Development has certainly become a familiar word to our ears. For some people, development means physical activities such as building roads, buildings, bridges or airports. Others see development as an effort to improve people's quality of life. Every year, the government allocates a budget for development, both for physical infrastructure development and human development through education and capacity building. Most of the country's development is financed by funds derived from public taxes. For this reason, its utilization must certainly be accountable to the public.
The government, through a number of participation schemes, has tried to open up space for the community to participate in the development process. At the planning stage, for example, development plan deliberations (Musrenbang) have been held from the village level to the national level. However, in practice, the space for community participation has not been maximized. Furthermore, in contrast to development planning that has been carried out in a participatory and systematized manner, participatory development evaluation processes are still rarely carried out.
In 2020 the Tifa Foundation and the Japan Initiative reviewed and developed a community-based program evaluation approach by adopting the "Program Review" that had previously been carried out in Japan. The concept of "Program Review" began in Japan in 2002 as an effort to select government programs to save the budget. "Program Review" has since evolved as a development evaluation approach adopted by various levels of government nationwide. In addition, the Program Review mechanism was also implemented to increase people's sense of 'ownership' over development programs that impact their lives.
Through a process of discussion with various parties, including representatives of government and civil society organizations in Indonesia, Tifa Foundation compiled the book Program Review: A Community-Based Development Program Evaluation Approach that discusses the role of communities in producing comprehensive evaluations of development programs.