Decentralization poses ‘challenges’ in reaching UN, ASEAN goals

Indonesia is experiencing major challenges in consolidating national plans at provincial and regional levels in order to achieve the United Nations 2030 Agenda and the ASEAN Vision 2025, an official has said.

Jakarta | Mon, September 19 2016 | 09:01 pm

Liza Yosephine

Indonesia is experiencing major challenges in consolidating national plans at provincial and regional levels in order to achieve the United Nations 2030 Agenda and the ASEAN Vision 2025, an official has said.

Regional decentralization has spurred the rise of independent regional administrations, presenting the challenge of synchronizing development across the regional authorities amid uneven capacity levels, Pungkas Bahjuri Ali, a director at the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas), said on Monday.

Every district and every province has its own authority, including in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Pungkas said, adding that each region varied in its policies and capabilities. As an example, he noted the wide gap between regions such as Papua, East Nusa Tenggara and Maluku in comparison to Java and Sumatra.

“The challenge is each region then must have its own strategy, because each is very different in terms of achievement and in terms of the capability of each administration,” Pungkas said.

Pungkas was speaking at a symposium hosted by the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta, in collaboration with its affiliates, to address the challenges in implementing the UN 2030 Agenda and ASEAN Vision 2025.

Adopted unanimously by 193 countries, the 2030 Agenda calls on the international community to achieve 17 SDGs by 2030. Similarly, the ASEAN Vision 2025 calls on member states to build an ASEAN Community that is inclusive, sustainable, resilient and dynamic, in line with the SDGs. (evi)

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