History
The Mitra Bahari (Sea Partnership) Program is an initiative sponsored by the General Director for Coastal Areas and Small Islands at the Department of Marine Affairs and Fisheries of the Republic of Indonesia. Mitra Bahari aims to maximize the utilization and management of marine and coastal resources by regional government in the era of regional autonomy. Several new laws were issued (UU.32/2004, UU.27/2007) to deliver bigger opportunities and responsibilities, as well as to mark important changes for regional governments in the management system of the marine and coastal resources.
But with these opportunities and important changes, a number of issues were born which hinder the accelerated development of the marine sector. Limitation of human resources is one of these factors, together with exploitation of resources and the decline in quality of coastal areas, all of which are marked by the growth of the poverty in these areas.
The “Konsorsium Mitra Bahari” (KMB; Sea Partnership Consortium) is an entity for cooperation between government and non-government institutions, where the role of various stakeholders involved in marine issues can be optimized and a variety of strategic activities can be carried out. In these strategic activities KMB’s role is to facilitate / mediate in order to bridge between interests of the consortium's members with government and non-government agencies and which have care about and have the capacity to accelerate development in the marine sector.
Core of the program is the optimization of the role of various stakeholders, especially institutions of higher education that have marine and fisheries programs, as well as the role of non government agencies related to marine affairs, enabling them to carry out strategic activities such as adaptive research, technology transfer in the form of tutoring and the technological engineering, policy recommendations, and some others. Good management needs to be supported by strong science.
Scope of Work
The activities of the Konsorsium Mitra Bahari Sulawesi Selatan follow the format agreement on the national level and include:
- Improving communication between and involvement of all stakeholders.
- Synchronizing KMB-SulSel’s program activities with other parties.
- Improving partnerships between all stakeholders in order to optimize human resources.
- Optimizing available funds (seed funds) to stimulate funding contributions from other relevant sources.
- Developing public trust that KMB is a "home for all of us" for finding solutions and strengthening the partnership for a common benefit.
- Counselling, courses, and training for development of HR who care about coastal and ocean management.
- R&D in and application of marine technology, effective and strategic research that can identify and answer to various community and coastal zone management needs.
- Assistance, advocacy and outreach for intensive extension and socialization via various media and community capacity development.
- Compilation of recommendations for realistic and effective policies
It’s expected that through these various efforts, the outcomes of KMB activities will be felt by various parties, especially coastal communities.
