Assessment of Child and

Family Welfare Systems

in Indonesia
Niloufar Pourzand
Head, Social Policy and Protection Cluster

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this paper/presentation are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the
views or policies of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), or its Board of Governors, or the governments they represent.
ADB does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this paper and accepts no responsibility for any
consequence of their use. Terminology used may not necessarily be consistent with ADB official terms.
Background
• A Child and Family Welfare System is one that
prevents and responds to child abuse, neglect,
exploitation and violence
• Reflects a new approach to international child
protection efforts and is at the core of UNICEF’s
strategy, especially in more developed countries

UNICEF
Assessment
The assessment study has the
following objective:

In a spirit of partnership,
undertake a needs
assessment of child and family
welfare system to identify
key gaps and areas for
capacity development, to
improve the delivery of social
welfare services for children.

UNICEF
Outcome of the Assessment
• A snapshot of the status of the system in
Indonesia;
• A series of recommendations for enhancing
existing strengths, as well as identification
of current gaps.

UNICEF
Normative framework

Normative framework including policies,

guidelines, standards and regulations
directly related to child and family welfare
services in Indonesia.

UNICEF
Legal and Policy Findings

• Indonesia has developed a progressive framework for

children's rights, but not for child protection.
• An effective legal framework requires a clearly mandated
agency with authority and accountability to protect,
responsible for continuum of services, and that stipulates
standards and criteria for making decisions in individual
cases.
• Decisions made through judicial processes, esp. for
removal of a child.
• Regulatory framework requiring registration, accreditation,
inspection of service providers.
UNICEF
Legal and Policy Findings

• Principal welfare services governed by non-binding

regulation, and driven by communities and NGOs.
• Regulations (Joint Directive) have focused on reactive,
forensic based model.
• Decision making processes on intervention delegated to
individuals, community and NGOs.
• Provincial offices have powers to develop their own laws
e.g. Qanun, but largely issue focused and non-specific.

UNICEF
Legal and Policy
Recommendations
• Child Protection Regulations: introduce binding
government regulations with key essential elements.
• Standards of Service: binding ministerial regulations for
standards of quality care and service.
• Inter-agency Protocol: defining roles and responsibilities
between agencies for child protection, especially the
duties for response.
• Develop a model provincial law as guidance.

UNICEF
Organizational Structures

Organizational structures and functions at national,

provincial and district level and the linkages that do
(or do not) exist as well as important obstacles to
integration and coordination of services focusing on
child and family welfare services.

UNICEF
Structures Findings

• Child protection services require a mandated authority,

designated to manage prevention and response services
• Hindered by the 'rights' agenda: seen as an interagency
coordination and referral, no role delineation
• Dinas Sosial has a wide welfare mandate but not targeted
at child protection per se.
• Policy of autonomous structuring has reduced linkages,
cohesion of policy and service provision, and reduced
capacity
• Structural linkages to community level currently low.

UNICEF
Structures Findings

• Child protection agencies and NGOs tend to be quite

urban biased, especially in remote provinces.
• Structures for independent monitoring established (KPAI,
KPAID, LPA) but many have no formal structure for
reporting and monitoring: deal with individual cases rather
than strategic oversight.

UNICEF
Structural Recommendations
1. Design of a comprehensive child and family welfare
delivery service: long term vision, but detailed processes
2. Roles and responsibilities of different agencies, as well as
across levels (national - village)
3. Clarification of role of Ministry of Women's Empowerment,
reviewing rights mandate and coordination role.
4. Piloting of the system and lessons learned.

UNICEF
Capacity and Resources

Human resources capacity including number, distribution &

qualities of key categories of staff as well as related issues
such as in-service training policies, strategies and curricula.

Financial resources and budgeting: priority programs and

allocation of resources

UNICEF
Capacity and Resources
Findings
• Each of the provincial offices has a special section for
Social Services and Rehabilitation: many have training of
STKS, Educational/Training Centre or SW.
• 'Real' social workers are those who work directly; Dinas
Sosial either administrative, data collection or in
institutions (panti)
• At local level, very limited capacity. Much reliance on
NGO, e.g. PKK.
• Limited vision for local level and few structural linkages
• Definition of role and responsibilities.
UNICEF
Capacity and Resources
Recommendations
1. Structure of social work courses is good, but need review
of social work training curricula to ensure increased focus
and specialization on children’s issues, esp. child
protection.
2. Develop the role and mandate, including statutory
reporting, for key professionals.
3. Development of institutionalized capacity at the local level,
including skills based training.

UNICEF
Services

Effectiveness of current basket of continuum of child

specific social welfare services; the priorities afforded to
prevention, early intervention and alternative care;
accessibility and interconnections between services; and
the level of linkages between child specific baskets of
services with those of direct support to families.

UNICEF
Primary Intervention

• Many awareness campaigns that have

significantly raised understanding of
issues and rights of people.

• Perceived as a cornerstone of agency

role, but tends to focus on specific
issues, often disseminating of laws
and policies.

• Many traditional practices that need to

be built upon, e.g. pengajian / arisan.

UNICEF
Secondary Intervention

• Early Identification

• Financial Support

• Family Strengthening

UNICEF
Tertiary Intervention
• Disclosure and Reporting
• Emergency and Medico-Legal
Services
• Assessment, Decision-making
and Case Management
• Recovery and Reintegration
Services
• Recording
• Out-of-Home Care

UNICEF
General Recommendations
‰ Development of national strategic plan for reform of child
welfare system, include:
• Clearer designation of mandate, authority and accountability
• Outline for management and implementation of welfare
system
• Development of continuum of services
• Clarity of decision-making processes

‰ Piloting of child and family welfare system

‰ Review of legal and regulatory framework

‰ Capacity building for long term professionalization of the

sector
UNICEF
 Follow-up actions initiated
thus far…
POLICY :
• Shift in the programme paradigm on child welfare and
protection, e.g.
• from issue-based to integrated and sustainable approach
• from institution-based to family-based care
• Ministry of Social Affairs drafted child welfare and
protection strategy.
• Ministry of Social Affairs drafting policies on alternative
care and guardianship
 Follow-up actions initiated
thus far…
CAPACITY BUILDING:
• Issuance of Ministerial Decree by the Minister of Social
Welfare on accreditation and certification of social workers.
• In the process of developing capacity building programme
on in-service training for child welfare professionals.
• Ministry of Social Affairs is hiring about 400 professional
social workers to administer newly launched child social
welfare programme (conditional cash transfer).
• In the process of developing capacity building programme
on in-service training for child welfare professionals.
 Follow-up actions initiated
thus far…

DEVELOPING MODEL OF INTERVENTION.

• Launched child social welfare programme (conditional cash
transfer) for empowering vulnerable families.
• Initiating pilot model on de-institutionalization of children
and strengthening family-based care.
UNICEF