By Indonesia’s own estimates, the infrastructure investment required over the 5-year National Strategic Planning period 2019-2024 totals US$412 billion, of which around 35 percent is expected to come from the private sector. Infrastructure is an economic and development priority for both the Indonesian and Australian Governments, supporting sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction efforts as well as trade and foreign policy goals.

Indonesia Australia Partnership for Infrastructure (KIAT) is a partnership between the Governments of Indonesia and Australia to support sustainable and inclusive economic growth through improved access to infrastructure for all people. KIAT works with government at national and sub-national levels to provide short and long-term technical assistance and advisory services to improve infrastructure policy, planning, and delivery. To help improve infrastructure policies and regulations, KIAT mainstreams Gender Equality, Disability, and Social Inclusion (GEDSI) across all of its activities and seeks opportunities for civil society engagement to strengthen infrastructure outcomes.

By the end of the project, KIAT aims to have:

1. Improved Government of Indonesia policies and regulatory frameworks for infrastructure development.

1. Prepared high-quality projects for financing by the Government of Indonesia, the private sector and/or Multilateral Development Banks.

1. Delivered, managed, and maintained high-quality infrastructure by the Government of Indonesia.

KIAT currently supports activities in the transport, water, and sanitation sectors, and has a specific focus on assistance to help Government attract more private sector investment to bridge the infrastructure financing gap between what Government can afford and the actual cost of infrastructure needed to achieve its development objectives.

Pivotal KIAT achievements include:

• Testing results-based approaches to road maintenance that have enabled over 6000 kilometres of sub-national roads to meet high-quality maintenance standards and have led to the Government allocating IDR900 billion (A$90 million) for 2021 alone for road improvements and jobs across 21 strategic tourism areas. In 2020, 866 kilometres of road network was successfully maintained using COVID-19 safety protocols, creating important jobs for economic recovery in tourism areas.
• Successfully introduced a new road management system to model impacts on work-plans for 2021 and 2022 to account for changing budgets required to respond to COVID-19 priorities.
• Expanding access to improved sanitation networks for over 150,000 men, women and children across 53 Local Governments through successful trials of results-based delivery approaches. Sanitation improvements have helped raise the environmental health standards for surrounding communities.
• Supervising a more than A$100 million waste water treatment plant and sewer network in Palembang City, anticipated to create over 1,400 jobs during construction.
• Prepared an Outline and Final Business Case for a potential 17MW Waste to Energy Plant in Semarang City to help attract private financing.
• Supported Government efforts to streamline and strengthen the policy and regulatory environment for Public Private Partnerships (PPP), including Ministerial regulations to clarify PPP management arrangements, support for screening of potential projects, and advice on procurement approaches.
• Ministerial adoption of Gender Mainstreaming Roadmap by the Ministry of Public Works and Housing detailing key actions to mainstream gender across all infrastructure investments and operations.