Abstract
Indonesia has made dramatic progress in strengthening local governments over the past decade, greatly increasing local budgetary resources and service delivery responsibilities. While local autonomy has expanded, there remain critical gaps in local government capacity. This is most evident in the lack of attention to the quality -- or performance -- of local service delivery. The design of Kinerja was intended to close this performance gap by testing and replicating interventions to improve measurable performance in the three key sectors: education, health services, and the local business environment. Kinerja is predicated on the assumption that better incentive structures, greater innovation, and more avenues for replication of improved practices, will lead local governments to deliver higher quality, less expensive services, while being more responsive to the needs and preferences of local constituencies. In operationalizing this approach, Kinerja was designed to address both the demand and supply sides of local public service delivery. The main purpose of the mid-term evaluation was to provide actionable and timely information on various aspects of project performance, specifically identifying challenges and synthesizing lessons learned from the first two years of implementation. The Kinerja mid-term evaluation is structured around six key evaluation questions: (1) to what extent has Kinerja met its stated performance targets; (2) what aspects of Kinerja do key stakeholders (local governments, grantees) value the most; (3) what primary challenges has Kinerja encountered; (4) what are the prospects for sustainability of Kinerja benefit streams; (5) what programmatic or managerial adjustments would help Kinerja achieve intended results more effectively and efficiently; and (6) to what extent are service delivery units in supported regions utilizing minimum service standards (MSS)? Specific evaluation findings, conclusions and recommendations are provided with detailed analysis for each evaluation question. (Excerpt, modified)