In simple terms, it means using the global framework of the Agenda 2030 with its 17 SDGs to promote development at local levels by essentially, at least on the paper, involving the people through bottom-up approaches.

As we know, Indonesia was the first country to have special legislation that activated SDGs-centered local governance, a true model for many other countries, including the most developed nations. Yet I have been wondering how this framework really works on the ground, and while I am still searching for answers, I tend to believe that any formal governance set up, even the most perfect one and most able to involve and include the people, should become a sort of “open source” framework.

I am talking about a system open to collaborations and partnerships, able to enhance people’s ingenuity and give them a true role in the decision-making process.

For example, the process of participatory budget where citizens are allowed or empowered to have a say in how resources are spent is very powerful and it is rapidly gaining traction across the world with many good practices stemming from the South.

It is just one of several tools at policymakers' disposal to open up the governance’s gate and lay the conditions for the common people to step up and express their opinions.

Interestingly, Indonesia also counts with truly outstanding cases of bottom-up participation, especially in urban areas, and policymakers at the highest levels should take notice.

Behind these efforts, there are many activists and passionate community workers. Among them, there is Kota Kita, a national not-for-profit organization whose name already says everything: Every urban place is “our city” and does not belong just to the elected or the civil servants.

Initiated by Ahmad Rifai and John Taylor, Kota Kita has grown to become one of the leading organizations promoting citizens’ urban participation across the world.

Kota Kita’s vision and mission are as simple to grasp as they are daunting to achieve: Believing that citizens should be at the heart of decision-making in their cities. And what the organization essentially tries to do is to “work with citizens to make their cities a better place”.

What a mission you might say.

To better understand this monumental work, I had the opportunity to virtually meet with Rifai, currently the executive director of Kota Kita.

I was impressed by his passion, but at the same, time pragmatism and humbleness characterize the work of his team trying to change the system from within but also from the outside. Kota Kita's work, so far, has been focused on Surakarta in Central Java, Surabaya in East Java and several other cities across Indonesia, and considering the vastitude of the country, you understand how much work is still left.

What Kota Kita is trying to do is to create opportunities for citizens to step up and have their voices heard, supporting them to have their ideas and opinions “voiced” in a way to build new solutions to the myriad of problems afflicting urban centers in the country.

For this to happen, it is indispensable to deal with the system, but at the same time, Kota Kita dares to try new approaches and solutions that actually, potentially, can offer a blueprint for a different system, a type-two democracy that would empower citizens to become policymakers, problem solvers and decisionmakers at once.

Social innovation, not in terms of artificial intelligence or anything related to new technologies but genuine desire to bring social changes by democratizing policy-making, is essential.

Rifai believes that when we talk about bottom-up approaches, we always need to innovate, and this is also the case for civil servants trying to promote participatory solutions that, at the end, risk to remain top-down no matter their best intentions.

To do it the proper way, Kota Kita believes in a very important type of right: The right to the city, which means “the right of all inhabitants, present and future, permanent and temporary, to inhabit, use, occupy, produce, govern and enjoy just, inclusive, safe and sustainable cities, villages and to a full and decent life".

Building local leadership is one of the most essential priorities to fulfill such rights, rediscover local ingenuity and unleash people’s determination to build inclusive and truly democratic cities. After all, promoting bottom-up people participation means embedding your working approach with the passion, commitment and drive that Rifai and his team show day in, day out.

Through the years, they have been involved in promoting many initiatives that should be studied as case studies in all the major public policy labs, including, for example, the 2021 Urban Citizenship Academy or learning exchange forums like the Urban Social Forum, which has become a recognized event for all those interested in reinventing the way cities work.

Fundamentally, Kota Kita also has been partnering with persons living with disabilities, with the publication of the Guideline to Participatory Approach for Disability-Inclusive City, a tool designed to demonstrate the process of participatory data collection for advocacy and policy purposes to support disability-inclusive cities.

Kota Kita is prototyping many incredibly smart and cost-effective ideas to make the cities of Indonesia smarter, more resilient and more inclusive, most importantly as Rifai stressed to me, “complementarily” with the work being carried out by local authorities.

The organization just released a new exciting strategy that would increase Kota Kita’s engagement with participatory approaches to urban decision-making, a document that has a transformational potential because it will try to tackle climate change, transportation, water sanitation and other key urban governance issues.

That’s why it is so important for those in power, who so far have been working hard to promote a model of governance focused on the SDGs, to involve non-state actors in their work.

Laws and regulations that involve people are important to create a better and more cohesive nation but are not enough.

The genuine desire of those supporting and promoting them might wane and prove at the end ineffective unless they have the courage and farsightedness to open up and let the civil society and the citizens lead the process of bottom-up social innovation.

My learning from my conversation with Rifai is that in Indonesia, when the citizens are enabled, they can truly lead. Yet there is so much more that could be done, using existing best practices and turning them into genuine mainstreamed approaches that truly engage and involve the people.

This, according to Rifai, is the best way to represent the marginalized — something that those in power should never forget.

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The writer comments on social inclusion, youth development, regional integration and the Sustainable Development Goals in the context of the Asia Pacific.