1 - Implementation of Anti-Trafficking Policy in West Kalimantan, Indonesia: A Governance Approach

The Indonesian government has undertaken a series of anti-trafficking policies and initiatives since the introduction of the 2007 Anti-Trafficking Law following the passage of the UN Trafficking in Persons Protocol in 2000. While a considerable amount of literature has documented the ways the government carries out anti-trafficking measures at the central level, little is known about the extent to which anti-trafficking policies and laws are implemented at the local level. Given the decentralized multilevel settings and that West Kalimantan is seen as a significant hotspot of outbound labour trafficking and irregular migration, this paper aims to examine how the counter-trafficking practices are implemented by local stakeholders and their experiences of implementing policy on the ground. Drawing on a governance approach, our study pays particular attention to formal and informal factors/aspects facilitating or constraining policy implementation of outbound labour trafficking in West Kalimantan. Through the lens of the governance approach, our work tries to capture informal institutions which are largely overlooked in explaining institutional behaviour and policy outcomes. The qualitative evidence obtained through interviews with local stakeholders in the province confirms that, as the governance approach expects, policy implementation of trafficking in persons (TIPs) is shaped not only by the formal governance (hierarchy) but also by informal governance aspects (norms and tacit understandings). The empirical findings presented in this paper suggest that tackling TIPs requires attention to both formal and informal aspects of anti-trafficking implementation policy.

Co-Author 1
Melissa Curley, University of Queensland