RJOAS September 2025
by Darwanto, Zahidi M. Syaprin (College of humanities and social sciences, Asia-Pacific Regional Studies, National Dong Hwa University, Taiwan)
This study examines the efficiency of village development in Indonesia by adapting the principles of Taiwan’s Rural Regeneration Act (RRA) through the application of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Although Indonesia’s village governance has been strengthened under Law No. 6/2014 on Villages, its implementation is still constrained by bureaucratic fund management, limited community participation, and a lack of sustainability orientation. In contrast, Taiwan’s RRA introduced in 2010 emphasizes a bottom-up, community-driven development framework that integrates social, economic, and ecological dimensions. This research analyzed three villages in Central Java using an input-oriented DEA model. The findings show that the selected villages achieved a technical efficiency score of 1.000, indicating optimal use of resources in line with their development priorities. The results also highlight that the adoption of RRA principles can provide a robust framework for participatory, efficient, and sustainable rural development in Indonesia. This study contributes to both methodological and policy discussions by demonstrating how DEA can complement RRA principles to establish a measurable and adaptable evaluation system for village development.
Village development serves as a crucial foundation for realizing inclusive and sustainable national development in Indonesia. Law No. 6 of 2014 concerning Villages grants autonomy and extensive authority to villages to manage their own affairs, including aspects of planning, financial management, and decision-making based on communal consensus. However, in practice, the implementation of this autonomy often faces significant challenges. Issues such as dependence on central government funds, low citizen participation, the bureaucratization of Village Fund utilization, and a lack of integration across social, economic, and ecological dimensions in planning indicate that a top-down development approach still dominates in many regions. Consequently, the success of village development is frequently measured solely by budget absorption and short-term physical project completion, rather than by tangible and sustainable impacts on the community.
Furthermore, to date, Indonesia lacks an objective and measurable quantitative evaluation instrument capable of assessing the relative efficiency of village development, based on actual achievements at the community level. Existing evaluations tend to be administrative and oriented towards budget absorption reports, rather than the effectiveness of resources in producing concrete outcomes. This condition hinders the identification of best practices and continuous improvement in village development management. In contrast, at the international level, quantitative evaluation for sustainability planning has proven effective. For instance, in Taiwan, an innovation system assessment model for sustainability planning has been developed using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to evaluate efficiency across 22 counties (Hung, Chang, & Liu, 2019). The results of this study demonstrate that DEA can be utilized to quantitatively assess development performance based on qualitative principles in a measurable way, making it highly relevant to the Indonesian context.
In stark contrast to the situation in Indonesia, Taiwan has, since 2010, implemented an alternative approach through the Rural Regeneration Act (RRA). This policy was formulated in response to rural population decline, agrarian economic stagnation, and environmental degradation in Taiwan's rural areas. The RRA is designed as a community-based, bottom-up development policy that emphasizes holistic sustainability across three primary dimensions: social, economic, and ecological. This approach positions village residents as key actors in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of development, facilitated through community training, local potential development, cultural landscape conservation, and the utilization of community-based technology (intelligent living). A study by Kuei-Feng Chang and Po-Cheng Chou (2011) explains that the RRA was developed through a sustainable community assessment framework, a village development evaluation system that includes indicators for citizen participation, environmental quality, public services, and resilience to risks.
Taiwan's RRA model offers several principles relevant for examination within the Indonesian context, including citizen involvement from the planning stage, the importance of training prior to program implementation, and a development orientation based on local potential and long-term sustainability. However, cross-national policy adaptation cannot be done directly without considering local social, cultural, and institutional contexts. Therefore, an in-depth empirical study is needed to ascertain the extent to which these principles can be effectively and efficiently applied in Indonesian villages.
To address the need for evaluation and to explore the potential adaptation of the RRA, this research employs Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) as a quantitative tool for measuring the relative efficiency among villages. DEA enables the comparison of similar units in this case, villages by evaluating how inputs (such as Village Funds, the number of trainings, and the role of facilitators) are converted into outputs (such as citizen participation, the number of active economic enterprises, and the success of development programs). Through this approach, development efficiency is not solely viewed from the amount of allocated funds, but from the effectiveness of their utilization in generating concrete and sustainable achievements.
For the purpose of this study, two villages from Semarang and Kendal Regencies in Central Java were purposively selected as units of analysis. These three villages represent a diversity of socio-economic conditions and levels of village governance maturity, thereby expected to provide a comprehensive overview of the application of RRA principles and development efficiency. By integrating the RRA Taiwan evaluation framework, a participatory approach, and DEA-based quantitative analysis, this research aims to provide conceptual and empirical contributions to shaping a more efficient, adaptive, and sustainability-oriented village development direction in Indonesia.
This study adopts a quantitative approach with an explanatory comparative type. The primary objective is to measure the relative efficiency of village development based on predetermined inputs and outputs. Specifically, the research will utilize Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), employing the input-oriented Charnes, Cooper, and Rhodes (CCR) model. The choice of an input-oriented DEA model is based on the assumption that villages generally have greater control over their input variables (e.g., allocated funds, training intensity, facilitator involvement) compared to their output variables, which might be more influenced by broader external contexts.
