Innovation in the Public Sector

At the end of last year our local mentors Unang Mulkhan and Sylvia Yazid in the programme Co-design for Sustainable, Resilient and Inclusive Public Spaces and Services (CIPSS) visited the participants in Indonesia.

The first stop was Jayapura City where they had a consultation meeting with the CIPSS participants Ben, Vivin and Ester. The meeting, which focused on the approach and method of their change project, took place in their office, i.e. the Environmental Department office of Jayapura City.

The aim of their change project is to design safe, healthy and inclusive public spaces at the coastal areas in the city, through public participation. Teenagers and youths will be the target of this initiative by involving them to think, discuss and provide input to local authorities on how to design inclusive public spaces in the beach area, which is located in front of the Governor’s office of Papua Province.

Students at junior high school level are believed to be the right age as agents of change. The plan is to present the result of the teenagers’ designs to related city offices. Thus, the team explained that the plan of this change project is also related to the Emancipated Learning initiative from the Ministry of Education which encourages students to be more involved with their environments and surroundings. 

The day after, the mentors visited the Junior High School of YPK Paulus Dok V Jayapura. The idea is to involve some of it’s students in formulating a plan to establish a cleaner habit in the public space.

“We agreed with Ben, Vivin and Ester that the project should go beyond rubbish collection in the beach. Thus, the change project should include designing the utilization of coastal areas with safe and enjoyable beaches for children with some activity options. We met the headmaster of the school who enthusiastically agreed to be involved in the project. We were also given a tour of the school (which has a beautiful view of the ocean) and had a brief chat with the students”, says Sylvia Yazid.

Furthermore, the mentors met the Secretary General of the City of Jayapura to discuss the involvement of the city’s staff in CIPSS program 2022/2023.

“We received his full support, particularly because CIPSS is seen as a capacity building programme to local actors. He emphasized the needs for more capacity building activities for the government officers of Jayapura and he expressed his interest in joining the mid-term workshop 2023”, says Unang Mulkhan.

Next in line was a meeting at the Mayor of Pariaman’s residence, together with the participants Ma’ruf, Adjo Fe, Yofan and the Mayor himself. All participants come from different organizations and have different backgrounds; academia, private sector and local government. This is very beneficial, as they can contribute to the team with different expertise.

During the mentor visit, the Mayor explained the conditions, issues and vision for the city.

“Based on the discussion, we can understand why the Mayor himself decided to be one of the team members. He understands concepts and practices on co-design for development and can learn from other cities joined in the CIPPS program”, says Sylvia Yazid.

The focus of the change project in Pariaman City is to design the utilization of Lapangan Merdeka (a public space at the centre of the city) to be a more clean and inclusive area for all people in the city. The mayor has a goal to return the function of this public space to it’s original function as the space for all. At present, one of the issues is that the surrounding area is crowded by damaged buildings and morning markets which makes the area dirty, dense and not really comfortable for public activities.

“As we made a walking tour, we found out that the extension of the area may include the riverbank and the beach area. So, the plan is to create activities which aim to involve various stakeholders in designing the utilization of the Lapangan Merdeka and its surroundings”, says Unang Mulkhan.

“Coincidentally, both cities involved in CIPSS 2022/2023, Jayapura and Pariaman, are similar types of coastal cities which are very vulnerable to natural disaster and sea waste pollution. Therefore, we believe that these two groups will be able to learn and benefit from each other during the midterm workshop”, concludes Sylvia Yazid.