Power Up
The Situation
Despite strong laws in Indonesia that allow citizens to oversee village development budget planning and obtain information from the government, for women, the lived reality is different. Women today remain largely excluded from meaningful participation in West Nusa Tenggara, a province in Indonesia where the Power Up is based.
There is good reason to ensure that women are included in budget planning. When women are provided with opportunities to participate in budget development, the impact is always profound:
A greater understanding of local government procedures means women community members are increasingly speaking up in development planning meetings, demanding campaign promises from their representatives and questioning programs that do not meet their needs, such as maternal and newborn health issues.
The province of West Nusa Tenggara has the highest infant mortality rate in Southeast Asia: 57 out of 1,000 infants in the province die before reaching their first birthday – nearly twice the number as in neighbouring Bali.
Power Up is an important project in our work in women's transformative leadership.
DETAILS
Location:
Indonesia
Duration:
3 years, 2017-2020
Thanks to our Supporters:
This project is undertaken with the financial support of the Government of Canada, provided through Global Affairs Canada, and the generous Canadian public

USING TECHNOLOGY
When women are at the table, their health, their rights and their interests are better represented.
Power Up uses technology innovations to:
- Improve the detection and resulting actions in high-risk pregnancy situations
- Improve local services by implementing accessible, measurable and actionable surveys on service satisfaction levels
- Leverage newly-created e-learning modules on the village budgeting process that emphasize the ways in which women can strengthen their voices and influences budgets towards better outcomes for themselves and their families.
As part of Power Up, women are engaging with local women’s groups that operate at the village level and women’s caucuses at the provincial level. Local partners hope that this increased participation in local planning and decision-making by women will empower future generations of women and girls in West Nusa Tenggara.
What are we doing?
PARTICIPATION
encouraging women to participate in village development and budget processes
INNOVATION
using technology to enable women to hold their governments accountable
RESPONSIVENESS
supporting public institutions to use technology to better respond to women's needs
What do we hope to achieve?
We will help women and girls engage in democratic processes and exercise their human rights, improve digital literacy skills, and work with women's groups to access village planning processes in order to improve health services.