By Drs. R. Yando Zakaria (Circle for Rural and Agrarian Reform, Indonesia).

In this presentation I will describe the progress of the implementation of the new Village Law. Various studies indicate that the implementation of the new law has not been as expected. The consolidation of the budget that goes into the village through the centralized management by the Village Head did not deal with the crucial problems in the village. The use of village funds is mostly used for physical development and very little related to improve basic services and community empowerment. Community participation in the planning, implementation and oversight of village governance and development activities is relatively limited, not much changed from the previous situation. According to my observation, the problem not only comes from the villagers’ unpreparedness in governing and developing the village as many have complained about, but also due to the policies of the Central and District Government that are inconsistent with the mandate of the Village Law. At the end of the presentation I will propose some strategic action forward.