Forum LSM Aceh was founded on 24 January, 1990 at the initiative of activists community in Aceh including in it twenty percent who are women. The organization comprises of seventy NGOs with 10 representatives each thus makes up approximately 200 women of the total of 700 individuals who are involved. Forum LSM is an umbrella organization where information sharing and communication among NGOs in Aceh is coordinated. The forum has the mandates to support and provide advocacy at all levels, as part of the civil society movement in Aceh in its aim to strengthen the civil society’s role and position in the Aceh regional development context.
To achieve these goals, Forum LSM Aceh focuses on taking the role as a networking centre to address issues of justice, civilian monitoring against policies, transparency and accountable judiciary, and good governance. Additionally, it is also the coordinating body to implement activities. In all activities conducted, the organization acknowledge the significance of women and youth as part of the civil society’s voice on the rights, responsibilities and contribution to the regional development. Hence, activities and programs conducted within Forum LSM Aceh and its members are developed and implemented towards civil society strengthening as envisioned in the organization’s mandate.
Based on recent meeting and consultation convened with members and stakeholders on August 2016 as the seventh consultation after a significant pause, the meeting held in Saree of Aceh Besar, has confirmed the number of its network of 69 registered institutions across the Aceh region. The 19th consultation meeting was convened after and has made revisions on its organizational structure in order to enhance the controlled mechanism and the implementation of all organizational mandates to focus on two crucial issues of Sustainable Peace and Good Governance.
Since 1999, Forum LSM Aceh has been partnering with its members and other stakeholders of different local institutions in Aceh. This includes strategic institution such as the Badan Perencanaan Pembangunan Daerah (Bappeda) or the Regional Development Planning Body, Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Aceh (Aceh Parliament), Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Kabupaten/Kota (District level Parliament), Komite Independent Pemilihan (Independent Electoral Commission), Badan Pengembangan Desa ( Villages Empowerment Agency) at Provincial and District level, and with the society at large; in all related issues and programmes as follows:
Peaceful Election in Aceh
To support process and the implementation of peaceful elections in Aceh is one of the major priorities program of Forum LSM Aceh. The support is aimed at preventing conflict and fraud in the electoral process. The form of support is voters’ education, quick count voter registration audit, and public debates. These activities have been implemented in the 1999 and 2004 elections.
To ensure the delivery of effective and public support, Forum LSM Aceh has trained and recruited hundreds of volunteer across the Aceh region. The success of the facilitation and support has been recognized from all parties, where Forum LSM Aceh has been chosen to represent the civil society group in Forum Bersama Pilkada Damai in 2006, established by Aceh Government, Regional Police, Independent Electoral Commission, and Donors.
Aceh Reintegration Agency (BRA) and Forum Bersama (Forbes)
Post MoU between Government of Indonesia (Gol) and GAM, the Aceh Reintegration Agency was established to have the mandate to implement the agreement. In the process of the establishment, Forum LSM Aceh has provided significant contribution by providing personel support at the provincial level and also in 21 districts in Aceh to support BRA in facilitating the formulation of reintegration fund scheme for direct conflict-affected communities and former combatant. At this stage, Forum LSM Aceh was acting as the representation of civil society elements in BRA and Forbes BRA.
Capacity Building for Independent Electoral Commission (KIP)
In the process of local election in Aceh, Forum LSM Aceh was intensively involved in delivering support to KIP at the provincial and district level. The support was provided in form of workshop facilitation themed “integrity in electoral management, needs assessment for logistic and procurement of goods and services, and electoral monitoring for members of KIP across region in Aceh”. The project was implemented in 5 different region (Banda Aceh, Lhokseumawe, Langsa, Meulaboh, and Aceh Tenggara), to shorten the distance and budget efficiency of transport costs and time management for participants. Apart from that, Forum LSM Aceh was also involved in support to the formulation of technical regulations, in close collaboration with KIP NAD.
Policy Advocacy
In the last four years, Forum LSM Aceh has been intensively involved in many policy advocacies in Aceh. Recent advocacies conducted were on the revision of electoral regulation (Qanun) and PROLEGA (Aceh Legislation Program). The advocacy was implemented through several sequential activities, like seminar, workshop, TV and radio talk show, media campaign, FGD, etc. The scope of work was province wide involving government, DPRA, DPRK, academician, community leaders, CSO, students, politician, and religious leaders.
Peace Education
Peace education is an activity that was developed through training and direct communication with communities in Aceh Barat and Simeulu district. All participants were the representation of community leaders, CSO, youth organization, women, indigenous people, students, religious leaders, and local government. The training and courses were developed aimed at exploring and disseminating peace values that traditionally and culturally exist in Acehnese culture and religion. The training was a pilot project, therefore Forum LSM Aceh is intended to replicate and disseminated the same thing to all region in Aceh.
Conflict Resolution and Mediation Training
CRT program implemented from April 2009 until October 2009 and consists of two components. The first component aims to strengthen conflict resolution and mediation skills PNPM Rural and SPADA facilitators . The second component will provide a similar set of skills to the village leaders. The second component aims to strengthen local capacity to deal with disputes related to various development programs, as well as a variety of disputes that are not directly related to development interventions.
Forum LSM Aceh sees that quality facilitation is the most crucial and important aspect in today’s effort, especially the ability for facilitators to tailor the best interests of all parties in Aceh in reintegration process. Based on our identification and reference from the World Bank as well as our experience facilitating civil society, many strategic institutions, and society at large, Forum LSM Aceh proposes the organization to join the projects, to assist and to provide technical support to the implementation of Conflict Resolution and Mediation Training (CRT) for KDP and SPADA Facilitators.
Integrated Community Legal Empowerment (ICLE)
The ICLE project operate in two districts of Aceh (Aceh Besar and Aceh Utara districts) and to a large extent will be implemented using the structures and procedures of the National Community Empowerment Program (Program Nasional Pemberdayaan Masyarakat – PNPM).its overall objective through a focus on four intermediate outcomes.
First, to generate a greater understanding of the types of disputes that threaten development outcomes in each district. Second, to improve the responsiveness of local government and judicial actors to community legal issues. Third, to enhance community legal awareness and dispute resolution skills in relation to particular categories of dispute targeted by the project. Finally, establish community outreach and case handling networks in each district capable of providing access to dispute resolution services and documenting cases.
