RE: Making voices count - Gathering community feedback in times of remote evaluation | Eval Forward

Thank you, Johanna and Prashanth for presenting the evaluation results despite the remoteness challenges to deliver a participatory approach, I enjoy reading. During the pandemic, our organization also face the same situation in less remote areas like Kalimantan and Sulawesi, then forced us to improvise by hiring local consultants to conduct field activities.

Learning from the article and understanding the PNPM project involved abroad range of actors and introduced a new approach of development as we used to (after more than 20 years of Soeharto regime), the community-driven development program probably need baby steps in promoting community participation. Across Indonesia, building community-based institutions outside Bali and Java remain challenges, government-based supports institution at the village level able to sustain because of the continued support from the central government, re. village fund. Despite the growing number of administrative governments (re. new provinces, districts, and villages), good governance is still far from the expectation, the new administrative office is highly dependent on national supports while the community-based development requires some time to transforming, evolving and growing. 

So I agree that people-centered indicators are necessary to assess for results of the bottom-up development approach before looking at the in-situ development. Indonesian often perceived development as establishing infrastructure, roads, electricity, schools, etc, this perception also reflecting the national development policy focus across different sectors.