Indonesia Evaluations

Final Evaluation – Building Resilience through Multi-Stakeholder Collaboration to Prevent Violent Extremism in Indonesia – December 2022

Building Resilience through Multi-stakeholder Collaboration to Prevent Violent Extremism, Indonesia, United States Department of Counter Terrorism (CT) Bureau, 30 September 2020 – 30 September 2022

A suicide bombing attack that killed the perpetrators and injured 20 people by a newly married pair at the cathedral church in Makassar, South Sulawesi, in March 2021 was the last major terrorist attack in Indonesia. Since then, the number of terrorist attacks has declined significantly in number and scale. Thanks to Indonesia’s successful countermeasures against operations and networks of violent extremism (VE) actors in the country and the loss of ISIS’s physical territories abroad. Despite the declining number of terrorist attacks, less frequent and small-scale terrorist attacks continue. In addition to being on the grounds, the VE actors seek support in the digital space. The tactics used by VEOs include online propaganda by spreading a wide variety of narratives that have successfully targeted individuals at different stages of support towards VE actors or organizations.

In response to this situation, Search engaged multi-stakeholder actors of Prevention and Counter Violent Extremism (P/CVE) from government and non-government institutions, including the Directorate General of Corrections (DGC), Ministry of Religious Affairs (MORA), National and Political Unity Agency (Kesbangpol), Social Services Bureau, and many local civil society organizations. The program emphasized addressing both prevention and countering sides of VE problems through non-adversarial, non-security, and multi-stakeholder approaches.

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Final External Evaluation of SOLID-ID (Solidifying Religious Freedom in Indonesia) Project

This is the final external evaluation report of the Bureau of Democracy, Rights and Labor (DRL) funded “Solidifying Religious Freedom in Indonesia” (SOLID-ID) program, implemented by Search for Common Ground (Search). The project ran from September 2017 to March 2019 for a total of 18 months. The project was implemented in six locations (Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Bekasi, Bandung and Yogyakarta), identified as Indonesia’s most intolerant cities based on the Setara Institute 2017 survey. The project aimed at reinstating the values and norms of pluralism within state institutions and local communities, and among youth, to in turn support a more enabling environment for strengthening religious freedom in Indonesia. The project aimed at improving national and local government’s role in ensuring the protection of religious minorities in exercising religious freedom; and enhancing the roles of key actors (religious leaders, artists, and media) in actively promoting religious tolerance. The project promoted the values of diversity and pluralism in state institutions, youth groups and other groups in society, which is an important element in social and political life in Indonesia today. The project was found to be relevant due to the strong polarization of political support that often catalyzed spreading of false information and hate speech that divides public trust. The project is also credited to increased acceptance of religious differences and promoting tolerance in Indonesian society.

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Final External Evaluation of DESA (Gender Sensitive Planning and Budgeting at Indonesian Village Level) Project

This is the final external evaluation of DESA (Gender Sensitive Planning and Budgeting at Indonesian Village Level) project was implemented by Search in partnership with nine local Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in the two Indonesian regions of Bogor, West Java, and Tabanan, Bali. The project was finded by European Union (EU) Delegation in Jakarta. The project’s key goal was to enhance citizen involvement in gender and minority sensitive budget planning in local authorities at the village level. The project had three specific objectives: to improve gender-sensitive village governance processes; to increase participation of women in village governance; and to strengthen local actors and CSOs on gender-sensitive governance methods and processes. This evaluation was initially designed to measure the ‘impact’ of the DESA project (the project), however was re-designed in the early stages of evaluation design to focus towards the project’s processes, which was determined a more suitable design based on the type, context and implementation stage of the overall project itself. The process-orientated evaluation approach, aimed at highlighting changes caused by project interventions that in time could lead to achieving the project’s overall goals and impacts. To achieve this, the evaluation utilized a rights-based approach format, based on this design’s strength to support increased impact, strengthen sustainability by addressing the root causes, bring about policy and practice changes, engage key stakeholders to support right’s fulfilment, and change power relations.

