The Moral Values as the Foundation for Sustainable Community Development: A Review of the Indonesia Government-Sponsored National Program for Community Empowerment Urban Self Reliance Project (PNPM MP)

Abstract

As corrective measures to the previous program, Indonesia government launched Urban Poverty Alleviation Program (Program Penanggulangan Kemiskinan di Perkotaan / P2KP) in 1999. This national pilot project then inaugurated as an umbrella program for the entire government-sponsored community development program in 2007, namely National Program for Community Empowerment Urban Reliance (Program Nasional Pemberdayaan Masyarakat Mandiri Perkotaan / PNPM MP). Contrary to the earlier programs, it views people as the subject and the main actor their community development. This “people know best their own affairs” development approach considers that the poverty crises rest in their individual ethical and spiritual values. The diminishing moral values such as integrity, honesty, care for other, volunteerism, justice among individual community members are the root cause of the poverty problems. PNPM contends that community empowerment is essentially moral reinforcement movement by community in which they organize and manage their affairs for the sole purpose of their own enhancement in all walks of life. To accomplish it, they have to establish and maintain cordial relationship among themselves first and then to stretch out to join collaborations with government agencies, private corporate and other stakeholders as equal partner in the spirit of reciprocal respect. This necessitates that moral values promotion at individual life level have been secured. As facilitators intensively counsel community learning at every PNPM community empowerment phases, this ethical values development will gradually spread at community level. By so doing, it will not only safeguard those social collaborations but also will guarantee sustainable development. In order for this moral reinforcement movement to occur, PNPM intervene community development by means of true human empowerment through an intensive facilitator-guided community learning in which they engage in reflective focus group dialogue to reach critical consciousness which then lead to their attitude and behavior change. This community learning process is best illustrated in the entire PNPM cycle of community empowerment phases which consists of Community Consensus for PNPM Acceptance, Poverty Reflective Focus Group Discussion, Community Self Mapping, Community Board of Trustee Based Organization, Middle-Term Poverty Alleviation Action Plan Document, Community Based Organizing Committee, Partnership with Local Government on Pro-Poor Development Program Synergy, Program Implementation and Monitoring, and  Program Evaluation. Those cycle of PNPM Community  empowerment phases involve learning process in which they learn the social livelihood principles or good governance tenets, and the moral values which eventually bring about their behavior alteration. This article tries to explicate what is the core concept of PNPM and how the program’s essential concept along with its procedures being implemented within day to day operation by community members.

Keywords: Community Empowerment, The Spiritually based Development, Community Learning, Moral Values, Critical Consciousness.