Little fingers were dancing fast Sunday as groups of children folded origami birds. Faces excited but in full concentration, the children folded while friends cheered from the side.
"Come on! You can do it!" supporters cheered from the sides, their voices echoing inside the Mega Glodok Kemayoran shopping center in North Jakarta.
Sunday saw the mall transform into a big playground for more than 400 children from Jakarta and surrounding areas.
Children from 42 community libraries across Greater Jakarta joined the second Olympics for Community Libraries, held by volunteer-based non-profit organization 1001BUKU, in conjunction with World Book Day on April 23.
Community libraries are community-based alternative education centers, where children can play and learn outside the official schooling system.
Jakarta has seen significant growth recently in these kinds of community centers, most of which have been initiated by non-government organizations and concerned individuals.
They are usually volunteer-based with sizes varying from solid establishments with vast book and educational toy collections, to small scale libraries with tiny collections in volunteers' garages.
"We're holding this event to give exposure to community libraries. They are vital for children's access to quality reading," said Mochamad Ariyo Faridh Zidni, a 1001BUKU volunteer, who was in charge in organizing the Olympics.
"However, (community libraries) receive very little support from the public. We hope that through this event people will get a heightened awareness and help community libraries," he added.
1001BUKU works to increase children's access to reading material by providing books and empowering community libraries across Indonesia.
Ariyo said the were around 70 community libraries in their network in Greater Jakarta and around 120 across Indonesia.
"This event is also an opportunity for people managing community libraries to meet and share experiences with each other. Meanwhile the kids can have some fun," he said.
Children at the Olympics shouted and sung the local children's song "Bermain Layang-layang" ("Flying Kites") to support their friends.
After making their origami birds, then raced each other to make and hand-paint paper kites.
"This is the creativity marathon competition," Ariyo said of the game.
Girls from the Rumah Cahaya community library in Jatibening, East Jakarta decorated their kite by stamping their paint-smudged hands on it. They were the first to finish the race, taking around 10 minutes to finish.
"It was exciting. We really had to work fast," said Pipit Rosiana, 11.
"I didn't care if we won or not. I'm just having fun here," said Chairunnisa, 11, Pipit's team mate.
Besides the marathon, the Olympics also had children compete to design and color bulletin boards, as well as vie with each other in a storytelling competition.
"We prepared the leads of the stories and the children had to finish the stories as creatively as possible," Ariyo said.
Gunawan, 27, founder of the Kuartet Community Library in Cibubur, said the event was good for the children. Some 31 children from his library came to the event.
"There should be more events like this," he said.
Gunawan said he and his friends set up their community library to give a place for children in their neighborhood to hang out and re
With declining oil and gas revenues and limited prospects for quickly establishing an industrial base, agriculture and fisheries will remain critical sectors for Aceh's economic development after the Tsunami reconstruction comes to an end in 2009.
Today, more than 70 percent of the population depend on natural resource based "livelihoods", mainly farming and fishing, while less than 20 percent of Aceh's population live in Banda Aceh, Lhoksomawe, Langsa, Meulaboh and other "urban" centers. To prevent the likelihood of a return to localized conflicts, these rural families and their potential need to be reintegrated into the development process.
Current estimates show only 20 percent of agricultural potential is being achieved.The decision-makers therefore have to grapple with a dilemma as to whether Aceh should adopt a macro urban-biased or a micro "grass-roots" and rural focussed development strategy. The answer seems clear: They should adopt both. However, the balance between the two should be proportional and tailored to the special conditions of Aceh in 2007, not only taking into account the Tsunami disaster but also three decades of civil conflict. Unfortunately, this balance still needs to be established.
Like in other development scenarios, the challenge of economics is to reconcile the two primary branches of the economics tree: Macro and micro economics. Macro economists view economic development like a solar system. The heat from urban-based centers of development radiates prosperity for all. However, unlike the sun's rays passing easily through space, macro-economic benefits require costly infrastructure and time to reach the populations living in rural areas, far from the urban centers.
