Kota Surakarta continue to lead on legal identity
Since the time that now President Joko Widodo was Mayor of Surakarta Kota Surakarta local government has worked with hospitals and birth centres so that every child receives a birth certificate.
AIPJ started discussions with Kota Surakarta civil registry in late 2014 to better understand how this district achieved between 75% and 96% of new-born babies obtaining a birth certificate within 60 days of their birth (2013 data) – more than double the national average.
While Mayor of Surakarta, Pak Jokowi introduced a number of far-reaching reforms that contributed to high rates of birth registration for children in Surakarta. These established Kota Surakarta as a model civil registry office winning Indonesian and international public service awards for innovations such as:
i. Formal cooperation agreements between the civil registry office and hospitals and birth centres under which hospital staff provide information to parents on how to obtain a birth certificate for their child and facilitate this process.
ii. Data entry versions of the national civil administration software (SIAK) in every hospital or birth centre for hospital staff to enter information on the births of children where the parents are Surakarta residents.
iii. Outreach services to schools to provide birth certificates to any children that did not obtain a birth certificate when they were born.
iv. Office of Population and Civil registration that publishes on-line the procedures for obtaining a birth certificate and the number of each type of legal identity document issued in the previous year.
v. A Child Incentive Card that is dependent on a child having a birth certificate that allows a child or their family to purchase at discounted rates goods and services relating to schooling, health, music or sporting pursuits.
vi. A subsidised health insurance scheme costing 10 cents a year per person, under which children, after they turn one year of age, can only be included as a beneficiary of services if they have a birth certificate.
Not yet satisfied, the civil registry in Kota Surakarta wanted to close the remaining gap of children without birth certificates. They wanted to learn more from AIPJ about integrated and mobile legal identity services that assist with marriage certificates for parents and birth certificates for children who have been missed by the system.
The best form of learning is doing so Bapak Djoko Moersito, Director of Policy and Population Planning, Ministry of Home Affairs, asked AIPJ to train 100 women cadres under the Surakarta Council for Healthy Families (PKK) so they could support integrated and mobile services.
“PKK cadres involvement in supporting population administration is important. PKK cadres play a role in our society and our families as a bridge to assist with the submission of more detailed information in the identity document process”, said Pak Djoko at the opening of the training.
On 22 October, the PKK women put the training into practice, helping government officials deliver integrated and mobile services, so that 28 couples could register their marriages and obtain birth certificates for their children that day.
This activity brought together several agencies and community organisations including the City of Surakarta government, civil registry office, Council of Churches, Ministry of Religion, Religious Courts, Lazis UNS, Bank National Indonesia (BNS) Syari’ah, as well as a local CSO, Yayasan Hasanah Titik. The Child Protection Centre of the University of Indonesia had provided the training on behalf of AIPJ and monitored the event, finding that all families were very satisfied with the service.
AIPJ has helped local governments and communities to access legal identity documents across 20 focus districts in North Sumatra, West Java, South Sulawesi, NTB and NTT. Working with Kota Surakarta civil registry helped demonstrate to other areas a model civil registry public service.
