1. Between February and March 2003, I have refined project proposal. On March 3-14, I attended the first seminar series in Budapest. During this seminar, I was involved in important training programmes focusing on issues of different components of policy process, policy solution alternatives, policy analysis, structure and strategies of think thanks in the US, Western Europe and Central European countries. During this seminar, I have also presented my project proposal to other IPF fellow working on similar topics as well as to the working group mentors. Based on discussions with group mentors, especially with Andrew Cartwright, my project title is slightly changed into “Integrating the Urban Informal Sector in the Public Policy Process: A Study of Street Enterprises in Bandung Metropolitan Region (BMR), Indonesia”. The term “accommodating” in the previous title has been changed into the term “integrating”. The project will come up with policy options that can be categorised into three general approaches, such as “regulating”, “accommodating”, and “curtailing”. The term “integrating” incorporates these three meaning.

2. Back from the seminar, between March and April, I then wrote literature review to understanding characteristics of street enterprises and policy stances toward them. The theoretical considerations discussed in this section cover the definition of the urban informal sector and street enterprises, theoretical and policy perspectives on the urban informal sector, models of policy options dealing with street businesses, and locational decisions of the urban informal sector. During this period I have contacted and sent the project proposal to Tom Timar and Dedem Ruchlia, my individual mentors, by email and direct visits respectively. I have also written a paper on “Discovering the Urban Informal Sector: A Literature Study” for Scientific Journal of Social Work, Bandung School of Social Welfare, Volume 2, Number 2 and will be published on August 2003.

3. Attending seminar and public debate on “Street Traders in Bandung: Issues and Policy Alternatives”, in Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) on 26 April. In this seminar, attended by different policy makers from Regional Development Planning Agency (Bappeda) and Local Government Offices (Pemda), academia, and street enterprise operators, I presented my paper on “The Street Enterprises in Bandung”. Based on my PhD thesis, the paper concerns with characteristics of street enterprises in Bandung and possible approaches to integrate them into the city master plan.

4. On May, my work focused on the development of research methods, especially on generating research parameters and instruments for data collections. The methods of data collection that have been developed include a questionnaire, interview guide, observation checklist and document study checklist. The focus of inquiry included in these research instruments were developed on the basis of research parameters and indicators concerning (a) characteristics of street enterprises, such as business profiles of street enterprises, social and economic determinants of street vending activities, and factors influencing the selection of worksites of the street traders in the urban space economy, and (b) existing policy measures relating to the operation of street enterprises, such as approaches of the measures, problems and implementation patterns, stakeholders (advocates, opponents, decision-makers) involved, and participation and communication procedures in policy-making

5. On June 2 – 14, I attended second seminar in Budapest. In this seminar, I received inputs from the training focused on issues of different aspects of policy process, effective policy advocacy, kinds of capacity needed for achieving professional policy making process, roles of policy analysts and policy advocates. I have also got influential feedbacks from other IPF fellows working on similar issues as well as from my working group mentors when I presented and discussed my preliminary project results to them.

6. Fieldwork was conducted between June and July followed by data analysis and writing preliminary report of the research paper. Assisting by ten data collectors, the data collection was done in two areas of Bandung, namely Municipality (Kotamadya) and District (Kabupaten). Within these two regions, four specific research sites were selected on the basis of the agglomeration of the street enterprises: street, market, commercial complex, and public transport station.

My work plan for the next months would focus on conducting in-depth interviews with street traders and policy makers. This work will then be followed by seminars in Bandung to disseminate research findings to policy stakeholders and generate policy issues and options with them. Therefore, draft policy paper is not ready to be uploaded to my WebPages. As stated in the project schedule, these seminars are previously planned to do on November. In order to have ideas from stakeholders concerning research findings and policy options, however, it will be conducted earlier, hopefully between August and September.