TALKING ABOUT WOMEN’S QUALITY OF LIFE IN MUSRENBANG (CONSULTATION OF DEVELOPMENT PLAN), EVENING DIALOGUE IN RRI
"Seen from the statistics in the Town and Regency of Bogor, women and men are in balanced number; thus women occupy a very strategic position in development. The goal of development is to improve the quality of human life and human beings: men and women. It is important for women to be present and involved in Musrenbang, so that their needs can be accommodated to achieve the life quality of women themselves ", said Dr. Ir. Titik Sumarti, MS. Head of the Division of Women’s Studies Program, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development Studies (PSP3), Institute of Research and Community Services (LPPM)-IPB in the Evening Dialogue of RRI Bogor to commemorate the International Women’s Day, March 8, 2011.
The involvement of women in the Development Plan Consultation is very little; in terms of quantity and quality men are very dominant in making decisions, because many of those invited are men who occupy elite positions such as village chiefs, community leaders, the heads of the RT (neighborhoods) and RW (group of neighborhoods), while in the fields of education and health, women are not well represented though in majority they occupy the positions in PKK (Family Welfare and Education), Posyandu (Integrated Health Service) and Posdaya (Family Empowerment Center). Those who have access to and know that Musrenbang is present both at the village and district levels have not been able to be involved in making a decision. Women fall into two categories: the first are those who know Musrenbang and have access, but they are carried away by their work such as being busy with their careers, primarily women in urban areas, while the second group is the largest one of ordinary people who do not hear anything about what
Musrenbang (development plan consultation) is and in fact they are not involved in it. Although they are rarely accommodated because Musrenbang is more directed to the physical capacity, the non-physical human capacity such as economy and improvement of nutrition has not been touched either for women.
Through Presidential Instruction No. 9 of 2000 every development program must implement a strategy for different needs of men and women, further improved by Kepmendagri (Home Affair Ministerial Regulation): Different view of the needs of women and men, so it is not enough to simply invite the elites, but women communities from the lower levels, whose education, health and economic needs need attention, and some cadres must certainly be taught to introduce the concept that the needs of men and women are different. Musrenbang is expected to accommodate them from the lowest level to the highest, such as the village level is accommodated to the district level and the results of the district are accommodated in the city or regency level. In this way, the advancement of women is not just ceremonial in the celebration of Mother’s day, but they will participate in determining the basis of education, health, and economy for the whole development of Indonesian people. (Mtd)
