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Canada's Commitment
Results
Country Profile
Canada's Commitment
Indonesia is one of the 25 development partner countries in which the Canadian International Development Agency will concentrate the major part of its bilateral (country to country) assistance.
Canada has been providing development assistance to Indonesia since 1954. In the early years, Canadian assistance focused on large infrastructure projects, mainly in irrigation, transportation, electricity, and communications. Cooperation gradually evolved towards three areas of concentration: governance, environment, and private sector development. (For more information, see CIDA's Country Development Programming Framework for Indonesia [2005-2009]). Most of this development assistance targets the island of Sulawesi.
Following the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 26, 2004, Canada provided immediate humanitarian assistance to Aceh and North Sumatra and, over the 2005-2009 period, will support the reconstruction efforts. There will be an emphasis on improving the planning and delivery of public services and reconstruction activities, and the creation and restoration of sustainable livelihoods through support to micro-, small- and medium-sized businesses, and through the restoration of the natural resource base.
A crosscutting theme in all of Canada's assistance to Indonesia is support for gender equality.
Results
The tsunami left nearly 300 kilometres
of the coastal areas of Aceh in a state
of desolation, for up to six kilometres inland.
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Canadian support to business service providers has helped them improve quality control and production in several enterprises, including coconut oil production and furniture making. This has resulted in increased sustainability for these businesses and the creation of many new jobs.
CIDA support in several key areas of governance, including environmental management, taxation and financial sector reform, planning for social programs, human rights and community participation, has also helped the Government of Indonesia to improve both effectiveness and accountability. In addition, technical assistance in integrating gender issues into government decision making has helped many ministries in their planning and programming activities.
In Sumatra, the emergency relief efforts funded by Canada following the tsunami helped reunite families, provided safe shelter for children, rehabilitated injured and traumatized survivors, provided clean water and sanitation services, built temporary housing, restored livelihoods, and provided emergency food and non-food items.
Country Profile
Indonesia is one of the most populous countries in the world with more than 210 million people, the majority of whom are located on the main island of Java and the remainder live on an archipelago of thousands of islands stretching from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific. The capital, Jakarta, ranks among the top 10 largest cities in the world with a population of over nine million.
Sixty percent of the
labour market in Indonesia is
made up of the informal sector.
Here, a young street vendor
sells cooked food items.
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Indonesia's wealth of natural resources—minerals, oil and gas, and a wide range of agricultural products—and its growing industrial sector contributed to rapid economic growth in the 1990s. The Asian financial crisis in 1997 revealed the weak underpinnings of Indonesia's economic growth, including a fragile banking system, a high debt load, and political instability. In addition, the boom of the 1990s did not benefit all equally, resulting in wide gaps in income and persistent poverty in some areas, while rapid industrialization and exploitation of resources created serious environmental problems.
Poverty remains widespread and the country continues to struggle with issues of corruption, terrorism, and human rights violations, although there is substantial progress towards democratic government, in particular with the two landmark free elections of 1999 and 2004. In Aceh, a peace agreement was signed on August 15, 2005, to resolve a civil war between armed separatists and the central government.
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