Stone elephant with hibiscus flowers, image of the Hindu deity Ganesha, Jakarta, Indonesia
Copyright© Ute Grabowsky/photothek.net
Indonesia A political heavyweight in South-East Asia
Bhinneka Tunggal Ika – unity in diversity: this national motto, taken from Sanskrit, which is inscribed on the coat of arms of the Republic of Indonesia, was adopted by the country after it proclaimed its independence in 1945. The Indonesian archipelago is the fourth most populous country in the world. Its roughly 274 million inhabitants belong to about 300 different ethnic groups and, together, speak a total of more than 700 different languages and dialects.
Peaceful transition to democracy
Indonesia is now seen as a largely stable democracy and has achieved considerable progress in fighting poverty. There is still potential for further reforms to strengthen the rule of law, increase religious tolerance and improve women’s rights, reduce regional and social disparities, and improve oversight and control over the security forces.
German development cooperation with Indonesia
Indonesia is one of those partners of German development cooperation that – due to their high regional significance and their strong economic performance – play a crucial role in resolving global development issues. Indonesian-German development cooperation focuses on three core areas:
- Climate and energy, just transition
- Conserving nature and natural resources, protecting life on Earth
- Sustainable economic development, training and employment
In addition, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) is also supporting Indonesia in reforming its tax and fiscal policy in order to increase public revenue. Support is also being provided for efforts to develop and expand health insurance coverage and social security systems. The health insurance scheme introduced with German support in 2014 now has more than 220 million members.
At the government negotiations in November 2021, the BMZ made new commitments of 65 million euros to Indonesia. The commitments consisted of 44 million euros for Technical Cooperation and 21 million euros for Financial Cooperation. Another 1.35 million euros had already been approved in the spring of 2021 in order to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic within the framework of ongoing projects.
SDG trends for Indonesia
- On track or maintaining SDG achievement
- Moderately improving
- Stagnating
- Decreasing
- Trend information unavailable