admin Nov 10, 2022 09:00:00 am

POLICY BRIEF COMPETITION

Center for Environment Global Financing (CEGF) invites students, early graduates and young practicioners (under thirty years old) to submit original Policy Briefs and its campaign content (in later phases of the competition) on ways to finance Indonesia’s sustainable development or on other topics that are listed below.

Theme:
“Alternative financing schemes for Indonesia SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) Investment”

Background: Indonesia is currently experiencing a sizable funding gap in its efforts to finance the sustainable development goal achievement. During the 2021 SDGs Annual Conference, Dr. Suharso Monoarfa (Minister of National Development and Planning / Bappenas) stated that Indonesia needs to invest IDR 67,000 trillion to achieve the 2030 SDGs target. However, Bappenas has found a IDR 14,000 trillion funding gap (US$ 965 billion using the IDR 14,500 conversion rate), which needs to be filled to achieve the SDGs in 2030.

The funding gap cannot be filled through public financing (or the national budget) alone as it is limited and currently under pressure due to rising inflation, capital outflow, currency pressures from geopolitical events and the U.S. monetary policy, as well as effects of the domestic counter-cyclical fiscal policy. Consequently, Bappenas and The Ministry of Finance have pushed blended finance and alternative financing schemes to fill this financing gap. Progress on this front has been seen through the development of green bonds, the Sovereign Wealth Fund, the disaster pooling fund and others. However, there are various financing schemes and upcoming ideas that Indonesia has not yet utilized. Informing the government on these schemes and how they could be integrated is useful in the overall effort of financing Indonesia’s sustainable development

REGISTRATION

Sub Topics

1. Alternative financing schemes Indonesia needs to utilize for SDGs investment.
2. Stocktaking and Rectification of current policies to enhance Indonesia’s SDGs investment.
3. Other sustainable financing topics that relate to CEGF’s areas of focus:
   (1) Risk (disaster) financing, which refers to efforts in increasing financial capacity towards disasters by ensuring the policies, plans, systems, and capital needed to finance all phases of disaster management.
   (2) Green financing, which refers to efforts in increasing financial flows towards green investment, as well as finding ways to finance the green economy and green transition.
   (3) Health financing, which refers to how financial resources are used to ensure that the health system can adequately cover the needs of every person, and are robust during health emergencies.
   (4) Insurance and social protection, which refers to the protection of lives, livelihoods and assets from stresses such as disasters, climate-change, economic crises, and others.
   (5) Infrastructure financing, which refers to efforts in increasing infrastructure investment mainly through non-public sources.
   (6) Business and market research for ESG, which refers to studies on green business opportunities and ways to improve overall ESG achievement in businesses.

Terms and Conditions

• It is open to individual or group participants with a maximum of 5 members per group.
• Participants are required to first submit a policy brief (text) and then a campaign content of the policy brief, e.g., graphic, video, etc. The submission of the campaign content will be notified later, as only the shortlisted participants (finalists) are required to submit the campaign content. We accept initial submissions of the policy brief in Bahasa Indonesia or English, but the final output published in January or February must be in English (don't worry we will help with the translation if required).
• Participants are required to submit a policy brief as NAME_title.doc/docx/pdf to the provided google form.
• Participants are required to follow CEGF’s Linkedin profile.
• Other terms and conditions will be disclosed to shortlisted participants (finalists)

Evaluation Criteria
The evaluation will be based on the following criteria:

1. Thematic Relevance
   Does the polbrief fit with the theme and represent current financial issues, especially in Indonesia?
2. Structure and Readability
   Is the polbrief structured and easy to comprehend?
3. Cohesiveness
   Is the argument clearly presented and persuasive?
4. Interdisciplinary
   How is the polbrief relevance in various disciplines and present ideas that can be applied to different fields?
5. Overall Recommendation and Policy Implication
   The recommendation of policy relevance and their feasibility

Content reach (e.g. total number of likes in CEGF Linkedin Post of participants' contents) is an additional aspect looked at in the assessment process. Further elaboration on this criteria will be given during the technical meeting with shortlisted participants (finalists).

Structure and Writing Guidelines

• Policy Brief is a concise summary of a particular issue, the policy options to deal with it, and some recommendations on the best option
• Paper A4, Font Arial, Size 12, Spacing 1.15
• Structure :
  1. Title
     The title should be short, descriptive, and catchy
  2. Executive Summary (Maximum 200 words)
     The summary should describe the problem; explain why it is important to address the problem; describe your research study (including methods used); explain what your research found; and explain how your findings should inform policy.
  3. Introduction/Background (Maximum 250 words)
     The introduction grabs the reader’s attention by introducing the problem and explaining why it requires action. It should be concise and quickly get the reader interested in the problem and your solutions. Remember that your policy brief is written for an informed but non-technical audience (e.g., lawmakers, activists, executives, journalists) and so should be free of jargon and unnecessary technical language.
  4. Main text (Maximum 550 words)
     Once you have described the social problem in the introduction, you can format the body of your brief in one of three ways:
     • Problem – Causes – Effects – Solution
       Explain the causes of the social problem and its effects, explain your research and findings, and propose a solution. Your solution will be in the form of one or more policy recommendations, likely placed at the end of the brief.
     • Problem – Subtopic 1 – Subtopic 2 – Subtopic 3 – Policy Implications
       Organize your brief by subtopics (or case studies) and conclude with your policy implications. Your policy implications should be generalized from the more specific subtopics/cases. In this format, policy recommendations can be included after each subtopic or together at the end of the brief.
     • Problem – Intervention – Results – Policy Implications
       If your research examines an intervention, describe the intervention and its results and then the implications for future policy making.
  5. Policy Implication and Recommendation (Maximum 400 words)
     You should conclude your brief with a short discussion of the policy implications of your research. This section is a link between your research findings and your policy recommendations. You should explain what your research means for existing policy and what effect your recommendations are likely to have. Meanwhile, policy recommendations should be short statements, stated clearly using action verbs. And when writing recommendations, be realistic (What can policies reasonably accomplish?) and make sure that they are supported by your research.

Prize/Incentives

• 1st Place: Rp 5,000,000
• 2nd Place: Rp 3,000,000
• 3rd Place: Rp 2,000,000

Timeline

No	Activities	Dates
1	Call/Competition Announcement	10th November 2022
2	Submission Of Policy Brief Text Deadline	10th December 2022
3	Shortlist Announcement	16th December 2022
4	Coaching And Feedback Sessions From Jury	9th - 13th January 2023
5	Submission Of Campaign Content - Illustrated Version Of Policy Brief	19th January 2023
6	Publication Of Content And Policy Brief	20th January 2023
7	Campaign Period	21th - 31th January 2023
8	Winner Announcement	6th February 2023

Contact Person

Priskila Agatha Sulaiman (priskila.sulaiman@gmail.com)
Center for Environment and Global Financing, Resilience Development Initiative.

Fichrie Fachrowi Adli (fichrierdi@gmail.com)
Center for Environment and Global Financing, Resilience Development Initiative.