The regional autonomy era commences with the enactment of Law no. 32 of 2004. Among the points of the Law, it explains that the region has the authority to make a regional policy to provide services, participation, initiatives, and community empowerment. The regional autonomy implication is the strengthening authority of the regions in managing the government and the increasing complexity of development concerns. It is necessary to solve development issues through development programs that impacted the wider community and are rooted in existing problems.

Based on the foregoing, the need for and support for accurate, accountable, updated, and accountable data and information is very important in making development plans both on a national and regional scale in particular. This data support is intended until regions have a quality, complete, and structured database so regions can quickly and easily view data in the context of preparing regional development planning documents. Concretely, it is necessary to find/collect the data needs for regional development in accordance with the functions, affairs, programs, and activities in the region in the manner the spirit of the Home Affairs Ministry Regulation (Permendagri) No. 54 of 2010. It is in the context of SurveyMETER trying to contribute to national development by carrying out a Data-Based Policy Survey with the support of the AusAID Knowledge Sector.

The expected objective of this research is to find out whether the sampled districts/cities have utilized accurate, updated, and accountable data in every policy-making that becomes a guideline for the regions in the process of administering local government. In detail, the purpose of this study is included in these question points; Does the local government use data for policy planning? What data are employed by regions in policy planning? What is the quality of data and data collection procedures applied by regions in policy planning? How is the data quality assurance process carried out by local governments? Do regions accept technical consultants to assist in policy planning? What is the budget managed by the regions for technical consultants? what constraints do regions deal with in relation to the use of data for policy planning?

It was conducted in 22 districts/cities spread over 3 provinces: The Special Region of Yogyakarta (DIY), Central Java, and East Java. The sample was obtained from the results of the World Bank's research in the 2009 LGCA (Local Government Capacity Assessment) survey for treatment areas and from the determination of the ranking and performance status of regional government administration in the 2010 Regional Government Administration Report (LPPD) for its control areas. In each district/city, a number of resource persons were interviewed, namely the head/chairman/deputy head/deputy chairperson/secretary of BAPPEDA, Education Office, Health Office, and Local Government Work Unit (SKPD) consultants, and the sample district/city of the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS). The reason for respondents' selection since the SKPD and the offices are the largest organizations in terms of coverage and data user.

Field data collection was carried out for the whole month from mid-January to mid-February 2013, and according to Roni Hermoko as the field survey coordinator, the report was completed in mid-April, and the dissemination workshop would be held to present the results by inviting pertained offices from the 22 sample districts/cities to come to Yogyakarta at the end of April or early May. [JenFauzan]