Rural Sector Reform and Internet Adoption in NGOs:The Case of Indonesia

Today rural sector reform is a paramount issue in Indonesian development. Yet, different social actorshave different perspectives and stances towards it. Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) inIndonesia have established themselves in pivotal positions in the social, economic and politicallandscape across the country, and a large number of their works has often been connected withdevelopment in rural sector. But, little has been studied to understand how NGOs in Indonesia,particularly rural NGOs, engage with the issue of rural development itself. With the rural developmentbeing one of the oldest issues widely discussed among activists since the early days of the IndonesianNGOs, it is interesting to see how they understand the rural sector reform issue today. An empiricalstudy was conducted recently to see how some Indonesian NGOs, in their endeavour to respond andbroaden the discourse, utilise Internet technology. The study employs combination of quantitative andqualitative approach to build a detailed story about how different organisations working in the ruralsector reform issue deploy strategies to deal with the issue...