Poor communities in geographically remote areas of Indonesia have been neglected both by local and national authorities and by aid agencies, and have hence developed specific self-reliance strategies. However, their local resources are limited and intervention by outsiders has become crucial to development within these communities.

This chapter discusses the ten-year, community-based development experience in Semau and other parts of East Nusa Tenggara of the Nusatenggara Association Incorporated (NTA), an Australian non-government organisation (NGO). It reveals how a key activity proposed initially by informal leaders to outsiders led to multiple development activities spread throughout several communities, attracting increasing community participation. It demonstrates what outsiders can provide in terms of technical advice, supported by limited funds, to materially poor and isolated communities living in subsistence conditions in a harsh environment where rainfall is uncertain and food security crucial.

Indonesia has, since the implementation of its first Five-year Development Plan (Repelita I, 1969–74), undertaken vast integrated development efforts in the major sectors. These endeavours were supported by bilateral and multilateral cooperation through the relevant government departments. The goals of the Indonesian government were to achieve economic stability through poverty alleviation and improvements in people's quality of life. Since the early 1990s it has given priority to development in eastern Indonesia, an emphasis justified by the region's annual per capita income of just A$156 (approximately US$78) per head in 1995 – the lowest in Indonesia (Kantor Statistik BPS Propinsi NTT: 442).

Indonesians and foreign donors have increasingly realised that a centralised approach to delivering development packages in designated communities has little relevance to local needs. The intended beneficiaries were often scarcely consulted, and local participation rarely went beyond the employment of contract workers. The centralised, top-down approach did not foster a sense of belonging and accountability among the beneficiaries. Project authorities dealt primarily with provincial and regency officials rather than working directly at the subdistrict (kecamatan) or village (desa) level, and development activities were operational only during the life span of the project. There were few systems in place to ensure the ongoing maintenance or sustainability of activities established through external inputs.

Aid donors have always faced the challenge of ensuring adequate local participation. In the current environment of otonomi daerah (regional autonomy), whereby authority and responsibility for local development have been substantially decentralised, the challenges are new and greater.