of incentive and self­reliance that will raise a community­wide sign.


III
THE PRESUPPOSITIONS

Virtually any local community provides the elements required  for a Human Development Project. In the past 20 years, the work of the Institute of Cultural Affairs in rural villages, urban neighborhoods, and suburban towns across the globe has confirmed that fact that wherever there is local community, there is the readiness and the need for  creative social change. There are five guidelines which serve as reference points in the formation of Human Development Projects. First, the selection of a community is guided by the understanding that the project is a demonstration of the possibility of comprehensive development in any local community. A project site has maximum demonstration potential when it is accessible. The use of effective social methods in widely diverse situations demonstrates the possibility of development in every local situation.'
Second, a potential location will be characterized by apparent hopelessness and the absence of community projects.  The initiation of a project in the most of visible Human suffering dramatizes the possibility of dealing with human need. Third, both social and economic development measures are necessary to provide comprehensiveness and depth. When one dimension is emphasized at the expense of the other, superficial social change results. Fourth, both local and outside perspectives are required in planning a Human Development Project. The creative interplay of  local and outside viewpoints assures the project of local authenticity and global relevance. Fifth, it is necessary to discern from the beginning the viability of the systematic replication of the pilot across a more inclusive geographical area. This provides a context for anticipating the demonstration power of the pilot and for projecting the acceleration required if the pilot is to function as a training base for replication forces.

Effective economic development at the local level rests upon five principles. First, the community must be imagined as a self­contained independent economic entity whose development is a priority. Without this focus, attempts toward economic development are easily dissipated. Second, schemes increasing the flow of money into the community need to be devised. This can be done by increasing the production of raw materials and goods sold outside the area, by employing local residents, by attracting non  resident shoppers, by borrowing money and extending

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ACTUATION

credit lines, by using state and federal funds, and in some instances by soliciting special cash grants and donations in­kind. Third, as many externally injected funds as possible must be retained in the community as long as possible. This can be done by producing locally as many of the consumable goods and services as possible, by expanding local industry and business and by creating expertise on the local level. Fourth, the funds injected and retained must be rapidly and continuously circulated within the local economic unit. This is most crucial, for money needs to turn over many times before it is exchanged outside the community. Fifth, although the community must strengthen its own economy, it must also function in harmony with more inclusive economic realities on the municipal, state, regional, national, and international levels. 

There are five foundational guidelines in the arena of social development. First, the project has a clearly delineated geographical focus. This concentrates energy upon a social unit small enough to be dealt with, thereby avoiding needless dissipation of effort. This geographical approach also helps to catalyze community identity. Second, all community problems are dealt with simultaneously. The complex interacting relationships of community life consign a partial approach to failure. Third, the depth human issue beneath all the underlying socio­economic contradictions is discerned and addressed. As this occurs, people are released to see the possibility of effective engagement in
arenas previously considered impossible. Fourth, particular effort is made to involve all social and age groups in the task of recreating the community. Finally, social symbols are employed as the key to mobilizing community effort and occasioning profound transformation Powerful symbols provide the basis for common effort in the daily practicalities of the project; thus, they can be the difference between social despair and creative engagement.

The actuation of a Human Development Project involves the application of five guidelines to establish the support systems for effective implementation. First, the coordinated effort of both the public and private sectors is needed. The combined assistance of both sectors in the form of consultant services, funding, and material contributions provide sustained support for the project as a whole as well as its specific parts. Second, the widespread participation of community residents in the implementation of all the programs is necessary from the outset. This role cannot be performed by someone else if local community development is to occur. Third the presence of a catalytic staff of consultants is necessary for a period of time to generate momentum for leadership development. Through training in practical methods the community's motivity and  decision to engage in the human development task is 

DOCUMENT










PRACTICALITY

sustained. Fourth, actuating agencies to oversee the social and economic development programs are required to ensure the coordination and direction of all implementation efforts in a unified thrust. Such agencies can take many forms but always represent a cross­section of the whole community, thereby building the cooperation vital to effective results in every program arena within a period of six to twelve months. Although the acceleration and stabilization of leadership training and program implementation must be phased over a number of years, dramatic signs of socio­economic development are required during the first year. These demonstrate the actuation of a comprehensive plan and thereby serve to constantly broaden local engagement and build human motivity. These are the marks of effective development.


