Australia-Nusa Tenggara Assistance for Regional Autonomy Program (ANTARA)

Background

Nusa Tenggara Timur, Nusa Tenggara Barat, Papua and West Papua are among the four least-developed provinces in Indonesia. Australia is committed to supporting the development of these provinces in eastern Indonesia.

The Australia-Nusa Tenggara Assistance for Regional Autonomy Program is part of the Australia-Indonesia Partnership.

The program aim's to alleviate poverty by improving governance, improving incomes and improving access to and quality of basic services.

The five-year program will be completed in May 2010. A new program - the Australia Indonesia Partnership for Decentralisation, which will build on this program, will commence in mid-2010. The new program will focus on improving provincial and local government performance, especially in the key areas of health, education and infrastructure.

The Australia-Nusa Tenggara Assistance for Regional Autonomy Program

The program’s goal is to reduce poverty through sustainable and equitable social economic development.

Objectives

Improve provincial and district governance
Improve incomes
Improve access to and quality of basic health and education services

Principles:

Reducing Poverty: the program’s activities aim to alleviate poverty by improving governance, increasing ecnomic growth and improving access to and quality of basic services. The support is facilitated with local government at province and district level.
Building Capacity: the three objectives of the program call for long-term approaches to its activities and ensures that all program-partners clearly demonstrate this in their work.
Engaging with stakeholders: lasting engagement with counterparts is implicit in all activities that this program supports. The program recognises that it is crucial for counterparts to meaningfully engage in development dialogue at provincial and district levels.
Coordinating with donors: building synergy with other donor activities is a major part of the program’s work. This is done by applying key principles to promote aid effectiveness such as ownership, alignment, harmonization, mutual accountability and managing for results.
Promoting gender equality: women are particularly disadvantaged in poor communities. They shoulder the major burden for managing the family while still being expected to earn income. It is important that activities supported by this program do not add to women’s heavy burden, while encouraging them to voice their concerns. The program is committed to promoting equal participation of both women and men in all aspects of leadership and decision-making.
Protecting the environment: environmental degradation exacerbates poverty in eastern indonesia and Papua and West Papua. In the area of local economic development, especially in agriculture and fisheries, the program encourages sustainable solutions and supports communities to move away from over-exploitation of existing resources.
Advocating for good governance: the program promotes transparency and accountability in all aspects of its work and maintains a zero corruption policy.
Making services work: the effective and efficient delivery of basic services is a national priority. This program is committed to improving access to and quality of basic services for the poor. The program focuses especially on health and education services.
Mainstreaming HIV: HIV remains a major development issue particularly affecting the poor and vulnerable. This program mitigates the risk of HIV in the workplace and in the field by addressing vulnerability and the impact of HIV among its personnel and beneficiaries.
Testing what works: the program through competitive bidding system promotes innovation and pilots new activities to see ‘what works’ in the region and what activities have the potential to scale up.

Contact us:
ANTARA main office
Jl. Polisi Militer No.2 Oepoi, Kupang, NTT, Indonesia
Phone: + 62 380 833099 | Fax: +62 380 833199
Email: info@antarantt.or.id | Web: www.antarantt.org

This page was last updated on 21 May 2010