Developing village in the former conflict region of Indonesia through social and economic inclusion: Evidence from Aceh

Abstract

Rural development is the government’s priority in reducing economic imbalances between rural and urban areas. Government through village laws encourages village governments to actively participate in their development. Accordingly, this study aims to analyze the driving forces in rural development, which entails economic and social inclusion. This research used primary data collected namely through in-depth interviews and structured interviews using questionnaires with the village officials. The results were obtained by the mixed method approach. The results show that the forefront of development in the village is the village head/chief and apparatus. The village chief include residentsparticipates in both economic and social activities inclusively. These activities may then reduce the conflicts that arise from economic and social problems. The success of economic development was shown by a reduction of poverty level in the villages. Moreover, from the social perspective, the villagers become more unified under the righteous village head/chief which lead to a better social life with fewer conflicts. Therefore, this study encourages policymakers to catalyze the appearance of a suitable village head/chief for an election.

Keywords

• social inclusion
• economic inclusion
• village development
• social capital
• village autonomy
• village enterprise