Tropentag, October 5 - 7, 2004 in Berlin "Rural Poverty Reduction through Research for Development and Transformation"

The Indigenous Village Organisations in North Sumatra (Indonesia), Start the Self-Help from the Social Purposes

Georg-August-University, Goettingen, Institute of Rural Development, Germany

Abstract

The performance of any kind organisations in the rural area however is influence by its social character, economical and cultural environment of the community. The potential of the self helps organisation in combating the poverty has known by development practitioners, but it approaches for establishing the organisations is frequently counterproductive for the self-reliant of organisations. In other side there are custom organisations in the rural area. The local government tend to overseen the potential of this organisations in the village development planning.
The objective of this study is to analyse the potentials of the indigenous village organisations to network with the village government in order to pursue the village development. This qualitative study observed the indigenous village organisations (Mutual-Helps Organisation and Kin Organisation) in North Sumatera where the community are strongly hold the culture of Batak.
The social structure of Batak's is tightened by the kin system called Dalihan Na Tolu or translated as three groups in one system. These two village organisations are quite important for villagers' livelihood. They have also a broad membership in the sub- villages. Both organisations have the social purpose related to the custom as the main objective. However as intermediate objective they do also other activities such as saving and credit activities and maintaining the sub-village infrastructure. These organisations have a structure and rules and they held the members meeting yearly as a form of accountability of the leader to the members. The social capital has made the work of this organisation efficient. The leadership follows the patronage relation; indeed the capability of the leader has the important role to widen the organisational purpose and to build the network with the village government. However the network between the local organisations with the village government is hardly influence by the perception of civil society in the community. In this context, the initiatives of the regional government and NGOs are needed to build the closure among the village organisations in order to pursue the village development.

Keywords: Networking, rural development, rural organisation, village governance

Contact Address: Eri Trinurini-Adhi, Georg-August-University, Goettingen, Institute of Rural Development, Waldweg 26, 37073 Göttingen, Germany, e-mail: etrinuriniyahoo.com