Local governments in Indonesia are handicapped when addressing the social, economic and environmental impacts of mining because they do not receive support from the national government or the mining companies.

With support from RWI and the Open Society Foundations’ Local Government Initiative, Pattiro has been working in Cepu, on the island of Java, where a new oil sector is emerging, to promote revenue transparency and  build the capacity of local government. Increasing subnational capacity is a core goal of RWI in Indonesia and in resource-rich countries in several regions.

This multi-year effort in the Bojonegoro and Blora districts has focused on five key areas: Understanding and managing revenues; developing participatory, transparent and realistic planning processes; generating annual budgets that respond to local needs; oversight and accountability for government spending; and empowering citizen groups and parliamentarians to monitor economic development and public service activities.

During the first year of the project, Pattiro and its local partners conducted extensive research mapping the social and economic situation in each region and quantifying the amount of potential revenues in these districts.  The results of the research were later used when organizing a series of open public discussions aimed at creating a common vision in each district about how these natural resource revenues can be used to benefit the public. 

In the second year, the project focused on facilitating public discussion for detailed resource revenue planning, along with research on the most valuable information disclosures for effective transparency, and analysis and recommendations in response to the public discussions held.

Pattiro builds the capacity of local government and oversight bodies to find effective ways to use natural resource revenues.