Village SDGs Respond the Hopes of Development 1

The Sustainable Development Goals is acknowledged as one of the most

comprehensive things that the UN has ever produced, comprising all known
development aspects, and has been adopted for a while now in Indonesia, as legalized
by the Presidential Regulation (Perpres) 59/2017. Unfortunately, Indonesia’s
achievement, in terms of rank, had not improved much since, yoyoing among the 116
countries, it was down from rank 98 in 2016 to 101 in 2020.
What has been escaping from the spotlight is that villages contribute up to 74
percent of the national SDGs achievement. The fact is, villages play a dominant role as
the backbone of National SDGs achievement efforts. However, it has always been
excluded in the action plans, as well as in the measurement of national SDGs indicators.
The 74 percent contribution of the Village
By neutralizing all development ideologies, global development management has
shifted its focus on goals attainment, summarized in the 2015-2030 Sustainable
Development Goals. Interrelation among nations was fortified by the common
achievement indicators, which subsequently evolving, from 196 indicators in 2015 to
247 indicators in 2020.
The neglection on villages can be attributed to the grand narrative contestation
of development, that it always uses the country as units of measurement. When it is
derived to regional development, the available measurements only existed on the
provincial and regency level, for example the Gross Regional Domestic Development
(PDRB).
Nevertheless, this grand narration deprived the historical local contexts. As a
result, it was able to uproot the village from its social and cultural roots.
Actually, when disaggregated, the village contribution is obvious because the
currently existing 74,953 village administration areas comprise 91 percent of the
Indonesian government territory. This implies that the fulfillment of village development
goals contributes to 91 percent to the ten regionally oriented national SDGs: clean
energy, economic growth, industry and innovation, reducing inequality, climate
mitigation, ocean preservation, land preservation, institutions and justice, and
development cooperation networks.
All the while, the 118 million villagers comprise 43 percent of Indonesia's
population. Thus, meeting the needs of villagers contributes to 43 percent to the five
national citizens-related SDGs: poverty alleviation, eliminating hunger, access to health,
access to education, access to clean water, and anti-gender discrimination.
Localizing the SDGs into Village SDGs
Global criticism of the SDGs is addressed to poor campaigns, feeble institutions,
and low implementation by member countries. Meanwhile, the advantage lies in the
common development measures of hundreds of countries, measured annually, hence

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Artikel dipublikasikan The Jakarta Post, 17/11/2020

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framing a positioning of SDGs accomplishments as a component for sound rivalry
between nations.
Global SDGs assessment has pointed out Indonesia's excellence in policy support
for all development goals. However, there are still weaknesses in the implementation of
activities, the realization of justice and security, and participation among parties.
These shortcomings are what the Village SDGs is attempting to overcome, by
localizing the global SDGs down to the remote villages. The Village SDGs localization also
adjusts the terms and icons of the goals to make them more concrete, simple and
feasible. Village SDGs cover the goals of Village without Poverty, Village Without
Hunger, Healthy and Prosperous Village, Quality Village Education, Village Women's
Involvement, and Clean Water and Decent Sanitation Village. The next goals are Clean
and Renewable Energy Village, Equal Village Economic Growth, Needs-based Village
Infrastructure and Innovation, Village Without Disparity, Safe and Comfortable Village
Settlement Areas, and Environmentally Conscious Village Consumption and Production.
Next, the goals of Climate-Change Responsive Village, Marine-Environment Conscious
Village, Land-Environment Conscious Village. Lastly the goals of Peace and Just Village,
Partnerships for Village Development, and Dynamic Village Institutions and Adaptive
Village Culture.
Noteworthy here is the initiation of the 18 th Village SDGs: Dynamic Village
Institutions and Adaptive Village Cultures. This is a completely new development goal,
as a reflection of preserving the original history, culture and institutions of the villages in
Indonesia. This is how the grand narrative of development is conveyed into the context
as micro as of the village.
Implementation in all villages is ensured through the Village DDRT Ministerial
Regulation (Permendesa PDTT) 13/2020, on the priority use of the 2021 Village Funds.
All Village Fund expenditures must be used to implement these Village SDGs.
The institution of the Ministry of Village DDRT (Kementerian Desa PDTT) has
been redesigned so that it functions to achieve each of the Village SDGs. Institutional
coordination to the village was strengthened through the training of 35 thousand village
facilitators (Pendamping Desa). Village Heads and residents themselves are also
facilitated to communicate, discuss, and even engage in productive debates directly
with the Ministry of Village DDRT, which is represented by 37 members of the Sapa
Desa (Greet Village) Team.
To reinforce the measurement that still raises local wisdom and village
innovation, the Village Information System has been practically implemented since
January 2020. It contains annual detailed data intake on conditions at the village level,
the level of the Neighborhood (RT), and family. Direct validations and verifications are
carried out in each village and sub-district, so that arguments on data can be directly
evaluated on site. All data must be mined in the first semester, since it will be directly
used to measure the amount of Village Funds allocation for the following year, as well as
a source of information for village development planning. Recommendations for each
village appear automatically from the processing of the Village Information System, and
they must be fulfilled before moving on to other development items.