Reconstructing the impasse in the transfer of delta plans: evaluating the translation of Dutch water management strategies to Jakarta, Indonesia

Abstract

This study takes the stagnation in the transfer of knowledge about strategic delta planning as a starting point and identifies the interplay of constraining factors. We conclude that the way the process of policy transfer is executed is crucial. The Dutch government aims to transfer the Dutch approach to delta planning (labelled 'the Dutch Delta Approach') to otheroften developingcountries. However, policy transfer is a complex process that depends on a variety of factors. Deadlocks can occur when the transferred knowledge and the corresponding policy ideas are neither adopted nor rejected. Taking the impasse in the transfer process in the National Capital Integrated Coastal Development project in Jakarta as a case study, we demonstrate that fundamental policy change is needed to adopt strategic delta planning in Jakarta and present three interrelated explanations, related to the policy transfer process, that illustrate why this change is not yet observed.

Thinking beyond success and failure: Dutch water expertise and friction in postcolonial Jakarta

“…This article takes as its starting point that friction is fundamentally different from failure, with which it is often conflated. To describe the project as an (failed) attempt to transfer the DDA to Jakarta would be misleading since, as Minkman et al. (2019) note, “There is no single definition of this policy model” (1563).…”

“…Using the lens of friction, I have revealed the contradictory, messy ways in which policies are localized, illuminating the important role of Indonesian state actors in this process. In addition to building on existing scholarship critically examining the mobilization of Dutch expertise to places elsewhere (Hasan et al., 2019; Minkman et al., 2019), this article contributes to widening the analytical frame of policy mobilities scholarship by interrogating the social practices associated with policymaking that constitute neither success nor failure. This approach is particularly useful for researching urban development and infrastructure projects in the global South, which often are delayed, fail to live up to the aspirations of political elites, or never come to fruition.…”

Climate Resilience and Policy Transfer in Semarang City, Indonesia

“…The process of transferring inspiration, best practices, and experiences between actors which leads to the formulation of a policy is lengthy and thus necessitates time. Any policy transfer process can be seen as a social process of change because it stimulates policymakers to reflect upon current approaches, strategies, programs and regulations;; assess how effective these existing attempts to solve the problem are;; and eventually involves rethinking strategic ideas that are received from the sender in eTropic: electronic journal of studies in the tropics order to reformulate the existing strategy to suite local contexts (Minkman et al, 2019). Aligned with this, the policy transfer process also acts as an iterative process, necessitating the adaptation or adoption of approaches, strategies, programs or regulations from different places and periods of time to new circumstances (Dolowitz & Marsh, 2000).…”

“…If the recipient adapts or adopts the value or approach or any other element that is transferred, then the process remains successful. However, in numerous cases, the policy transfer process cannot happen or meets an impasse due to several conditions: the unsavoury reputation of the transfer agent or the sender, exclusive and limited transfer content to a particular context, and the absence of willingness or motivation from the receiver (Minkman et al, 2019). Apart from these three aspects, the failure of the policy transfer process can also be examined from the perspective of the process itself.…”

“…As a result of this exchange, a policy, strategy, program, ideology or other arrangement that has been used in one time and place, is (re)used in another. This process is widely known as the policy transfer process (Minkman et al, 2019). The policy transfer process is now common practice in contemporary policy making (Dolowitz & Marsh, 2000, pp.…”