A Comparative Analysis of SPBE Maturity 2018–2024 and a Strategic Model for Digital Decentralization of Government
Fikri Akbarsyah Anza, Teguh Kurniawan, Roy Valiant Salomo — Faculty of Administrative Sciences, Universitas Indonesia
Executive Summary
Across six evaluation cycles, Indonesia’s national SPBE Index (Electronic-Based Government System) rose from 1.98 in 2018 to 3.12 in 2024, while the country’s EGDI ranking climbed 43 places, from 107th to 64th. Yet an analysis of 3,089 evaluation observations reveals that this progress is structurally illusory — a digital progress illusion, in which rising national index scores do not translate into substantive movement toward open and inclusive governance.
Two findings sit at the core of the problem. First, a sharp disparity between central and local government: central agencies score above 3.5, while district governments remain confined to 2.3–2.6. Second, the Open Process dimension is almost entirely absent from Indonesia’s digital government ecosystem — participation channels such as online Musrenbang (participatory development planning forums) and SP4N-LAPOR (the national public complaint service) operate at the level of symbolic legitimacy rather than as substantive mechanisms of public engagement.
This policy brief distils the findings of a doctoral dissertation and proposes the Rights-Based Open Governance Strategy Model (OGS-Rights Framework) as a policy reform framework. Its central argument is a paradigmatic reorientation from governance-as-technology to governance-as-rights: citizens’ digital rights are treated as a non-negotiable boundary condition in every decision on system design, evaluation indicators, and resource allocation — a prerequisite for the success of digital government transformation on the road to Indonesia Emas 2045.
Download the full policy brief (PDF)
This policy brief forms part of the research agenda of the Innovation and Comparative Governance (ICG) cluster, Faculty of Administrative Sciences, Universitas Indonesia, on public sector innovation, digital transformation, and governance.
