THE BACKGROUND...
Indonesia is immensely concerned with breaking the poverty chain. Many programs have been launched, maintained and institutionalized. The greater part of those are centered on women and the family. In the early 1990's these programs resulted in the institutionalization of the 1992 Law on Population and Family Development. With that came the intensification of an earlier founded program on the development of the Integrated Health and Family Planning, commonly known as the POSYANDU. On parallel course came also programs on family savings and loan which culminated in family-based small and medium scale entrepreneurship at the grass roots. This became known as the TAKESRA and KUKESRA programs.
In mid-2000s one observes the advent of a new paradigm for empowering all members of the family, and families within their local community. In generic terms this paradigm is labeled as POSDAYA. In essence POSDAYA is a local community forum of families representing the interests of all family members, discussing and coming to consesuss on development and demand fulfillment issues in the community.
i reference to Indonesia's urban areas, improving the quality of life is one of the obsessions of many authorities. One would note that it is multi-dimensional, each directed at specific target groups, and each diverse operational objectives.
Improving the quality of life of urban dwellers is not limited to provision of physical facilities and infrastructure, but far more important is changing the attitudes and behavior of the people towards the ideals of urban dynamics. Indonesia's experience in this regard is as diverse as its numerous urban cities in the country.
Asian Urban Information Center of Kobe (AUICK), has comparative experience in 9 Asian mega cities, i.e. in Kobe (Japan), Chennai (India), Weihai (China), Kuantan (Malaysia), Faisalabad (Pakistan), Chittagong (Bangladesh), Danang
(Vietnam), Olongapo (Philippines) and Surabaya (Indonesia). AUICK's advantage is that it has endeavored to transfer experiences gained in Kobe to those other Asian mega cities through systematic training and sharing, and document these in a categorical fashion.

THE SEMINAR CUM WORKSHOP
With those background notes, a seminar cum workshop will be held in Surabaya, Indonesia deliberating on enhancing the quality of human resources in mega cities. The seminar cum workshop will be jointly organized by the City Government of Surabaya, the DAMANDIRI Foundation, AUICK/Japan, UNFPA, and IIHD (Indonesian Institute for Human Development). With the proposed international seminar cum workshop on AUICK's trailblazing initiatives, and the lessons learnt in Surabaya, and those cities mentioned above optimum benefit will be gained by other cities in Indonesia, and cities in other countries as well.

THE OBJECTIVES...
The overarching objective of the international seminar cum workshop is to share lessons learnt from Surabaya's community-based approaches in enhancing urban quality of life in particular, and from AUICK's megacities information network, to a wider range of concerned program decision-makers in Indonesia and in other international circles.

THE SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES ARE:
To share experiences and lessons learnt in the community-based approaches in enhancing the quality of life in Surabaya as part of the 9 cities within AUICK's network;
To discuss and formulate the most effective ways and means of advocacy to higher policy decision makers;
To plan future actions with regards to replicating the lessons learnt to other urban centers;
To formulate new community-based approaches to enhance urban quality of life.

SPECIFIC LESSONS LEARNT
It is envisaged that the seminar will be convened on the theme:
“...enhancing urban quality of life through empowerment-partidpation-selfreliance...”
The Seminar cum workshop will observe and draw lessons from Surabaya's experiences in The Greening and Cleaning the City, the Grass-roots Management Information System on population and development, developing and maintaining Model Posdaya, delivering Integrated Health-RHServices, and special Disaster Management.

PARTICIPANTS...
Participants will comprise of the following groups:

*International participants representing the 8 cities in the AUICK urban development network;

* National participants of concerned experts and authorities; AUICK experts;

* Representatives of international agencies in Indonesia

* Representatives Surabaya business community The total number is expected to be 75 (seventy five) participants.

DATES AND VENUE...
The Seminar cum Workshop is planned for July 2009, with venue planned for Surabaya.
The provisional work program appears below:

Day-1 : Arrival
Dinner hosted by the Major of Surabaya
Opening Ceremony

Day-1 : Field of Observation

Day-2 : Seminar cum Workshop
Workshop
Workplans
Presentations
Summary
Remarks and Closing

Day-3 : Departure

Surabaya (formerly Soerabaja)
Is Indonesia's second-largest city, and the capital of the province of East Java. It is located on the northern shore of Eastern Java at the mouth of the Mas River and at the side of the Madura Strait. Surabaya is also known as the city of heroes, because of its heroic role in the history of Indonesia. In 2007, the population of the city is approximately 3 million and it is also the busiest I ports in Indonesia after Jakarta.
Surabaya is commonly said to derive its name from the words sura or suro (shark) and baya or boyo (crocodile), two creatures which, in a local myth, fought each other in order to gain the title of "the strongest and most powerful animal" in the area according to a Jayabaya prophecy. This prophecy tells about a big fight between a giant white shark and a giant white I crocodile in seizing the city upstream. Now the two animals are used as the city's logo, the two facing each other while circling the city's monument, the Tugu Pahlawan (Heroes' monument). This folk etymology, though embraced enthusiastically by city leaders, is somewhat dubious.
Alternate derivations proliferate: e.g. from the Javanese sura ing baya, meaning "bravely facing danger". Some people consider this Jayabaya prophecy as a great war between Surabaya native people and invaders in 1945, while another story is about two heroes that fought each other in order to be the king of the city. The two heroes were Sura and Baya.

DRESS CODE...
Surabaya in July is usually humid. Participants are recommended to come with the appropriate attire. Please note that the Seminar Cum Workshop is planned to be officiated by the Major of Surabaya, and therefore long-sleeves batik (national) or lounge suit is recommended.

VISA REQUIREMENTS...
Important to note is that participants for ASEAN countries are not required to obtain visa. However, other countries will require the appropriate visa which can be obtained from the Indonesian Embassy or Consulate.

CURRENCY...
The Indonesian currency is IDR (Indonesian Rupiah) which is equivalent to approximately IDR 10,000 per USD.

FURTHER INFORMATION

1.City of Surabaya
Jimerto Street No. 25-27 3rd floor, Surabaya Indonesia
Phone (62-31) 5491024
email: kerjasama@surabaya.go.id


2. DAMANDIRI Foundation
Granadi Building 11th Floor, Jl. Rasuna Said, Blok X-1,
Kav. 8-9 Kuningan, South Jakarta, 12950, Indonesia
Phone: (62-21) 252 4981,252 4954,252 4985,
5279666,52964462,5254315
Fax: (62-21) 2524980,5254521
Website: www.damandiri.or.id and www.gemari.or.id
email: harysuyono@yahoo.com and pudjor@yahoo.com
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