Micro-economists focus on smaller economic centers such as local livelihoods units or clusters and micro enterprises. Although deprived of economies of scale and global market opportunities, these smaller economic units have the potential to provide the inputs for developing macro industries and have the distinct advantage that all, not just the urban populations, can participate today, not sometimes besok, later. The macro economic model may not sit well within the new political landscape in which community driven grass-roots development is seen as the key for a prosperous and peaceful Aceh.
Before the tsunami, 1.2 million people (28 percent of the population in Aceh) were living below the poverty line. Since the tsunami, an additional 325,000 people have become vulnerable to fall below the poverty line. The majority of these poor live in the rural areas. It is a well-established fact that the poor often lack land resources, micro enterprise knowledge and access to micro-credit in order to increase income and climb out of poverty.
Poor women are even more disadvantaged by present land tenure and predominantly male social cultures. The importance of Aceh's agriculture and fisheries over the short and medium term suggests that the strategy for both poverty reduction and economic development should place the rural populations at the center.
The current investments in Aceh in agriculture and fisheries, the sectors supporting more than 70 percent of the population in terms of livelihoods and also generating 25 percent of Aceh's GDP, are still low. Under the reconstruction program for Aceh and Nias lead by the Agency for the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction (BRR), only a small percentage (about 2 percent) of the domestically financed 2006 budget was allocated to agriculture.
The Sustainable Economic Development Strategy for Aceh is a macro-economic approach. It is market-driven with significant roles assigned to the local government and the private sector. However this strategy is likely to benefit firstly the urban centers and their populations and lastly the rural poor. There is therefore a definite need for a complementary, community-based and market-driven livelihoods strategy to kick start economic development in the rural areas, so long isolated and eroded through years of conflict.
No doubt, this rural focused micro-economic strategy also needs support and facilitation by both the local government and the private sector. Remaining Tsunami reconstruction funds available with BRR and their donor partners should be used to implement this livelihoods strategy. This would assist in improving the balance between the macro and micro development.
Progress has been made in restoring livelihoods in 2006 by BRR and reconstruction partners including, among others, ADB, IFC, FAO, UNDP, numerous NGOs and of course the communities themselves. To date, about 50,000 hectares of farming land have been rehabilitated and brought back into production through cash for work, community contracts, material support for seeds and fertilizers, and provision of agricultural equipment.
In aquaculture around 6,800 ha or 25 percent of damaged fish ponds and damaged fisheries infrastructure along the north-east and west coasts have been rehabilitated, although many ponds are not yet operating at pre-Tsunami levels. However there is still a long way to go before these local productive assets can be turned into sustainable sources of income for rural families.
One of the larger donors, ADB is contributing over $100 million or more than 30 percent of its $294.5 million grant for the Earthquake and Tsunami Emergency Support Project (ETESP) to rural micro-economic livelihoods programs. These ETESP programs, which put the rural population first, are being implemented in 10 districts of Aceh through the Dinases and BRR.
However major investments like these need an ongoing livelihoods strategy developed by local stakeholders that focuses on realizing the potentials of Aceh and Nias valuable natural and human resources.
A common vision for these livelihoods programs has now been formulated with inputs from the local government, BRR and the concerned agencies. This vision is summarized as: "Profitable livelihoods clusters connected to markets and support services increase family incomes in agriculture, fisheries and non-farm enterprises. Connections centers ensure all families participate in their local community economy development."
The basic principle is that livelihoods clusters increase product volumes and the quality required by the markets and will generate cash to pay for support services such as micro-finance and connections centers. Sub-district connections centers encourage rural producers to work together through local product associations and facilitate those families not able to participate in livelihoods clusters to develop alternative livelihoods. This integrated grassroots livelihoods strategy benefits local poor families and empowers communities to reduce poverty today, not tomorrow.
ad. "We also play games, such as Brain Gymnastics, for the children. Bored children are the ones prone to doing dangerous things, such as taking drugs," he said.
economic hardsship
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