BSKDN and SKALA Collaborate to Strengthen Evidence-Based Policy Development
Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Domestic Policy Strategy Agency (BSKDN) of the Ministry of Home Affairs, together with the Synergy and Collaboration Programme for the Acceleration of Basic Services (SKALA), is strengthening collaboration to enhance the capacity of policy analysts and encourage the use of evidence-based policy recommendations at the central and regional levels.
SKALA Team Leader Petra Karetji explained that the cooperation is directed so that capacity-building for policy analysts does not stop at the ability to produce documents, but also encompasses the ability to communicate, advocate for, and shepherd recommendations so that they can be used by decision-makers.
“A policy brief is not merely a written product. What matters most is how the recommendations produced can enter the planning process, regulatory drafting, budgeting, and the improvement of public service quality,” said Petra in a statement in Jakarta on Thursday.
This was conveyed at a meeting between the SKALA team and the Head of BSKDN at the Ministry of Home Affairs, Yusharto Huntoyungo, and his staff in Jakarta on Wednesday (22 July).
The meeting discussed the evaluation of the implementation of cooperation between BSKDN and SKALA for the 2024–2026 period, including the impact of policy brief writing and advocacy training on the policy formulation process in the regions.
Petra said the results of policy brief writing assistance have shown an impact on regulations and the institutionalisation of the policy ecosystem in a number of regions, such as Aceh, West Nusa Tenggara, East Nusa Tenggara, Gorontalo, North Kalimantan, and the Papuan regions.
At the national level, the results of this cooperation have also supported the drafting of policies on the governance of functional positions, the development of policy hubs as fora 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 do not take over or alter government policy. SKALA’s role is to support and integrate processes, from data utilisation, analysis drafting, and recommendation communication, to bringing various parties together so that the resulting policies become increasingly inclusive and evidence-based,” Petra explained.
The Head of BSKDN at the Ministry of Home Affairs, Yusharto Huntoyungo, expressed appreciation for SKALA’s support in improving the capacity of policy analysts, both within central and regional governments.
According to him, this collaboration aligns with BSKDN’s role in producing quality, implementable, and impactful policy strategy recommendations for domestic governance.
“We appreciate the cooperation that has been built with SKALA. The results are evident not only in the increased capacity of policy analysts, but also in the growing use of policy recommendations in regulatory drafting and development planning in a number of regions,” Yusharto said.
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 network of policy analysts. We want the policy briefs produced not to merely end up as documents, but to genuinely be read, understood, and acted upon by decision-makers,” he asserted.
As a follow-up, BSKDN and SKALA will carry out a number of joint agendas until October 2026.
These activities include a policy dialogue on policy advocacy lessons, capacity-strengthening workshops on advocacy for policy analysts, training on writing policy recommendations in South Papua, testing of training modules 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 broaden the evidence-based policy ecosystem whilst strengthening synergy between government, universities, civil society organisations, the media, and research institutions.
The collaboration is expected to produce policies that are increasingly responsive to the needs of the public, particularly poor and vulnerable groups as well as communities in underdeveloped regions.