IV

THE APPLICATION

The body of the following summary document contains the detailed findings of the Consult. It is divided into five parts. Part I deals with the Operating Vision; Part II, the Underlying Contradictions; Part III, the Practical Proposals; Part IV, the Tactical Systems; Part V, the Actuating Programs. The first two paragraphs in each section explain the intent and the process of that phase of the Consult.
Subsequent paragraphs discuss the particular findings of each phase. Each part of the document also contains one or more holding charts which illustrate specific aspects of the narrative and provide an overview for the entire section. The concluding section offers insights and recommendations about matters such as project funding, phasing, designs, staff requirements, and replication possibilities and procedures.
 
This summary report is intended to be a highly practical tool. It summarizes the results of the consultation research which provided an occasion for local citizens to focus their concerns, their hopes and their dreams creatively on the task of reshaping community. This document, therefore, symbolizes the participation of Kelapa Dua people in practical decision­making about their future. In so doing, the report itself is the incentive for actuation of the project. The document will also function as an educational tool for rapidly training local leaders in the principles and methods of comprehensive community renewal. Finally, it serves as a handbook for all those who will work in Kelapa Dua putting the model into effect and as a guide to those elsewhere who will replicate this Human Development project.

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PROCESS

PART ONE

THE OPERATING VISION

I

The first task of the Consult consisted of objectifying the Operating Vision of the future shared by the people of Kelapa Dual Such a vision for any people is never totally explicit. It is woven through their hopes and fears, their frustrations and yearnings. It is concealed in their stories and social structures and is suggested by their style, symbols and dreams. All of these are deeply a part of who they are and what they hope to become. Although such a vision may be initially unconscious, it represents a community's attitude toward itself and its destiny. Only when the vision is made manifest and a community consciously stands present to it, can local community development occur.  The process of objectifying this vision in a formal model is lengthy because of its initially latent nature. This is explained in part by the fact that no community alone can grasp its own vision. It was only when the subjectivity of the local residents of Kelapa Dua interacted with the objectivity of the guest consultants that the Operating
Vision of the community emerged.

In order to discern this local vision, the consultants were divided into five teams and spent a whole day in the field becoming generally familiar with the community. In addition to the overall survey, each team was assigned to investigate closely a specific aspect of community life ­ agriculture, business, services, social development and education. The teams covered the three kampungs, conversed informally with local residents, observed local industries and facilities, explored the fields and channels and were given hospitality by local residents in their homes. Through these activities, consultants were directly or indirectly in contact with a great number of local residents. Workshop sessions were then conducted by each team to exchange reports on the hopes and desires of the community as discerned by the consultants.  Finally, the 139 pieces of data from the five teams were ordered in the basic categories of the present model. Plate 1 gives rational, objective form to the Operating Vision that

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WELL-BEING

exists in the understanding of the people of Kelapa Dual It was in relationship to this model that the underlying contradictions could be discerned in the subsequent phase of the Consult.

The Operating Vision Chart (Plate 1) is the result of the first phase of the Consult. Its five major sections indicate the overarching dimensions of the vision of the people of Kelapa Dual Section A, Toward Ensuring Physical Well ­ Being, reflects the desire that the basic necessities of all the residents be met. Section B, Toward Expanding Local Business, reports the need for a cooperative economy that will boost the financial resources of Kelapa Dual Section C, Toward Accelerating Farm Production, points to the people's belief that the agricultural self­sufficiency is the key to their future. Section D, Toward Providing Practical Education, articulates the community's longing for 20th Century skills and knowledge. Section E, Toward Enhancing Community Style, indicates the concern for developing a unified community. The chart is divided into nine master categories within which there are twenty­nine components. These are then further subdivided into a total of 116 individual items, each representing a facet of the Operating Vision of the people of Kelapa Dual It is in these that the practical substance of the vision is held. The central master category deals with Agricultural self-sufficiency. The first two on the left deal with Essential Services and Resident Welfare. The next two deal with Village Income and Basic Commerce. The two immediately to the right of center deal with Functional Equipping and Formal Education. The last two deal with Community Facilities and Local Identity.


