Final report on the local government training (LGT-II) project

Although quantitative targets were not met - only about one-half of the number of staff expected to be trained during the original life of the project and one-third of those expected by 1985/86 were trained - the project successfully established an innovative system for providing rural development training. Training materials, consisting of over 2,000 individual items which provide a comprehensive and mutually supportive array of planning and management skills for Indonesian officials at all levels, were developed for a trilogy of courses: a Regional Development Planning and Management course, which has raised the competence of BAPPEDA (planning board) staff in over one-third of Indonesia"s Kabupatens; a Project Management System course, which combines proven tools for planning and managing rural development projects with technical advice on implementation procedures; and an Annual Planning and Budgeting course, which provides in 3 weeks practical, analytic tools for identifying key development sectors as well as step by step budgeting instructions. The course materials, based on careful research into existing local government practices, regulations, and constraints and targeted at specific groups, have been published in Bahasa Indonesia. Overall, almost 4,000 officials, mostly from the district level, have been trained and over 70 full-time trainers were trained or are in training. Three Rural Training Centers are operating and a fourth is about to start, while universities have been actively involved in running supplementary specialized courses. The annual training capacity of the Badan Diklat (Education and Training Agency) is now estimated at 2,810 development officials. Although the project ends on a high and successful note, it has not been without difficulties, particularly serious communication problems between PADCO and both the Badan Diklat and USAID/I.