USAID IUWASH PLUS with the Ministry of National Development Planning (Bappenas) and Ministry of Finance (MoF) conducted a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) on the national fund for WASH access improvement at the household level in Jakarta on June 10, 2021.
The Director of Development of Urban, Housing, and Settlements, Bappenas, Tri Dewi Virgiyanti,;, the USAID COR for USAID IUWASH PLUS, Trigeany Linggoatmodjo; as well as USAID IUWASH PLUS and Water.org’s financial institutions partners attended the discussion, which was held both online and in- in strict adherence to Covid-19 health protocols.
This discussion gathered experiences and inputs on WASH microfinance from financial institutions that have provided microcredits for poor households. The FGD results will be used as reference for Bappenas and the MoF to develop policy on a WASH microfinance national fund.
The financial institutions can access and disburse the fund as WASH microcredits to help poor households nationwide obtain better water and sanitation facilities.
The FGD resulted in an agreement that the roles of sanitarians, WASH entrepreneurs, and local governments should be strengthened to promote WASH microcredit to households.
Moreover, the Ministry of Finance agreed to establish a WASH microfinance fund referred as ABISANI (Air Bersih Sanitasi), where one of the fund sources will come from FLPP (Fasilitas Likuiditas Pembiayaan Perumahan/Liquidity Facility for Housing Finance).
As a follow up, USAID IUWASH PLUS will gather and compile information on WASH microcredit features from financial institutions so that the Ministry of Finance could understand clearly the microcredit scheme and help to develop the WASH National Microfinance Fund.
