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Ending Economic and Gender Injustice, and Feminist Impoverishment in Indonesia

By Indonesia

This book is based on the documentation of the Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue activities initiated by Aksi! for gender, social, and ecological justice during 2023- 2024 period in eight cities in Indonesia, namely Ambon, Balige, Bengkulu, Denpasar, Jakarta, Kupang, Makassar, and Purwokerto.

This book presents an in-depth reflection on the issue of economic and gender inequality and the poverty feminization in Indonesia, as experienced and voiced by grassroots women from various aspect of life. The dialogue also involves policy makers, activists, community leaders, and the private sector in order to listen to and discuss various issues faced by women, from the seizure of natural resources, the gap in access to basic services, to gender bias in law and policy.

This proceeding consists of three main parts. The first part contains the expressions and experiences of grassroots women regarding gender and economic inequality in various aspect of life. The second part presents the views of decision makers and stakeholders on the issues. And the third part is summarizing the reflections from the ongoing dialogues, including the follow-up and recommendations resulted.

The common thread of this book is the collective struggle to bring about gender, social, and ecological justice through participatory and collaborative approaches. The dialogues highlight the importance of recognizing women roles in the society, resolving structural issues that perpetuate poverty, and the need for more gender- responsive policies

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April 21, 2025
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Gender and Economic Inequality in Indonesia

By Indonesia

Aksi! for gender, social and ecological justice conducted a study on ‘Gender and Economic Inequality in Indonesia from the Perspective of Taxation and Illicit Financial Flow’ by looking at the extent to which fiscal and tax contribute to gender and economic inequality in Indonesia and the fulfilments of women’s rights.

This study explains the problem causes of the lack of state revenue from taxes, especially from companies, how the state revenue modus and distribution, and its impact on women. This study shows that the small amount of state revenue is caused by many sources of income lost due to corruption, money laundering, bribery, tax avoidance and evasion, smuggling, various types of abuse of power by officials, and tax engineering. The KPK findings and the views from many experts regarding cases of tax evasion and even the relations between taxes and corruption and money laundering have often been disclosed to the public. However, the parties with the authority do not take legal action and improve the tax management and institutional.

Small state revenues are never enough to cover state spending. The government creates new debts to cover the budget deficit. The budget intended for the community, especially women and other marginalized groups, is eroded by various unproductive state spending. Meanwhile, programs aimed at them, such as education, health and social protection programs, are unable to lift women out of poverty. This is can be seen with the poverty rate which has never decreased significantly, the unemployment rate remains high, and maternal and child health is deteriorating.

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February 4, 2025
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Geothermal Energy in Indonesia: An Illusion on Sustainable Green Energy

By Indonesia

Indonesia is located on the Pacific Ring of Fire and has at least 127 volcanoes and 40% of the world’s geothermal reserves. The existing capacity in Indonesia includes 11,998 Megawatts (MW), and the reserves capacity is reaching 17,546 MW. As a result, Indonesia has become a target for investment in geothermal energy development, with massive support from international financial institutions such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank and investments from major global corporations. The reason for this development is the assumption that geothermal is a clean energy that is low-carbon and environmentally sustainable. One of the focuses of this briefer is whether this assumption is correct by looking at the experiences of communities whose territories have been the sites of geothermal exploration and exploitation. This briefer aims to provide a comprehensive overview of geothermal in terms of the rationale for its utilization, the technology used, and its impact on the environment and communities where geothermal is
developed as an energy source.

The first part of this briefing explains why geothermal is one of the energy sources to fulfill Indonesia’s commitment to achieve net carbon neutrality by 2050. It is followed by an introduction to the development of geothermal as an energy source, including its history, how it works, and the technology used. Critical discourse on the social, economic, and environmental impacts of geothermal development as an energy source is also presented through the experiences of a number of geothermal projects in Indonesia.

The utilization of geothermal as an energy source in Indonesia, which is said to be one of the low-carbon and clean energy  alternatives, needs to be further considered by learning from the experiences of affected communities. We hope that this briefing can serve as a reference and learning for stakeholders in their decisions regarding the utilization of geothermal as an energy source. An equitable green transition should not only consider aspects of low-carbon energy sources but should also consider aspects of gender and social and ecological justice and adhere to the principles of human rights and women’s rights.

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January 21, 2025
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Training: Feminist Journalism

By Indonesia

Since the New Order regime until now, Indonesia’s economic development is based on foreign investment, foreign debt, and international trade continues to push the extraction and exploitation of natural and human resources. This has caused economic disparities that encourage the poverty feminization throughout Indonesia. This means that more and more women are becoming poor and experiencing gender- based discrimination and violence.

