Development partnership with Indonesia
Development cooperation between Australia and Indonesia began in the 1950s, with the rollout of Australia’s Colombo Plan to Indonesia commencing in 1953. Australia subsequently worked with Indonesia in support of its broader development agenda, as set out in the first national development plan (Repelita 1, covering the period from 1969-1974) through to the most recent National Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMN, covering the period 2015-2019).
Through this time, Australia has worked with Indonesian partners on a wide range of development priorities, including health, education, infrastructure, agriculture, economic governance, poverty reduction, gender equality and social inclusion, decentralisation, and disaster risk management. Both countries have benefitted from the tens of thousands of Indonesians who have studied in Australia, the institutional partnerships between Australian and Indonesian Government agencies, and other people-to-people exchanges facilitated through development cooperation.
The nature of Australian development assistance has evolved in response to changes in Indonesian economic and social conditions, becoming more flexible and adaptive. Australia now partners with Indonesia to help strengthen evidence-based policy-making, and find innovative solutions that can be piloted, scaled-up and expanded across Indonesia – enabling Indonesia to make better use of its own resources to drive developmental change.
Working together we have achieved a great deal. In response to the Tsunami that devastated Aceh in 2004, Australia committed $1 billion to assist Indonesia’s recovery and reconstruction efforts. Half of this funding was contributed as concessional lending that built 3,229 schools and improved 395 km of national roads and 1,300 metres of steel truss bridges. Australia and Indonesia also worked together after the Asian Financial crisis, helping to design and better target Indonesia’s social protection system and enhance the resilience of its economy.
Building on these strong foundations, Australia and Indonesia are continuing to strengthen their partnership to address Indonesia’s evolving development challenges and help to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. As the Government of Indonesia embarks on a new National Medium Term Development Plan, Australia will continue to work with our partners to help tackle key economic and social challenges in Indonesia and, working together, in the Indo-Pacific region.
For more information on the development cooperation program, visit the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website.