Respondents were determined using a key respondent approach, focusing on individuals with strategic roles and deep knowledge of village development. The key respondents consisted of the village head (lurah), village officials, farmers, leaders of youth organizations (karang taruna), and other community figures involved in development planning and implementation. This selection captures diverse perspectives across governance, agriculture, youth participation, and community leadership, ensuring the analysis is grounded in both quantitative data and lived experiences (Simangunsong et al, 2025).
The study will primarily use quantitative data collected through various methods, including surveys, interviews, documentation (e.g., village financial reports, program reports), and direct observation. Data collection will focus on variables representing inputs utilized by the villages and the corresponding outputs generated from their development and empowerment activities. All variables will be converted into numerical form to be suitable for DEA analysis. Inputs: Village Fund allocation, number of training sessions, number of facilitators. Outputs: Citizen participation, active enterprises, infrastructure provision, environmental programs, and program sustainability. Efficiency scores were generated using DEA Solver software, with interpretation based on the efficiency frontier (score = 1.00 indicates efficiency).
This study examined how the principles of Taiwan’s Rural Regeneration Act (RRA) could be adapted to evaluate and enhance village development in Indonesia. The findings indicate that the core RRA principles bottom-up planning, sustainability across social, economic, and ecological dimensions, and strategic use of local resources are highly relevant in the Indonesian context. Village 1 demonstrated a strong orientation toward the social and infrastructural dimensions of the RRA, emphasizing participatory governance, community training, and improvements to public facilities. Village 2 displayed a different focus, aligning more with the economic and ecological dimensions through investment in local enterprises, environmental programs, and sustainable initiatives. These differences illustrate that RRA principles can be effectively implemented when adjusted to suit each village’s distinct strengths and priorities.
Based on the DEA output-oriented analysis (Table 1) under the constant returns to scale (CRS) assumption, both Village 1 and Village 2 achieved a perfect technical efficiency score (TE) of 1.000, as shown in the efficiency summary table. This result confirms that both Decision Making Units (DMUs) operate exactly on the efficiency frontier, with no slack in any input or output variables. In Village 1, the resources allocated such as development funds, training activities, facilitation days, and technical assistance were successfully converted into tangible outcomes, including substantial infrastructure improvements, timely completion of projects, active community participation, and sustained program implementation. Village 2, despite having a different resource allocation pattern, achieved the same efficiency score by focusing on economic productivity and ecological preservation. The village’s outputs reflected its developmental priorities, with growth in local enterprises, environmental initiatives, and long-term sustainability programs. These results highlight that DEA evaluates efficiency based on how well inputs are transformed into outputs aligned with each DMU’s own priorities, not by enforcing a single uniform output profile. The DEA results in this study are consistent with the findings of Chalil (2019), which show that the efficiency of village government spending in Indonesia still varies greatly across regions, mainly influenced by institutional capacity and the quality of village leadership.
The analysis provides important insights for developing a more participatory, efficient, and measurable village development model in Indonesia. Efficiency was achieved in these two cases not by producing identical outputs, but by aligning resource use with local needs and priorities. Village 1’s strengths came from its focus on infrastructure development and active citizen engagement, while Village 2’s success stemmed from enterprise creation and environmental stewardship. Both examples show that adapting RRA principles to the Indonesian context can lead to optimal performance when strategies are context-specific and community-driven.
Overall, these results confirm that the study has fully achieved its intended objectives. The relevant RRA principles have been successfully identified and contextualized for Indonesia, village development efficiency has been quantitatively measured through DEA, and strategic recommendations have been formulated for enhancing rural development. For example, Hung et al. (2019) demonstrated that rural areas in Taiwan with varied development priorities could achieve efficiency when resource allocation was consistent with local needs. This integrated approach addresses all research questions and offers a practical basis for applying participatory and sustainable development strategies in Indonesia.
The study concludes that the adaptation of Taiwan’s RRA principles provides a valuable framework for enhancing participatory and sustainable village development in Indonesia. The DEA analysis confirms that villages can achieve efficiency by aligning resource use with local needs and priorities.
The findings point to several strategic directions for adapting RRA principles to Indonesian villages. Development planning should be firmly grounded in a participatory process that involves community members from the planning stage through to implementation and evaluation. Resource allocation must remain flexible, allowing villages to focus on their strongest sectors whether infrastructure, local enterprises, or environmental management rather than following a uniform national framework. Performance evaluation should prioritize tangible and measurable results across social, economic, and ecological dimensions instead of relying solely on budget absorption. Finally, targeted capacity-building efforts, such as technical facilitation and community training, should be strengthened to enhance local governance and ensure that development benefits are sustained over the long term.
Original paper, i.e. Figures, Tables, References, and Authors' Contacts available at http://rjoas.com/issue-2025-09/article_02.pdf