Peer-reviewed article
The role of child forums in promoting child well-being: A social welfare perspective on participation and geographic equity
Nurul Ramadhani ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examines Forum Anak, Indonesia's institutionalized child participation mechanism in Gowa Regency, South Sulawesi. The forum helps children exercise participation rights, express themselves freely, and advocate on issues like child marriage, bullying, and stunting through activities such as Musrenbang Anak (child budget meetings). However, the forum's benefits are unevenly distributed, with highland sub-districts having limited access due to geographic barriers, inconsistent funding, and variable local government support. While Forum Anak is a meaningful channel for child participation, achieving equitable reach requires addressing practical constraints.
Key points
- Forum Anak Gowa performs four roles: strengthening participation rights, providing space for freedom of expression, supporting equitable access to education, and focusing advocacy on child marriage, bullying, and stunting
- Musrenbang Anak (child budget meetings) was pioneered by Gowa in South Sulawesi in 2017 as a participatory mechanism
- Forum benefits are concentrated in lowland, more accessible sub-districts with limited outreach to highland areas
- Three main constraints: limited outreach to highland sub-districts, limited and inconsistent funding, and uneven cooperation from some local governments
- The forum generates empowerment and social capital but reproduces geographic inequity despite advanced institutional design
Limitations
This is a qualitative descriptive study based on fieldwork in one regency (Gowa) with only six informants, so findings may not be generalisable to other Indonesian districts or regions. The research was conducted in December 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, which may have affected the forum's normal operations and accessibility.
Abstract
Background: Indonesia institutionalizes children's participation through Forum Anak as part of the Kabupaten/Kota Layak Anak (Child-Friendly Regency/City, KLA) policy, similar to how many cities around the world give children a formal voice in local governance. Prior Indonesian studies document Forum Anak's formal existence and its dependence on local government partnership, but district-level studies outside major cities remain limited, particularly on how geography shapes equitable access to participation, an issue also highlighted in broader research on children's civic participation. Methods: This qualitative descriptive study draws on undergraduate thesis fieldwork conducted in Gowa Regency, South Sulawesi, in December 2020. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with six informants (a DP3A official and five Forum Anak leaders/members), participatory observation, and documentation study, and analyzed following standard stages of qualitative data condensation, display, and conclusion drawing. Findings: Forum Anak Gowa performs four roles: strengthening children's participation rights (chiefly via Musrenbang Anak, which Gowa pioneered in South Sulawesi in 2017), providing space for freedom of expression, supporting equitable access to education, and focusing advocacy on priority child issues (child marriage, bullying, and stunting). These roles are constrained by three recurring challenges: limited outreach to highland sub-districts, limited and inconsistent funding, and uneven cooperation from some local governments. Read through a social welfare perspective and a ladder-of-participation framework, the forum generates empowerment and social capital, but its benefits appear concentrated in lowland, more accessible sub-districts. Conclusion: Forum Anak Gowa is a meaningful, government-recognized channel for child participation, but its equitable reach depends on resolving practical funding and geographic-access constraints. Novelty/Originality of this article: This study contributes a district-level account from South Sulawesi's highland–lowland terrain, showing how a regency-pioneered participation mechanism (Musrenbang Anak) can still reproduce geographic inequity even where the formal institutional design is comparatively advanced.