Indonesian Forum Africa 2: Commitment To Increase Collision Cooperation

Poster of the Indonesia-Africa Forum 2024. (Between)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia (Kemlu RI) conveyed the government's commitment to continue to increase development cooperation with countries in Africa, especially in the health and energy sectors, ahead of the 2nd Indonesia-Africa (IAF) Forum.

"Indonesia continues to be committed to increasing development cooperation with countries in Africa as equal and reliable alternative partners," said Director General of Information and Public Diplomacy of the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Siti Nugraha Mauludiah in Jakarta, through a press release obtained by ANTARA, Sunday.

He said that Indonesia has long played an active role in international development cooperation among developing countries, including with African countries.

In the past decade, Indonesia has implemented around 60 Triangular South-South-South Cooperation (KSST) programs involving around 500 participants from the African region.

This collaboration includes various leading sectors, including agriculture, fisheries and marine, health, energy, good governance, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), infrastructure development, disaster risk management, women's empowerment, and trade and investment.

The initiative, according to him, further strengthens Indonesia's position in the international arena as a new recognized donor country.

"I want to emphasize that at this time Indonesia is increasingly recognized internationally as a reliable development partner for developing countries, reliable welfare providers," he said.

Indonesia's commitment is considered to be increasingly evident with the establishment of the International Development Cooperation Fund Institute (LDKPI) or Indonesia AID in 2019, as a one-stop institution for the distribution of development assistance to partner countries.

Since the establishment of the institution, he noted that Indonesia's development cooperation has reached 23 out of 54 countries in Africa, or about 42 percent of the total country in the region.

The cooperation sector carried out includes food, health and energy security.

Mauludiah revealed that in the food security sector, Indonesia has provided support for the procurement of foodstuffs to overcome the impact of drought in Kenya, Ethiopia and Madagascar, as well as revitalization programs for several Agricultural Training Centers in Gambia and Tanzania.

In the health sector, Indonesia has also donated medicines and medical devices produced by PT. Kimia Farma to Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

In 2023, Indonesia will also distribute 1,580,000 doses of PT. Bio Farma's Pentavient Vaccination support for Nigeria, which is distributed in two stages.

Finally, in the energy sector, Indonesia provides training on the development of solar energy capacity for Namibia, Mozambique, Sudan, Senegal, and Tanzania.

The 2nd Indonesia-Africa (IAF) Forum which will be held on 1-3 September 2024 will have the theme "The Spirit of Bandung for the Agenda 2063 Africa."