Towards a New approach to community-based rural development: Lesson learned from Indonesia

Abstract

Efforts to improve the welfare of community are an important agenda for rural development. The community-based development (CBD) has been applied in rural development models such as the model of Integrated Agriculture Development (IAD), the Community-Based Forest Management (CBFM), and Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management (EAFM). However, the models have revealed certain weaknesses, to achieve resilience and sustainable growth in village’s community. We evaluated the current practices of CBD in rural Indonesian by applying proper governance and social innovation as a conceptual framework at village development level. Field work was applied in 15 villages in Indonesia to collect qualitative data from the key persons. The qualitative analysis was undertaken to actualizing the proper governance and social innovation dimensions based on the data gathered from 15 villages in Indonesia. It is observed that the CBD practices vary in three different rural’s typology namely farming, forest, and coastal villages. The CBD practices can enhance developmental resilience and sustainability in rural areas, if the current practices can add more attention in four key factors namely institutional setting, financial strategy, program’s sustainability, and post-program mentoring.