Indonesia Forum Public Seminar Series : Dr Poppy Winanti

Indonesia Forum Public Seminar Series

Meeting the Challenge of the Resource Curse: The Sub-national Experience of Managing Non-Renewable Resources in Bojonegoro, Indonesia

Presented by

Dr. Poppy Winanti

University of Gadjah Mada

Monday, 3 April 2017

10.00 – 11.30 a.m

Venue: Asia Institute Meeting Room, R. 321

Sidney Myer Asia Centre, The University of Melbourne, Parkville

Indonesia has been regarded as one of the success stories of developing countries that have escaped the resource curse. However, many resource-rich regions in Indonesia are still plagued by income inequality, high levels of corruption and rent-seeking, and relatively poor performance in dealing with poverty alleviation. Through learning from and drawing on other regions’ experience in dealing with the resource curse,  the District of Bojonegoro in East Java province—a resource-abundant region in Indonesia which has recently set out to exploit its oil and gas—has initiated a “local content” mechanism as part of its efforts to avoid the resource curse. Bojonegoro contributes 20% to the total of Indonesian oil and gas reserves.

The district introduced this “local content” mechanism to the institutional arrangements for extraction. The mechanism aims to ensure that job opportunities, knowledge transfer, and the economic multiplier effects from oil and gas revenues are enjoyed locally and contribute to sustainable development for the district in the future. This district also has been trying to establish oil and gas funds, such as Sharing Funds, has initiated taxes on revenues, and has established a multi-stakeholder forum for discussing development strategies related to extractive industry activities. This study in particular explores the enabling conditions for exercising better governance in a resource abundant sub-national region with emerging extractive industry activities. It analyses the political dynamics of the region and how the committed agents of local governance adopt the new norms and arrangements in managing non-renewable resources.

Dr Poppy S. Winanti is a lecturer in the International Relations Department at the Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), Indonesia. Currently she serves as a Vice Dean for Research, Cooperation, Community Service and Alumni Affairs, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, UGM. She graduated from the Department of International Relations, UGM in 1997. She earned her Masters degrees from the Korea Development Institute (KDI) School of Public Policy in 2002 and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 2005 and she obtained her PhD from University of Glasgow in 2011. Her PhD thesis focuses on developing countries’ compliance and non-compliance with the TRIPs Agreement. She teaches in a number of areas including Global Political Economy, Natural Resources and Conflict Management, and Politics of International Trade. Her recent publications include “The ‘Bandung Spirit’ and Solidarist Internationalism” in Australian Journal of International Affairs (with Heloise Weber, 2016); ‘Policy Coordination and Consultation in Indonesia’ in Strategic Review (with Raymond Saner, 2015); ‘Value Chain Governance in Export Commodities: the Case of Indonesia’ (with Riza Noer Arfani, 2014); and Corporate Power in Global Economic Institutions: the Case Studies of the MAI and the TRIPs Agreement (2012). She was the Director of the Center for World Trade Studies (CWTS) UGM (2015 – 2016) and the Head of International Relations Department, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences UGM (2016). She also served as one of the project coordinators in the Asia-Pacific Knowledge Hub for Better Governance on Extractive Industries (a university-based knowledge hub) jointly managed by the Department of Politics and Government (PolGov) at UGM and the Revenue Watch Institute (2013 – 2015).

Enquiries and RSVP to hsouisa@student.unimelb.edu.au

Admission is free, RSVP is essential

Light refreshments provided