Better Data, Stronger Protection for Older Indigenous Papuans in Raja Ampat

For older Indigenous Papuans living across Raja Ampat’s scattered islands, a new government program is working to ensure distance no longer determines the protection they receive.

Raja Ampat is among the world’s most biodiverse marine environments, encompassing more than 600 islands scattered across 70,000 square kilometres of ocean off the Bird’s Head Peninsula of New Guinea, in Indonesia’s Southwest Papua province. The regency is home to around 71,000 people, spread thinly across communities where inter-village travel by boat is the only option, electricity and clean water are scarce, and the cost of basic goods runs well above the national average.

For older Indigenous Papuans, Orang Asli Papua or OAP, living across this remote archipelago, these conditions are particularly difficult to navigate. Most have no formal income or pension entitlement and depend on family support in communities where the cost of simply getting by is already high.

Social assistance programs for older Indonesians exist at both national and subnational levels, but reaching the right people has consistently been the harder problem. Across Indonesia, fragmented and outdated socioeconomic data has meant that basic services do not always reach those who need them most. The national government, through its National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), is now addressing this, working with subnational governments to improve targeting and ensure programs reach the communities they are designed to serve.

In Raja Ampat, where the difficulty of reaching scattered island communities has left village-level data historically incomplete, that targeting gap is acute. The regency government recognised that strengthening social protection for older OAP would require better data: integrated, accurate and reaching down to the village.

In response, the Raja Ampat government established ORISUN, a social protection program aimed at ensuring older Indigenous Papuans live with dignity in their later years. Designed for OAP aged 65 and over, ORISUN takes a data-driven approach to identifying beneficiaries accurately and delivering assistance genuinely tailored to local conditions.

The program was formally launched at the 23rd anniversary celebrations of Raja Ampat regency in Waisai on 9 May 2026. Its legal foundation spans both national and local regulations: Presidential Regulation No. 88 of 2021 on the National Strategy for Senior Citizens sets the national framework, while Regent Regulation No. 16 of 2026 on the ORISUN Raja Ampat Social Protection Program for Older People gives it local force.

Speaking at the launch, Regent of Raja Ampat Orideko Iriano Burdam said ORISUN was designed to make the government’s presence felt in practical terms for OAP across the regency.

‘Through the ORISUN Program, the Raja Ampat Government wants to ensure that older Indigenous Papuans receive tangible social protection that targets the needs of the community,’ he said.

The program is built on detailed data about who OAP are, where they live and what they need, information that has rarely existed among the dispersed villages across the regency.

With support from the Australia–Indonesia Partnership Program, SKALA (Synergy and Collaboration for the Acceleration of Basic Services), the regency government developed operational guidelines and drew on Indonesia’s National Socioeconomic Single Data (DTSEN). Using SEPAKAT, the Bappenas socioeconomic analysis platform, the government was able to identify service gaps and target assistance more accurately to the communities that need it most.

The regency government also drew on the Southwest Papua Population Information System (SIOPADA), a provincial platform that captures socioeconomic data specific to Indigenous Papuan communities. The integration of DTSEN and SIOPADA forms the planning database from which ORISUN beneficiaries are identified.

Maliki, Deputy for Community Empowerment, Population and Employment, Bappenas, said accurate data was essential to ensuring government programs reached those who needed them most.

‘The ORISUN Program shows that with accurate socioeconomic data, the government can develop social protection programs that directly target local community needs, particularly for vulnerable groups such as older Indigenous Papuans,’ he said.

Looking ahead, the Raja Ampat government will regularly update beneficiary data and work on disbursement mechanisms that reach remote island communities more effectively. The early implementation phase will focus on strengthening data governance and cross-sector coordination to ensure the program runs as intended. For OAP across Raja Ampat’s islands, ORISUN represents a commitment that distance need not determine the protection they receive.