BSKDN and SKALA Collaborate to Strengthen Evidence-Based Policy Development

The Domestic Policy Strategy Agency (BSKDN) of the Ministry of Home Affairs, together with the Synergy and Collaboration for Accelerating Basic Services (SKALA) programme, is strengthening collaboration to enhance the capacity of policy analysts and promote the use of evidence-based policy recommendations at both central and regional levels. SKALA Team Leader Petra Karetji explained that the cooperation is directed at ensuring capacity building for policy analysts goes beyond producing documents. It also includes the ability to convey, advocate for, and oversee recommendations so they are utilised by decision-makers. “A policy brief is not merely a written product. The most important thing is how the resulting recommendations can enter the planning process, regulatory drafting, budgeting, and the improvement of public service quality,” Petra said in a statement in Jakarta on Thursday. The statement was made during a meeting between the SKALA team and BSKDN Head Yusharto Huntoyungo and his staff in Jakarta on Wednesday (22/7). The meeting evaluated the implementation of the BSKDN and SKALA cooperation for the 2024–2026 period, including the impact of training on policy brief writing and advocacy on the policy formulation process in the regions. Petra noted that the results of the policy brief writing assistance have shown an impact on regulations and the institutionalisation of the policy ecosystem in several regions, such as Aceh, West Nusa Tenggara, East Nusa Tenggara, Gorontalo, North Kalimantan, and the Papua region. At the national level, the collaboration has supported the drafting of policies on the governance of functional positions, the development of a policy hub as a platform for regional policy analysts, the strengthening of policy brief writing guidelines, and the use of policy briefs in regional performance and innovation assessment instruments. “We are not taking over or changing government policy. SKALA’s role is to support and integrate processes, from data utilisation and analysis preparation to communicating recommendations and bringing together various parties so that the resulting policies are more inclusive and evidence-based,” Petra explained. BSKDN Head Yusharto Huntoyungo expressed appreciation for SKALA’s support in enhancing the capacity of policy analysts, both within the central government and regional governments. He said the collaboration aligns with BSKDN’s role in producing high-quality, implementable, and impactful domestic governance policy strategy recommendations. “We appreciate the cooperation that has been established with SKALA. The results are visible not only in the increased capacity of policy analysts but also in the utilisation of policy recommendations in the drafting of regulations and development planning in several regions,” Yusharto stated. Yusharto emphasised that policy quality is determined not only by the sharpness of analysis but also by the government’s ability to build communication, collaboration, and support from various stakeholders. “BSKDN supports the continuation of this cooperation, particularly in strengthening policy advocacy and institutionalising the policy analyst network. We want the policy briefs produced not to end up as mere documents, but to be read, understood, and acted upon by decision-makers,” he stressed. As a follow-up, BSKDN and SKALA will carry out a series of joint agendas until October 2026. These activities include a policy dialogue on advocacy lessons learned, a capacity-building workshop on advocacy for policy analysts, training on writing policy recommendations in South Papua, testing a training module for regional heads, and training of trainers to support the establishment of policy hubs in the regions. Through this series of activities, BSKDN and SKALA hope to expand the evidence-based policy ecosystem while strengthening synergy between the government, universities, civil society organisations, the media, and research institutions. The collaboration is expected to produce policies that are more responsive to the needs of the community, especially poor and vulnerable groups and people in underdeveloped regions.