KPAI Proposes Child Protection as Key Performance Indicator for Regional Heads

The Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) has urged the central government to make child protection an indicator in the performance evaluation of regional heads. KPAI believes this indicator is important to improve child protection.

“For example, KPAI requests that child protection indicators be integrated into the performance evaluations of regional heads,” said KPAI Commissioner Sylvana Apituley during a press conference at the KPAI office in Central Jakarta, Wednesday.

Sylvana expressed hope that the existence of such indicators would create safe and comfortable spaces for children. According to her, the child protection system in the regions is a critical matter.

“Therefore, KPAI believes it is important to direct supervision at the regional level, to ensure that child protection becomes a key factor in evaluating the performance of regional heads,” she explained.

Sylvana stated that KPAI is also requesting special regulations to accelerate and improve child protection in frontier, outermost, and disadvantaged (3T) regions. KPAI assesses that many areas are difficult for the public to monitor, leading to the potential for cases to be handled poorly.

“So, naturally, the more difficult a region is, or the further it is from public scrutiny and the work of the regional government, the more isolated it becomes. Cases will increasingly go unnoticed, unhandled, and continue to occur,” she said.

“Regional governments may not even be able to reach cases in special, remote areas, especially where cultural factors are very strong,” she added.

KPAI stated that special regulations are needed to accelerate and improve the child protection system. She noted that the current oversight faces a complex child protection crisis.

“So we can no longer do business as usual. We cannot, because the crisis is already quite complex,” she said.