Digital Village: Community Empowerment and Village Economic Development by Utilizing Digital Technology
In April 2020, I was announced to be the 3rd winner of the Village Transformation Poster Competition held by the Ministry of National Development Planning (BAPPENAS).
On this poster, I suggested my ideas about the concept of ‘Digitalized Village’ for community empowerment and village economic development by utilizing digital technology.
The digitalized village is a community empowerment program through the use of digital technology in developing village potential, marketing, and acceleration of access and information services. With that, Digital Village will be able to improve the economy of villagers, so that urbanization to cities is no longer the only option to improve living standards.
Digital services will encourage improvements in public services and make it even easier for village officials to evaluate and improve their services with the database they will own. Also, digital villages will facilitate the use of village financial system applications (Siskeudes) so that village financial management, including village funds (Dana Desa), can be more transparent and accountable. In the economic context, a digitalized village program can be used as a catalyst to improve the economic performance of the village and the economic empowerment of rural communities.
In a digitalized village, the Internet of Things (IoT) can be implemented to optimize the potential of the village, for example through programs like smart community, e-commerce, e-fisheries, smart farming, and e-government. These programs can help farmers improve their efficiency and productivity, and also expand their market reach. On the other hand, the application of e-government can facilitate public services and facilitate the dissemination of development information to the public in a transparent, accountable, and educational manner.
However, there are certainly many challenges that need to be faced to implement this concept, including funds and human resources. First, there are still many regions in Indonesia where ICT conditions are still low or even nonexistent. According to Statistic Indonesia in 2018, there is still around 62 percent of villages have no BTS tower. Another challenge for realizing digital villages is the need for substantial financial support, while there are still many regions that have the low financial capacity and are still very dependent on equalization funds from the central government. Besides, the availability of human resources capable of managing various information technology-based services is needed.
Therefore, I recommended things that can be done by the government. First, the government needs to provide support and cooperation from various parties in terms of funding, assistance, training, and digital literacy both from the central government, the private sector, academics, and the community. Then, the government should encourage the management of village funds (Dana Desa) directed to support the realization of digital villages which can later be utilized by Village Owned Enterprises (BUMDes) in optimizing its performance. The optimal utilization of village funds (Dana Desa) can support the implementation of the Digitalized Village concept so that it will be able to support the development of villages and least developed areas in Indonesia.
