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resident Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is expected to announce Indonesia's plan on the Post-2015 Development Agenda this week. The High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons, which is cochaired by Yudhoyono, released its report on the Post-2015 Development Agenda last month, setting a target to eradicate extreme poverty.

Recently Cherian Mathews, regional director of Oxfam GB Asia region, talked with The Jakarta Post's Prodita Sabarini on Oxfam's work in the region, the role of civil society in influencing poverty reduction policies, and the accountability of NGOs.

Question: Can you tell us about Oxfam's work in the region?

Answer: For us, gender inequality is one of the causes of poverty in Asia. Our first focus is on women's economic leadership as well as women's political leadership. When I say women's economic leadership, I mean improving women's livelihoods while, at the same time, women should be able to bargain in the market and have better access to credit. So, we work on a range of issues around increasing economic opportunities for women. In terms of women's political participation, we feel that if we need to promote women's rights, it's important for women to be able to make decisions in both formal and informal institutions.

The second focus, and this is also important, is building resilience. Building resilience is about working with communities and making it possible for communities to cope with disasters and other vulnerabilities. We not only work with the communities, we also work with local governments because they are so critical in terms of looking at vulnerability and also in preparing for disaster. We work quite a lot on disasters, and how we can achieve disaster risk reduction (DRR) in development planning.

We not only work at the community level but also at the national level. We work with the government to really look at the DRR national plan, so that's one area. But at the same time, quite recently we also worked with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on disaster management issues, so it's a whole process on how we prepare as a community and for governments to better respond to natural disasters. It's about building effective and responsive governments.

What are the challenges for developing countries with emerging economies, such as Indonesia, in poverty reduction?

Let us look at ASEAN, at Southeast Asia; there are brilliant examples like Vietnam and many other countries that are experiencing economic growth and they can lift millions of people out of poverty, but now the challenge is we need to decrease inequality. We need to understand that when there is an increase in inequality, it also harms poverty reduction and the growth process, so it's a very important issue that these governments need to address.

The other challenge is that we are heavily integrated financially and economically across nations. If there are any financial shocks, say food price rises, there will be a knock-on effect for poor people; in that way, people who are close to the poverty line, so to speak, can fall back into poverty. So, that's where the whole resilience aspect comes into play: How can a government ensure that poor people can escape poverty and sustain that growth?

With regard to Indonesia, how can the government devise policies that really reach the poor to enable them to get out of poverty.

How do you see the role of civil society in influencing government policies?

NGOs have to play the role of a whistle-blower, to make sure the government is responsive, effective and transparent and looking at issues in order to solve issues such as poverty.

In countries like Indonesia, we play more of a supporting role, providing support to the public and NGOs to speak up, to get their voices heard.

How does Oxfam ensure accountability in its NGO work?

There are many codes of conduct for NGOs and Oxfam has one,too. NGOs need to be accountable not only to the government and donors but also to the community because, at the end of the day, we are also accountable to the communities where we work. There are also a lot of international codes of conduct that Oxfam is signed up to. Oxfam has worked in Indonesia for more than 30 years and we have a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the government. As part of the MOU, we submit to the government annual audit reports and we invite government officials to our programs. In that way, we are transparent and share all the information that we can, and that is how Oxfam works in all the countries across Asia.

Second, we also need to ensure than NGOs deliver on their programs. So, we conduct financial assessments; we also obtain financial reports from NGOs. For Oxfam, there is zero tolerance on fraud; so if something is found, we have processes and procedures to trace that and we also take action. There are various ways in which Oxfam runs checks and balances to ensure we remain accountable to the government, our own donors and the communities.