The followings are key measures that support CSO participation in policy design:
1. The Regency/Municipal Cultural white Papers (377 Regencies/Municipalities);
2. The Provincial Cultural white Papers (34 Provinces); and
3. The 2018 Indonesian Culture Congress.
CSO participation in policy design is one of the main principles of the Advancement of Culture in Indonesia. Article 8 to Article 14 of Law 5 of 2017 on the Advancement of Culture (see Goal 1, Specific Policies that Regulate the Cultural and Creative Economy Sector) mention that Civil Society participation in policy design is one of the efforts of the Advancement of Culture. The law mandates that development of guideline documents for the Advancement of Culture must involve civil society representatives through competence and credible experts.
The followings are the guideline documents for the Advancement of Culture developed in stages through a bottom-up approach which starts from the regency/municipal and provincial levels, all the way up to national level:
1. Regency/Municipal Cultural White Papers, a document compiled by the government together with the civil society represented by experts at the regency/municipality level which contains factual conditions and problems faced by the region in the effort of the Advancement of Culture Cultural along with the proposed solutions;
2. Provincial Cultural White Papers, a document compiled by the government together with the civil society represented by experts, which is a compilation of the regency/municipal Cultural white Papers of a province and also contains the problems of the Advancement of Culture that is cross-regency/municipality in nature;
3. National Strategy for Culture (see Goal 1, Main Policies and Measures that Contain Strategies and Frameworks for the Development of an Integrated Cultural and Creative Economy Sector); and
4. Master Plan for the Advancement of Culture (see Goal 1, Main Policies and Measures that Contain Strategies and Frameworks for the Development of an Integrated Development Cultural and Creative Economy Sector).
Of the four types of the guideline documents for the Advancement of Culture above, three of them were developed involving civil society, which are the Regency/Municipal Cultural White Papers, the Provincial Cultural White Papers, and the National Strategy for Culture. Presidential Regulation 65 of 2018 on Procedures for Formulation of Regional Cultural White Papers and Cultural Strategies (see Goal 3, Policies and Measures to Evaluate National Development Plans and Strategies) stipulates that for Regional Cultural White Papers, Local Governments must involve community representatives in the drafting team, while for the National Strategy for Culture, Central Government must involve civil society representatives in the drafting team. The community representatives referred-to consist of vital public elements, namely: (1) educators or academics in the field of culture; (2) culture figures or artists; (3) regional cultural councils or regional arts councils; (4) community organizations engaged in the cultural sector; (5) customary or tribal leaders; and (6) people whose work is closely related to the objects of the advancement of culture. Regency/municipal government, in this case, facilitates the process with institutional and resource support. Most of the civil society representatives involved by the government come from CSOs who have been active in cultural issues both at the regional and national levels.
In general, policies and measures that support CSOs' participation in policy formulation are intended to contribute to the following achievements of the National Strategy for Culture (see Goal 1, Main Policies and Measures that Contain Strategies and Frameworks for the Development of an Integrated Cultural and Creative Economy Sector):
1. Institutional reform and culture budgeting to support the advancement of culture agenda (Agenda 6); and
2. Strengthen the role of the government as facilitator in the advancement of culture (Agenda 7).
At the time of writing this report, 377 regencies/municipalities had developed the Regency/Municipal Cultural white Papers from a total of 516 regencies/municipalities in Indonesia. Meanwhile, all provinces in Indonesia have developed the Provincial Cultural white Papers. The National Strategy for Culture was approved in the 2018 Indonesian Culture Congress, which was attended by thousands of stakeholders in the field of culture.