After two years of preparation, Dedicated Grant Mechanism Indonesia (DGM-I) - a grant mechanism focus to assist indigenous people and local communities is launched today at the 5th National Congress of Indigenous Peoples of the Archipelago (Kongress Masyarakat Adat Nusantara (KMAN) ke-5).

The long journey to prepare DGM-I began through discussions between AMAN and National Forest Board that risen a necessity to have a dedicated grant to assist the capacity building and livelihood of indigenous peoples and local communities. With support from the World Bank under the umbrella of Forest Investment Programme, a pool of fund have been set up to be used for the course of four years.

A National Steering Committee (NSC) consists of 9 person representation: 7 person representing seven region of Jawa, Sumatra, Bali - Nusa Tenggara, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Maluku and Papua, a person representing women's group and a person representing local communities, as well as 3 non-voting members from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, National Forest Board and the World Bank will be in charge for proposal selection. Samdhana Institute as the National Executing Agency for DGM-I and the Secretariat to NSC will assist the daily programme implementation.

The DGM-I priority aims to strengthen the capacity of indigenous people and local community's households to obtain secure and equitable access - and control over - forest and agricultural land. According to Yunus Ukru, NSC representative, “The future activities implementation is deemed important to be used as a role model for programme sustainability”.

The launching is attended by the World Bank representative, Iwan Gunawan, and Suraya Afif, the Samdhana Institute Head of Board. Also introducing NSC Member: Yunus Ukru as the chairperson as well as representing Maluku Region, Mina Setra  as vice chairperson as well as representing Kalimantan Region, Debby Rambu as secretary as well women representative of local communities, Bata Manurun representative of Sulawesi Region, Def Tri Hamri representative of Sumatra Region, George Weyasu representative of Papua Region, Surti Handayani representative of indigenous women, Tri Indana representative of Java Region, Lalu Prima Wiraputra representative of Bali-Nusa Tenggara Region.

The call for proposal for DGM-I is expected to start sooner. The announcement will be posted in DGM-I website