FoxHershockMappingCommunities

INSTITUTIONAL IMPLICATIONS OF COUNTER-MAPPING
TO INDONESIAN NGOs
are too small to pay for the full expenses of its program.
Heavy dependence on external funding creates problems
for the NGOs in maintaining their equipment. All of them
purchased equipment with the grants they received. After
the grant period, however, some of them cannot repair, not
to mention to replace, broken or lost equipment.
is that NGOs can learn from each other about new
approaches and meet key contacts for their programs,
including funding agencies. This means that staff members
who manage these programs have to set aside time to
pursue all of these activities. The time spent on these
activities reduces the time that the staff members spend
implementing the programs.
photo: Martin Hardiono
Time management
As is true for other NGOs, fund raising, reporting, and
networking are crucial for these organizations. Fund raising
involves proposal writing and negotiations with funding
agencies. This can be a long process, since the
grantmaking agencies may require the NGOs to frequently
revise their proposals. Another possible delay in obtaining
grants is that funding agencies work on certain funding
cycles. Once the funds are approved, grant recipients are
required to produce narrative and financial reports
periodically, generally quarterly for the former and annually
for the latter. In addition to producing reports for their
funders, each organization generally has its own reporting
system. Finally, networking often meshes with fund raising
since access to donor agencies increases through it.
Through networks the NGOs can advance their interests at
the regional and national levels. Another important aspect
The directors and/or managers interviewed in this survey
have to set aside a total time of one to three months in a
given year for fund raising, reporting, and networking. Over
the course of the year, these activities often disrupt
program implementation. Further burdens can come from
activities of the NGOs outside their core business. The
head of the GIS division at PPSDAK, for example,
complained about this, particularly since his organization is
also involved in several networks including one that
monitored the 2004 parliamentary and presidential
elections. On top of the demand to produce numerous
maps of kampongs in a limited time, he had to coordinate
hundreds of election observers in West Kalimantan.
CONCLUSION
Although the reasons for their adoption are different from
those of state agencies and the corporate world, SIT and
GIS require NGOs to provide the same kind
of resources and practices in order to invest in
and maintain the technologies for their
counter-mapping programs. However, given
their relatively small sizes and financial
dependence on external sources, NGOs are
very likely to have more difficulties in starting
and keeping the technologies running. In the
case of Indonesian NGOs, such a lack of
resources and problems in practices are
obvious, both for setting up and maintenance.
In this study I surveyed four NGOs that had
somewhat similar reasons for adopting
counter-mapping. Two of them employ
mapping in a straightforward manner for the
103