National, provincial, district and village level policies, plans, regulations, standards and measures will be assessed, and changes suggested, with the objective of creating an enabling environment for the process of formalization as a first step towards the reduction and phase-out of mercury from ASGM. Secondly, policy and regulatory measures will be improved to further advance mercury phase-out in the ASGM sector. In particular, the project will work to clarify regulations pertaining to the new mining laws and ensure their consistency with national end goals and the realities of the ASGM sector on the ground, following the devolution of powers and responsibilities related to ASGM that have recently been assigned to regional (provincial) governments (Law 23/2014 on Regional Governance).

In addition, the project will further develop the capacity of national institutions, government agencies and private sector partners, to assess, plan, implement, support and monitor sustainable and mercury-free interventions in the ASGM sector. It will do so by initially assessing the capacity of these project partners, developing plans for strengthening their capacity and subsequentely implementing these.

At the national level, the project will support government entities that have responsibilities with regards to the implementation of the “National Action Plan for the mercury phase out programme (2014-2018)” related to ASGM. The project will also assess and improve the capacity of village, district and provincial government entities and staff focussing on formalization, development of village owned companies (BUMDes), cross-sectoral coordination, and the development of regulations and technical guidance (field guides) to support implementation.

The project will also facilitate the activities of the ASGM Communication Forum (Forum Komunikasi Tambang Rakyat), of which objective is to build the capacity of the ASGM sector on economic, technical and environmental aspects related to ASGM. The project will support the Forum in meeting more regularly and organizing awareness raising events (as part of the project’s awareness raising plan – see Component 4) to share information and ideas related with ASGM issues in Indonesia. At the same time the capacity of the forum will be built to secure long-term sustainable financing for its activities.

Ultimately the objective of strengthening institutions and the policy/regulatory framework at national, provincial and local level is to improve the coordination among entities, improve the capacity of entities for regional and local oversight of ASGM mining activities, and make the application process for local concessions, and the issuing of environmental licenses and other permits, simpler, clearer and more affordable so that they are accessible to well functioning ASGM cooperatives within in a reasonable time frame and reasonable cost.