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NEWS & AGENDA
The Kindness of Indonesian Society - Part 3
Jalal - Founder and Commissioner
Wahyu Aris Darmono – Founder and Commissioner
WISESA Social Enterprise
Indonesia did experience an increase in the four Doing Good Index 2020 clusters compared to the previous report. We move from the Not Doing Enough cluster to Doing Okay. This is the cluster with the most countries in it, so maybe not enough to be proud of. Moreover, Cambodia and Nepal, which filled the Not Doing Enough cluster, were assessed for the first time. Above the cluster where Indonesia is located, there are Doing Better and Doing Well clusters. The latter elite cluster is occupied only by Singapore and Taiwan.
However, placing Indonesia in this index is not primarily a matter of pride, but rather a matter of how to make Indonesian people who are famous and proven to be generous, able to realize their potential for goodness optimally. As mentioned in the previous section, the Doing Good Index 2020 sees four areas for improvement, namely regulation, incentives to do good, increasing the role of government, and increasing the role of companies.
In terms of regulations that apply to the social sector, Indonesia is actually not too complicated compared to other countries in the Asian region. In Asia, on average, only 18% of respondents stated that existing regulations were easy to understand, in Indonesia the figure reached 24%. In Asia, non-profit organization registration takes 94 days on average, in Indonesia it only takes 20 days. Maybe the time for registration is optimal, but if only 24% of respondents stated that our regulations are easy to understand, it means that there are 76% who think that they are not easy enough to understand. Making it easier for people to understand regulations is a clear room for improvement.
In addition, in Indonesia there are 5 government institutions that have supervisory authority over social organizations. Since each has a different oversight mandate, social organizations can naturally be overwhelmed in serving them. Not to mention, there are 5 different reporting obligations, which of course also take time to fulfill. Only 40% of respondents stated that regulations on social organizations were always enforced. So, existing regulations may be useless and violations of regulations may be allowed. What is the use of regulations if they are not actually enforced?
In Indonesia, 66% of social organizations stated that they received foreign funding. This is the second largest proportion after individual donations received by 70% of social organizations in Indonesia. On average, organizations surveyed by the Center for Asian Philanthropy and Society (CAPS) stated that 37% of their budgets came from foreign funding. Compared to the Asian level, which averages 25%, social organizations in Indonesia are more dependent on this foreign funding. Meanwhile, grants from the government were only ever received by 19% of the organizations surveyed, and projects from the Indonesian government were only stated by 17% of organizations. Reducing dependence on foreign funding and increasing the proportion of government support is clearly a chore in Indonesia, apart from continuing to attract individual donations. One way that this research suggests is to increase the proportion of tax deductions that can be obtained by individuals and companies that donate.
But it is also clear that the Government of Indonesia must provide a larger grant. At the Asian level, 19% of social organizations have received government grants, while here the figure is only 19%. The Indonesian government also urgently needs to increase spending on projects that social organizations can undertake. At the Asian level, government spending now fills an average of 6% of the budget for social organizations. In Indonesia, only 1%. Of course this number is too small.
The relationship between Indonesian social organizations and companies can also be greatly improved. In Asia now 51% of organizations have collaborated with volunteers from companies, while in Indonesia the figure is only 26% or only half the Asian average. The number of board members in social organizations in Indonesia is also on average only 5 people with 1 person from the company. In fact, in Asia the average board consists of 9 people with 2 representatives from companies. Of course, with more representatives from companies, the access to cooperation with companies can be improved.
Other things that according to CAPS can make the goodness of the Indonesian people optimal include the use of financial technology to make it easier for people to make donations. However, the number of people who are now donating to charitable organizations, and the number of donations, versus the number of people and potential donations is still a long way off. Likewise, the number of social enterprises will continue to grow rapidly in the coming years, especially in the fields of agriculture, food, and education. These two tendencies will make it easier for the goodness of the Indonesian people to become even more powerful.