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Final Evaluation – Reducing the Recruitment and Recidivism of Violent Extremists in Indonesia

This report presents the findings of the final external evaluation of three-year project implemented by SFCG Indonesia. The project ‘Reducing the Recruitment and Recidivism of Violent Extremists in Indonesia’ engaged multiple stakeholders and aimed at addressing an ongoing challenge: the recruitment of vulnerable young people into violent extremist organizations and the high risk of recidivism for released prisoners (particularly those convicted of terrorism) after their release on parole. The overall objective of the project was to reduce the risk of violent extremism amongst at-risk youth and offenders in Indonesia. The evaluation proved that the transfer of knowledge and skills to the beneficiaries was quite relevant to the current context. First, the topic, CVE, touched on the current most pressing issues faced by the society at large and the youth in particular. Second, the content was easily followed and understood. Third, the medium to deliver the message was attractive and youth-friendly. The evaluation found that the program was able to increase cooperation among key stakeholders. It was also effective in lowering ex-offenders’ susceptibility to rejoin their former group.

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Final Evaluation – “Mabesikan: Promoting Arts for Social Change in Bali, Indonesia”

This is the final evaluation report of Search For Common Ground Indonesia’s project Mabesikan: Promoting Arts for Social Change in Bali, Indonesia, funded by the Dutch Government. Search, along with 10 local civil society organizations and 14 local artists, implemented a series of initiatives to promote conflict prevention and societal transformation on issues of land and resource conflict, gender-based violence, and identity conflicts in Bali. Search aimed to build thriving relationships between Balinese artists and civil society organizations (CSOs) that will increase the capacity of Balinese artists to promote conflict prevention and allow CSOs to build public awareness. Overall, the evaluation found that the Mabesikan Project has started a momentum of social change around the local issues of gender-based violence, land and resources conflict, and identity conflict.

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    Final Evaluation: “Youth Ambassadors for Tolerance and Diversity”

    This is the report of the final evaluation of the project ‘Youth Ambassadors for Tolerance and Religious Diversity” implemented by SFCG, Indonesia. This is a 24-month project (18 months plus six months no –cost extension) and implemented between 2013 and 2016. The project was funded by US State Department Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL). The project sought to promote inter and intra faith cooperation and tolerance in communities of high religious tension in Indonesia. The evaluation found that SFCG adequately provided information on the history of religion and religious diversity to the youth ambassadors and brought them together to interact with other youth from different religions and faiths in a conflict sensitive manner. Participating youth were able to increase their skills as it related to theory of conflict resolution, organizational planning and management, and media engagement. Facilitation/communication and media skills were identified by the youth ambassadors as the most important skills gained as a result of this program and the areas they felt still needed improvement. It also provided the first opportunity for many of the youth to challenge their own perceptions and stereotypes as they interacted with people from other religions for the first time. However, the evaluation also noticed that there was unusually high percentage of inactive youth participants and there was less than desired engagement of online and print media in the two out of three sites visited. The evaluation presents few lesson learned as well as specific recommendations for similar future initiatives.

    Click here to read the Annex.

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    Empowering Interfaith Collaboration to Respect and Protect Holy Sites in Indonesia

    This document presents the findings of a baseline study carried out by Search for Common Ground Indonesia, for an 18-month project entitled “Empowering Inter-Faith Collaboration to Respect and Protect Holy Sites in Indonesia” aimed at strengthening inter-faith collaboration to safeguard Holy Sites in Indonesia. This project is funded by The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It emerges amid a growing concern that many holy sites in Indonesia continue to be targets of destruction, desecration, and controversy. The overall objective of the project is to strengthen inter-faith collaboration to respect and protect Holy Sites in Indonesia by increasing understanding on religious tolerance through mapping and describing holy sites in Indonesia; promoting the importance of respecting holy sites through innovative educational materials and outreach activities; and empowering and institutionalizing inter-faith groups to protect holy sites.

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