The feminization of poverty due to structural economic inequality often does not get public attention because the circulation of information on this issue is not many. There needs for a lot of public attention and discussion about this poverty feminization phenomenon, not only from women’s organizations and civil society organizations but also through journalists’ reporting. Currently, many women journalists are needed who not only committed to fighting for women’s rights but also have the skills to analyse poverty in Indonesia, conduct investigations, gather facts or report news to the public with a feminist perspective.

Therefore, Aksi! for gender, social and ecological justice together with an Indonesian women’s media, namely konde.co, conducted training of feminist journalism for women journalists. The purpose of this training is for women journalists to strengthen their understanding of the reality of development in Indonesia, existing economic inequality, and the phenomenon of the poverty feminization using feminist analysis. In addition, their skills in feminist journalism, especially in covering issues related to poverty feminization, have increased. These two things, namely strengthening understanding and improving skills, are expected to build strong solidarity among the participants, women journalists and activists, and a commitment to be a voice for women who live in poor and marginalized conditions, with the desire to contribute to the efforts of women who are caught in the poverty feminization to achieve an overall better and more just life.

This proceeding describes the process of training feminist journalism of for 12 women journalists from 9 cities, and 8 women activists from 5 cities in Indonesia. The preparation of the proceedings is based on the flow of the Training Journalism Guidelines that were prepared and used for training and training minutes.

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December 21, 2024
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Training/ Workshop: Tax and Gender Inequality in Indonesia

By Indonesia

Aksi! for gender, social, and ecological justice (Aksi!) is an organization whose program, Economic Justice, strengthens the voices of women in the community in the struggle against gender and economic injustice. The country’s economic growth model, which relies on the exploitation of natural resources and labor, foreign debt, and foreign direct investment, is the root cause of the impoverishment process. This model continues to encourage the extraction and exploitation of natural and human resources. Consequently, economic inequality fuels the feminization of poverty in Indonesia.

The feminization of poverty due to structural economic inequality has received little public attention due to the limited information circulation on this issue. Much public attention and discussion are needed regarding this feminization of poverty, one of which is taxes, which generate economic and gender inequality in Indonesia. Aksi! believes that solutions to the economic justice crisis need to involve progressive tax reform to reduce income inequality and increase investment in education and skills training. However, this solution requires a holistic approach and cross-sector collaboration to create a more inclusive and equitable economic foundation.

Aksi! together with Solidaritas Perempuan (SP) had conducted a training/workshop on “Tax and Gender Inequality,” attended by 28 women from 16 provinces in Indonesia. This activity contributed to women’s understanding of taxes as a cause of gender and economic inequality.

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December 21, 2024
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Voices of Marginalized Women

By Indonesia

The book entitled “Voices of Marginalized Women, a collection of Reportage from Women’s and Marginalized Perspectives” was written after the training of journalistic on economic inequality and gender injustice held on 27-29 October 2024 organized by Aksi! for gender, social, and ecological justice and Konde.co.

This book presents reports on economic inequality that drives the poverty feminization, namely that more and more women are becoming poor and at the same time facing gender injustice. So far, coverage of the poverty feminization due to structural economic inequality has not received much public attention because more writers are interested in writing about women’s lifestyles than the problems of poor women, the problem of women’s inequality that is ignored by the state.

This book is a compilation of coverage by journalists and a number of women activists from various regions in Indonesia to provide a critical perspective that the rights, interests and views of poor women must be fought for in the midst of development that impoverishes them.

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October 29, 2024
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Solidaritas Perempuan 2024 Advocacy Annual Report

By Indonesia

In 2024, Solidaritas Perempuan recorded the experience of collective resistance and the layered situation of women against structural impoverishment through a Advocacy Annual Report (catahu). Catahu is recorded and documented with the Solidaritas Perempuan community as an effort to voice the situation and various feminist initiatives continuously and consistently to encourage the recognition and fulfillment of women’s rights.

The track record of women’s resistance stories is expected to foster a spirit of solidarity in waging collective resistance. In addition, Catahu 2024 can also contribute as a strategic document to support the advocacy work of Solidaritas Perempuan in realizing women’s human rights and equality in various domains amid layers of oppression due to the global economic power paradigm and the patriarchal political system that impoverishes women.

The National Executive Board of Solidaritas Perempuan expresses its highest appreciation to women at the grassroots level who have consistently remained in the line of resistance. In addition, we also express our gratitude to all administrators, members, and activists of Solidaritas Perempuan who continue to tirelessly maintain solidarity in strengthening and expanding the feminist political movement of the Solidaritas Perempuan.

February 18, 2024
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