South-South and Triangular Cooperation: Lesson Learned From Indonesia

Abstract

With its growing economic capability and its emerging role in international relations, Indonesia now is becoming one of the emerging donors. Some of the development frameworks used by the Government of Indonesia to provide development assistance are South-South Cooperation and South-South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTC). For Indonesia, the involvement in the provision of assistance to other countries is the result of a very long process. This paper presents the development assistance provided by Indonesia, and what can be considered as lesson learned from Indonesia’s active participation in South-South Cooperation. Starting as a recipient of aid from countries such as Japan and the United States in the 1960s, Indonesia has been able to develop itself through aid projects and then considered by donor countries as a good example for other countries. Indonesia’s experience as a successful recipient then brought Indonesia to provide development assistance. However, the policy to give aid to other countries may get some protests from actors who have concern about social, political or economic problems at the national level. Besides, Indonesia is considered to have problems in coordination and lack of clear objectives in providing development assistance.