The issue of poor local government capacity has been considered one of the problems impeding the implementation of decentralization, especially in developing countries. This study addresses this issue in the case of Indonesia, a country that has implemented massive decentralization (administrative, fiscal, and political) over the last two decades. The study aims to provide empirical evidence for the impact of local government capacity on public service delivery in the decentralization regime. Local government capacity is measured based on a policy capacity framework at the organizational level that includes three types of capacities: analytical, operational, and political. The regression of the panel data model, estimated with the Hausman–Taylor method, reveals that government capacity in terms of interactions of three types of capacities has a positive impact on public service delivery. This finding indicates the three types of capacities are complementary and effectively improve local government’s achievement in delivering public services. While operational capacity (including fiscal capacity) has long been reckoned in designing decentralization, this result gives empirical evidence that other critical capacities should be well considered, political and analytical capacities. It underpins the efforts to internalize local government capacity in designing and implementing decentralization programs.

The Indonesian government launched various programs to handle stunting cases, including village funds. This paper examined the effects of village fund programs and village apparatuses’ capacities to combat stunting based on aggregate data at the district level in Indonesia. Using descriptive data analysis and fixed effect panel regression, we observed that village fund programs could significantly reduce Indonesia’s stunting prevalence, especially outside Java. It also revealed that the increasing education of regional leaders does not necessarily positively impact leaders’ skills in handling stunting. At the same time, the number of village officials has a statistically significant influence on reducing stunting prevalence. It advised that the village budget fund can support national priorities in tackling the prevalence of stunting. Furthermore, it is essential to build the capacity of the village head for increasing awareness of health activities, especially early prevention of stunting, in addition to an adequate number of officials.

This study measures the effectiveness of government’s transportation policy on mobility restriction during the COVID-19 pandemic using publicly available big datasets. Using a causal difference-in-difference (DiD) analysis and regression discontinuity design (RDD), we examine the impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) on the aggregate population mobility of cities and regencies across Indonesia. Our results show that during the period of the first so-called “Large-scale Social Restrictions” or “Pembatasan Sosial Berskala Besar” (PSBB I) from April to May 2020, NPIs reduced mobility by 5.4% relative to pre-pandemic baseline and accounted for a small portion of mobility decline in cities or regencies that instituted mobility restrictions. The impact of the second PSBB policy (PSBB II) from September to November 2020 was smaller, with a mobility reduction of only 1.8%–2.9%, depending on the window of observation and sample. Lastly, the “Imposition of Restriction on Social Activity” or Pemberlakuan Pembatasan Kegiatan Masyarakat (PPKM) policy beginning in January 2021 has had a more negligible impact, with mobility reduction of approximately 0.6–2.1%. These findings indicate that the effectiveness of mobility restrictions tend to decrease over time. The decline in effectiveness may be the result of the increased cost of social distancing over long periods of time and the declining stringency of the mobility restrictions being imposed, which may be particularly pronounced for emerging countries with a large informal sector, such as Indonesia.

In this study, tweets related to fires in Riau, Sumatra, were identified using carefully selected keywords for the 2014–2019 timeframe. The TAGGS algorithm was applied, which allows for geoparsing based on the user’s nationality and hometown and on direct referrals to specific locations such as name of province or name of city in the message itself. Online newspapers covering Riau were analyzed for the year 2019 to provide additional information about the reasons why fires occurred and other factors, such as impact on people’s health, animal mortality related to ecosystem disruption, visibility, decrease in air quality and limitations in the government firefighting response. Correlation analysis between meteorological information, Twitter activity and satellite-derived hotspots was conducted. The existing approaches that BMKG and other Indonesian agencies use to detect fire activity are reviewed and a novel approach for early fire detection is proposed based on the crowdsourcing of tweets. The policy implications of these results suggest that crowdsourced data can be included in the fire management system in Indonesia to support early fire detection and fire disaster mitigation efforts.

The study investigates the effectiveness of intergovernmental fiscal transfers for reducing educational inequality in Indonesia. Using panel data of 34 provinces of Indonesia from 2011 to 2019, this study examines how intergovernmental fiscal transfers, namely, the General Allocation Fund (DAU), Special Allocation Fund (DAK), and School Operational Assistance Fund (BOS), can influence the education Gini ratios, representing the distribution of educational equity. Applying the generalised method of moments estimation, the study shows that the DAU and DAK increase educational inequality owing to ineffective formulation and utilisation. Fortunately, the BOS can effectively reduce educational inequality since it is used to finance school operations and provide free education for citizens. The study suggests the need to improve local government spending on education towards more non-routine expenditure to increase the quantity and quality of education. Several improvements are required in teacher and school management and budget planning, followed by regular monitoring and evaluation.

Road quality plays an important role, especially in rural areas where most poor households are situated. This study aims to calculate the Rural Access Index (RAI), an indicator of rural road quality (SDG indicator 9.1.1), at the district level, to evaluate the implementation of the Nawacita programme in Indonesia from 2014–2020. The RAI describes the proportion of rural residents who live within 2 km of an all-season road. This study recommends the utilisation of road network maps, urban–rural boundary maps, three road network condition datasets, and WorldPop data to calculate the RAI. The results show that during this period, the RAI increased and its inequality decreased, specifically in the regions of priority for this programme (Papua and West Papua). The results also capture a strong pattern of regional convergence. To ensure the future success of this implementation, the government can create regulations to designate several road infrastructure projects as a national strategy, as well as increase tax collection and private sector investment as sources of road infrastructure development funding.