DPR RI Member Irine Yusiana: Gender Equality Must Extend to Regional Budgets

Among parliamentary representatives from nine countries at the 5th WAIPA Coordinating Committee Meeting, Vice Chair of the DPR RI’s BKSAP, Irine Yusiana Roba Putri, affirmed that Indonesia seeks to broaden the scope of gender equality, not only implementing it at the national discourse level but ensuring it truly flows down to regional budget policies. “I am very interested in how the Philippines and Vietnam have managed to systematically integrate women’s representation into bureaucratic and economic structures,” said Irine after attending the 5th WAIPA Coordinating Committee Meeting in a hybrid format from Senayan, Jakarta, on Monday, 27 April 2026, with the main venue in Quezon City, Philippines. Drawing from these successes, Irine wants Indonesia to also ensure that gender equality does not stop as rhetoric at the central level but is truly applied down to budget policies at the local level. If implemented in Indonesia, she said, it would make central and regional policies more synchronised and mutually supportive. At the WAIPA forum, she affirmed that Indonesia does not only act as a listener but also brings lessons deemed relevant for parliaments in ASEAN countries. One of them is Indonesia’s experience in demonstrating the importance of boldly opening spaces for public participation in the legislative process. “Don’t be afraid of public participation. Public inclusion in the legislative process, for me, actually strengthens the legal legitimacy itself,” she stressed. She explained that the birth of several pro-women laws in Indonesia did not solely come from parliamentary initiatives but also from synergies with civil society movements and activists outside parliament. “These initiatives often do not emerge purely from parliament, but also how the Indonesian parliament can draw information from the grassroots and activists. Indonesia is proof that women’s movements outside parliament can synergise with the women’s caucus inside parliament, and hopefully, this brings great and positive change,” she clarified. Irine also hopes that this approach can serve as a critique of closed and elitist legislative models. Because she believes that the strength of parliament is not only measured by the number of laws produced but by how far the voices of society, including women, are absorbed into every policy taken.