Measuring the Readiness of Age-Friendly Cities in Indonesia

The Elderly-Friendly City Capacity Assessment Study was carried out by implementing both quantitative and qualitative approaches. SurveyMETER collaborated with the Center for Aging Studies University of Indonesia (CAS UI) in conducting this study. It was held to complement the previous study with the theme that many stakeholders thought the issue of an elderly-friendly city to be unrepresentative. Quantitative data collection was done from 14 cities in 11 provinces while the qualitative one was completed from 6 cities in 6 provinces.

It aims to provide input to the city government in its commitment to creating a city that is friendly to the elderly. It provides data related to 8 indicators of an elderly-friendly city, namely: outdoor space and buildings; transportation; housing; civic participation and employment; respect and social inclusion; social participation; communication and information; and community support and health services. This 8-dimensional data description was obtained from direct observations of the city, interviews with samples of household respondents, urban villages, and elements of the local city government such as the City Planning Office (Bapekko), Transportation office (Dishub), Information and Communication office (Disinfokom), Social Service Office, and Health Office.

It was driven by the population aging issue which became a global issue in the 21st century and socially, economically, and politically impacted developing countries such as Indonesia. Considering the impact of population aging is not limited to the health and economic sectors, but it must also be taken into account in analyzing poverty, urban planning, employment, and welfare. In the context of Indonesia, the number of elderly in our country reached 14.4 million people, or 7.18 percent of the total population in 2000. It is the fourth largest in Asia and is estimated to be 28.9 million or up to 11.11 percent in 2020, a doubling number in two decades. WHO has calculated Indonesia will have experienced an increase in the number of elderly by 41.4 percent by 2025, counted as the highest increase in the world?.

The government offered for an elderly-friendly city to realize immediately on that basis considering there is no city has truly become an elderly-friendly city until now in Indonesia. It is expected that the existence of an elderly-friendly city would make it easier for the elderly population to carry out their activities or receive the information needed for them. An elderly-friendly city would also greatly assist the elderly in comfort while traveling and have no difficulty in accessing public infrastructure such as health facilities. Ideally, since the elderly are those aged 60 years and over who have experienced a lack of strength and health, they also need to get the ease of public facilities benefits, reduced costs, ease of travel, and the provision of recreational and reflection facilities in the form of open spaces like special gardens.

Study Design and Implementation

Prior to collecting field data, this study went through several stages of study preparation, namely questionnaire test, pilot test, initial listing, discussion and improvement of instrument results from questionnaire and pilot test, preparation of manual and questionnaire format, and training of field researcher assistants. According to the field implementing coordinator, Endra Dwi Mulyanto, as of February 28 yesterday, field data collection had reached 90% and data cleaning had been carried out from the completed city samples. He ensured that all field data would be clear in March 2013. "We are targeting the output will be in the form of a field report and the results of this study at the end of March and could be disseminated to sample cities the following month," said Endra enthusiastically.

In the quantitative study, 14 sample cities were classified into two categories, namely 2 cities as Best Practices: Payakumbuh representing small cities and Surabaya representing large cities, and 12 cities that were assessed such as Depok, Malang, and Solo representing small cities and Central Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta, Semarang, Medan, Balikpapan, Makassar, Denpasar, and Mataram represent big cities. Likewise, for the qualitative sample, Payakumbuh (small city) and Surabaya (big city) were categorized as Best Practice cities, while the other 4 sample cities were assessed such as Depok (small city) and Central Jakarta, Yogyakarta, and Denpasar (big cities).

In a quantitative approach, 150 samples of households, 10 urban villages, government work units (SKPD), and 3 observation modules were interviewed in each sample city, so from a total of 14 cities, data was collected from 2,100 households, 140 families, 14 SKPD, and 42 observational data. Simultaneously for the qualitative one, the method was an in-depth interview and focus group discussion (FGD). FGD resource persons were the age group of 40 and over from older adults such as the elderly posyandu. Two FGDs were held for the female and the male groups, while the in-depth sources come from elderly institutions in each city.

The implementation of this study received positive appreciation from policymakers in the sample cities. In carrying out data collection in Payakumbuh City, the interview process with Deputy Mayor Suwandel Muchtar who is also the Chairman of the Payakumbuh city elderly commission was attended by all elderly stakeholders in the city, namely the Payakumbuh Elderly Commission Daily Chair H. Syamsuar BA, Head of Health Office represented by Dr. Hj. Yanti M.Pd, Head of the Welfare Division, Mai Aidil S.Sos, and a number of administrators of the elderly commission. Even the interview process was published by the ANTARA News Agency and the Payakumbuh City Government website. "We did an in-depth interview with the Deputy Mayor for approximately 45 minutes," said Arief Gunawan, one of the two SurveyMETER field researchers who conducted the interview.

Arief also shorty explained based on his direct interviews and surveys results, that there has been a thriving toward an elderly-friendly city although no declaration has ever been declared in Payakumbuh city.

For the full details of the two publications above, please visit: http://www.antarasumbar.com/berita/payakumbuh/d/4/272637/wawako-payakumbuh-ingin-jadi-kota-ramah-lansia.html and http://payakumbuhkota.go.id/2013/02/18/tm-survei-meter-yogyakarta-kaji-lansia-payakumbuh/. [JF]