II

A major theme emerging in the Operating Vision of the people of Kelapa Dua is the decision to develop infra­structures and services to ensure the basic physical well­being for all. Two arenas are evident: essential services and resident welfare. People see the need for controlling available water; improving local pathways, roads and bridges; introducing electricity in public areas and private homes and developing a public transportation system for passengers and cargo that is more frequent, regular and comfortable than the one which now exists. The vision of good health for all is the theme of the villagers' concern with residents' welfare. A health clinic would make basic service freely available, especially for obstetrics. Villagers focus their concern for health on the issue of nutrition ­ how to get a balanced diet. The

BUSINESS











PRODUCTION










EDUCATION

village also­realizes that sanitation systems are required not only for obtaining clean drinking and wash water, but also for hygienic sewage disposal and drainage. Villagers know that only through establishing systems of day­to­day
care will they be able to release their attention and creativity to reconstruct the village.

The people of Kelapa Dua see the expansion of local business as crucial. Village income needs to be raised and basic commercial ventures undertaken. Villagers aspire to improve local economy by starting food, rubber and clothing industries
to bring in capital and create additional jobs. Many stressed the importance of expanding cottage industries which are already in existence. This involves not only intensifying production through mechanization but also developing new products for joint rather than individual production. The Consult envisioned commercial expansion in three ways. Direct marketing of the village's goods
was mentioned, including better transport to markets in Tangerang and Jakarta. A weekly market in Kelapa Dua is desired in order to provide a local outlet for producers and lower prices for consumers on a wider range of products than is now available. People would like to develop local capital, greater access to loans and to methods of managing and investing their savings.

Accelerated farm production is a dream of Kelapa Dua's residents. People hope to move from subsistence rice farming to producing cash crops. Local Consult participants stressed their need to learn improved farming methods, including fertilizer usage and ways to store food. Diversification of crops is intended not only to emphasize more lucrative products but also to upgrade nutrition. There is a specific emphasis on high­return cash crops, especially fruits. Mechanization, through cooperative ownership and maintenance of farm machines, vehicles and tools could rapidly upgrade production. Finally, many in the Consult desired expansion of the village's animal husbandry, stressing poultry, and ~ mall animals like goats and fish.

Practical education was envisioned, broad enough in scope to include both functional equipping for all ages and formal education for the young. The people of Kelapa Dua expressed desire for greater awareness of the world in which they live, not only through current media and entertainment, but also through access to cultural events. Skills training in agriculture, crafts and industry is coveted' to enable people to find more profitable jobs. Many would also like to see basic health, domestic science, literacy and English classes offered. Parents unanimously support the idea of schooling for their children at standard, preschool

STYLE

and infant levels, as well as informal educational events after school. Finally, the community would like to see greater opportunities for advanced education made available to them.

The people of Kelapa Dua see that the future of their village requires a conscious development of community style in terms of community facilities and identity. They are anxious to establish recreational areas for children and youth, especially a sports field. Areas for social gatherings would facilitate expression of  community pride and cooperation. Villagers also saw improved housing as
important to the overall design of the ­village. In addition to constructing such facilities, the Consult discerned a longing to develop ways to strengthen the local identity of Kelapa Dual Community work projects are a part of the heritage of Kelapa Dual The villagers hope to structure this cooperation and extend it to local councils. They also hope to establish social care like a security system, local visiting and an orphanage. A key to community identity was seen to be leadership development; people want better inter­village communication, skills in entrepreneurship and liaison with the local government. Kelapa Dua residents
desire ways to celebrate their identity through telling traditional and modern stories, using symbols to mark the community and singing local songs. Overall there is a longing in Kelapa Dua for a new cooperative spirit.