Our vision for Indonesia is of a country where every woman, man and child can enjoy life and is able to cope with the impacts of poverty and disasters.

 

History of Oxfam in Indonesia

From 1957 Oxfam made several grants over a number of years to Indonesian organisations. Then in 1972 a field office was established in Bogor, West Java and further grants made to local organisations.

In the 1970s concentration was on health, technical training, irrigation and the disabled. The emphasis of the programme in the 1980s was on further supporting and strengthening NGOs and encouraging the formation of pre-cooperative groups involved with community development work.

In the 1990s the main features of Oxfam's work were supporting community based rural development programmes, helping to give poor people access to fair trade, and supporting women's organisations. Work was also started on humanitartian programmes.

What we do in Indonesia

Oxfam works directly with communities and partners in three major areas:

• improving the livelihoods of small-scale farmers and labourers;
• saving lives by delivering humanitarian assistance and assisting communities to prepare for natural disasters;
• helping to shape government policies in favour of poor people and minorities.
• We promote gender equality in all programmes.

Several key issues in Indonesia shape our programme:

• Poverty, 115 million people are living on less than US$ 2 per day, 32 million people at productive age are unemployed
• Indonesia now owes at least US$ 144 billion or US$ 605 per capita and as a consequence has made downward adjustments to the national budget, cutting back on food subsidies, privatised state enterprises, and limiting spending on education, health and social services.
• In the last three years natural disasters and conflict have claimed the lives of 255,000 people and 1.4 million people have been displaced.

Where we work

We currently run programmes throughout Indonesia, including Aceh, East Nusa Tenggara, Java, Maluku, Nias, Sulawesi, Yogyakarta, West Kalimantan, and West Papua.

Due to a significant increase in demands for humanitarian support resulting from natural disasters and conflicts in 2004 and 2005, Oxfam opened sub-offices in Aceh, Nias, Central Kalimantan, North Sumatra, West Papua, and NTT (Alor, Kupang, Betun) to meet the needs of affected people.

Oxfam also sees the importance of the public’s role in influencing government decisions and policies; therefore, Oxfam has expanded its operations in Jakarta, South and Southeast Sulawesi, East Nusa Tenggara, and East Java to introduce and support the poverty reduction plan.

Last updated: June 05