An alarming statistic calls for immediate action. 

In Indonesia, only two of 10 high-level officials in the public service leadership are women. According to 2019 National Civil Service Agency (BKN)’s data, women made up only 18 per cent of senior positions with decision making roles, such as deputy ministers or deputy cabinet secretaries, in Indonesia’s civil service.

Ms Diah Natalisa, Deputy Minister for Public Services at the Ministry of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform (KemenPAN-RB), is one of the few female civil servants who has broken the glass ceiling of leadership in public service to strive in male-dominated leadership positions. Thanks to her leadership, Indonesian women are benefiting from her an e-governance system that is more inclusive and attuned to the need and situation of women.

The e-system is called SP4N-LAPOR! an acronym for Sistem Pengelolaan Pengaduan Pelayanan Publik Nasional - Layanan Aspirasi dan Pengaduan Online Rakyat. This national digital complaint handling system allows Indonesian citizens to share their aspirations and complaints related to public services.

In 2016, Ms Natalisa joined the ministry with the current position after teaching economics to students at Sriwijaya University. As the Deputy Minister, she has focused on enhancing SP4N-LAPOR! to ensure the gender perspective.

"As a woman, I understand the challenges faced by women in accessing public services. Therefore, I believe, it is my duty to integrate gender perspectives into our e-governance system across the board, “said Ms Natalisa. 

With support from United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), this system has been improved so that women can have stronger voice in the existing public services.  SP4N-LAPOR! has evolved over the past two years after partnering with UNDP and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), according to Ms Natalisa.

A small but crucial outcome of the partnership is a new category called ‘gender and social inclusiveness’ on SP4N-LAPOR!

“By this October, we’ve received nearly 100 cases under the category of gender equality. To protect victims [of gender-based violence] who submitted reports, SP4N-LAPOR! has been outfitted with features that guarantee anonymity and confidentiality to protect the privacy of complainants,” she says.

Ms Natalisa’s leadership at the ministry also paved the way for a key regulation which ensures equal access for women in the e-governance system last year. It marks a milestone by emphasizing gender equality in digital public service platforms. “We are also working on providing gender-disaggregated data on SP4N-LAPOR!. When data is available, it will give a clearer picture to identify the needs and concerns of women,” she adds.

Despite the latest improvement, women’s participation in SP4N-LAPOR! seems low. Women comprised only 19.8% of the SP4N-LAPOR! citizens surveyed by UNDP last year, according to the most recent citizen satisfaction survey conducted by the agency. In addition to gender stereotyping, Ms Natalisa believes that women's access to the system is hindered by gender bias in our society.

“The society still prefer to focus on women’s domestic duties, which prevents us from being empowered to take on  public roles. It’s clear from the nature of complaints filed by women. The cases that SP4N-LAPOR! received are often domestic duties, such as requests for social assistance, online loans, rather than gender-specific issues.”

Therefore, women’s leadership in public services has become more critical than ever, adds Ms Natalisa.

By working together with community-based women’s organizations, she believes that the ministry can introduce Indonesian women to SP4N-LAPOR! as the possible channel to communicate with the government directly:

“women’s voice plays an important role in developing gender-inclusive policies. SP4N-LAPOR! will be a bridge connecting women and communities with the government”.

Written by Suyoung Hwang, Marketing & Communication Officer at UNDP Indonesia

Edited by Tomi Soetjipto, Communication Specialist, UNDP Indonesia.