Aceh’s HDI and the tsunami 6 years later

Aceh’s people are well known as a community tough on injustice. These are the same people who fought against the Dutch colonials for 30 years. Founding president Sukarno once said, “Through the struggle of the Acehnese, the entire territory of the Republic of Indonesia could be recaptured.”

Aceh once had the superior human resources of Southeast Asia, but wars and conflicts shattered that strength. Long periods of military and political struggles coupled with natural disasters turned Aceh into one of today’s poorest provinces in Indonesia.

However, since the tsunami of December 2004, accompanied by the Peace Agreement in August 2005, things have been turning for the better. With support from various countries, organizations and communities around world, the people of Aceh achieved remarkable progress in consolidating peace, healing wounds left by the conflicts and disasters and began rebuilding their human resources.

On Dec. 22, 2010, the Aceh Human Development Report (AHDR) 2010 launched in Banda Aceh. This was the first provincial AHDR in Indonesia, written with the support of the United Nations Development Program. Its main theme is empowering communities, not just through planning but also in their involvement in decision-making processes.

Aceh’s Human Development Index (HDI) had moved forward in unison with the national figure until 2007. It declined sharply in 2008. Compared to other regions in Indonesia, Aceh’s HDI increase slowed in recent years, ranking 29th of the 33 provinces in 2008.   

The poverty rate fell to 22 percent compared with the national average of 14 percent. Nevertheless, Aceh’s HDI rank here improved from 20th out of 26 provinces in 1996 to 17th out of 33 provinces in 2008. In 2005, one in four households was still designated as poor quality with poor basic services.

In education, Aceh showed the best performance among Indonesian provinces. Nevertheless, the quality of teaching and school facilities is still not equitable. In health, despite great progress over the last 40 years, indicators show that Aceh ranks in the lowest quarter of the provinces, due to lower life expectancies, poorly nourished children and higher maternal and infant mortality rates.

Although the GDP per capita indicates Aceh as one of the richest provinces in Indonesia, per capita spending shows that Acehnese people are among the nation’s poorest. Huge aid for rehabilitation and reconstruction following the tsunami has provided a temporary boost to the economy, but most of these programs have finished.  

Based on information analyses, the AHDR 2010 recommended six major goals to promote human development in the province.  

First, the most effective instrument for enhancing human development is empowering communities to make decisions independently as to their needs, and what is to be done to meet them. Empowerment is not only a means to promote participation in public meetings discussing priorities and plans, but also to divert fiscal resources for recognized groups and delegate authority in determining how to use the resources.  

Second, although some indicators show progress, the most important is to ensure that all people benefit from the improvements. Government programs should give special attention to handling the needs of particular social groups that may have been overlooked or are unable to get the help they need for some reason.

Third, basic social services can now be accessed directly by most communities throughout Aceh. A major future challenge is improving the quality of these services, particularly in health and education.

Fourth, another goal is to fight high unemployment and lack of employment opportunities to reduce poverty and increase household incomes.

Fifth, natural disasters are common in Aceh and cumulatively cause great loss and difficulty.

Mainstreaming various measures to reduce natural disasters’ impacts should be strengthened within government programs and donor agencies, particularly in forestry, agriculture and the fisheries.

Sixth, the huge increase in fiscal resources flowing to Aceh as a result of the peace agreement and the Law on Aceh governance emphasizes the need to minimize misuse and ensure that resources are channeled to various programs and services more effective in advancing human development.

In addition, the Special Autonomy Law gives Aceh three systems which have applied in parallel since 2001, namely the Indonesian State Administration Law, the traditional customary system, and sharia law. This often creates confusion, because the scope of each system’s jurisdiction overlaps and can lead to different interpretations. Some of these obstacles discourage people from filing charges and in turn prevent justice.

Sharia courts have become increasingly active with a number of women’s rights issues, including granting guardianship of children to women after divorce, granting a same share of the finances (harta gono-gini) after divorce, and protecting women’s inheritance rights. Measures to empower community-based organizations will help improve people’s access to justice. Campaigns will raise awareness of the rights of the community, and organizations will monitor sharia court decisions and customs regulations, as well as the performance of the shariah police.

Remembering the toughness of the people of Aceh in their fight for justice during the colonial period, we should be optimistic that the various gaps existing today will soon be overcome, in parallel with an HDI increase for the people of Aceh. Hopefully.

The writer is executive director of the Indonesian Democracy Education.