Public Seminar: Discussing Future of Urban Village Empowerment in Jakarta with Speakers

The Jakarta Public Housing and Settlement Agency held a hybrid public seminar themed 'The Future of Urban Village Empowerment in Jakarta' and broadcast via the Jakarta Youtube channel, on Wednesday (8/3). It is done as a form of gathering public aspirations and steps for change that have been carried out over the last five years.

Hopefully, input from the community can enrich this draft regulation

The seminar invited various keynote speakers and experts to enrich the public's knowledge about village planning in Jakarta and to hear experiences of structuring several cities in other countries. 

The speakers who attended included Former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing Leilani Farha; CODI (the Community Organizations Development Institute in Thailand) Founder Somsook Boonyabancha; National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) Coordinator Nurul Face Mujahid; and responders from practitioners and academics of housing and settlements in Indonesia.

Opening APPSI Seminar, Governor Hopes National Integration Goes Well

Jakarta Public Housing and Settlement Agency Head Sarjoko said that the seminar was held to solicit input from the community and experts to prepare a road map for the future arrangement of the Jakarta village.

"We're currently drafting a Gubernatorial Regulation regarding housing, which is drawn from experiences and lessons learned from village planning that have been carried out for the last 5 years by taking into account the provisions of the applicable laws. Hopefully, input from the community can enrich this draft regulation," he explained, as quoted by Jakarta PPID's press release.

The Jakarta Governor's step in placing housing as a human right was praised by one of the speakers at the Public Seminar, namely the Former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing Leilani Farha.

"I appreciate him (the Governor) and his staff for having consistent steps and breakthroughs in placing housing as a human right and placing it in the housing development approach," stated Leilani Farha.

Besides placing housing as a human right, the step also changed the approach to no longer carrying out evictions in the last 4 years getting appreciation. According to her, forced evictions were a violation of human rights under international human rights law. this step was deemed very appropriate and recognized the village as part of the city. The administration has now recognized the kampongs as part of residential areas in Jakarta through the Detailed Spatial Plan.

She, who visited Jakarta in 2017, also appreciated the public involvement steps taken by the agency in implementing the Community Action Plan and Community Implementation Project. "Efforts to ensure that people can be directly involved in planning their environment and have the capacity to influence policies that will affect their living conditions is an important step in seeing housing as a human right," she concluded.

On the other hand, CODI Founder Somsook Boonyabancha also shared his experiences regarding the steps of urban planning and improvement of the living environment in Thailand. There are two approaches to building housing, the first was an approach to improving densely populated areas starting from the existing conditions to reconstruct affordable houses together with the communities in those locations and finding the right joint solutions for residents in densely populated areas.

The second was the approach of supplying building homes to buyers, in this case finding the right people to live in the newly built homes.

"CODI is an organization under the Thai Government that deals with the improvement of people's residences. It repairs people's homes in slums and finds solutions to problems related to land, social, financial, and even legal. Everything is seen together and integrated to find a solution to the problem," he explained.

He went on to say that communication and collaboration with residents and communities are needed to plan improvements to densely populated villages, involving professionals/experts, thus people in the village can better improve their quality of life. The collaboration started from planning and building a decent place to live, managing the financial system to be independent, to raising children in a good environment.

"In improving the living environment, can be as simple as eliminating slums, including enabling the reconstruction of existing buildings, as well as relocation. This is also seen from the environmental conditions and the readiness of the people," he continued.

Bappenas' Housing Division Head Nurul Wajah Mujahid suggested that other regions could imitate the development of urban villages in Jakarta.

"Socio-economic development, not just houses," she praised the construction of the Kampung Susun Aquarium (elevated village) which he called 'breaking the egg' because it involves the participation and collaboration of residents (Community Action Plan/CAP). According to her, three keys that the local government must continue to strive for in structuring the settlements of the urban poor, namely, mentoring and empowerment, provision of land, as well as funding and financing.

As for the information, in the last 5 years, the Jakarta Public Housing and Settlement Agency has carried out village planning activities through CAP in 226 RWs, realized Community Implementation Project (CIP) activities in 220 RWs, and built 4 flats as a pilot for improving the quality of housing. In the future, collaboration with the Jakarta Trade, Industry, Cooperatives, and SMEs Agency in establishing the Kampung Kota Cooperative, as well as with the Jakarta Investment and One-Stop Service Agency (PTSP) to issue collective building permits for more than 7,500 houses which were granted to citizen cooperatives. This is all part of an effort to organize a village based on community empowerment.