The Village hall in Babalan Village, Gabus Subdistrict, Pati District was different than normal that Wednesday (24/6/2026). A few village officials and community leaders, as members of the Legal Study Team of Babalan Village gathered, discussed, and wrote key points highlighted by the speaker. They did not talk about physical development or village administrative issue, but something far more fundamental – how to build a protection system for women and children from all forms of violence.
The activity organised by Yayasan Angudi Piadeging Hukum Indonesia (YAPHI) was part of a series of learning that had been going on. After learning about advocacy techniques and strategies in previous meetings, participants focused on the importance of mapping stakeholders and networks for prevention and management of cases of violence against women and children.

The village chief of Babalan, Nining Sudarwati opened the activity by giving an opening speech to all participants. She emphasised the importance of capacity building for village officials so that they understood the social issues in their community, including cases of violence that the public often missed.

After the opening, the learning session continued with Adi C. Kristyanto from YAPHI. Before his presentation, Adi asked participants to do a flashback on the previous advocacy lessons. Participants explained a number of things that they had learned, from advocacy principles, implementation stages, to preparation of right strategies to promote changes.

A quick review was the entry point to broader discussion about the importance of network development. Adi believed that it was not possible for one party to perform the task of prevention of violence against women and children.

He explained that the basic foundation of child and women protection was the family. A harmonious family able to perform its caring function was the first protection to prevent a variety of forms violence.

“In prevention of cases of violence against women and children, the first thing to do was to engage with the family,” he said.

Yet families did not work alone. Supportive social environment, children-friendly education services, health facilities, and government policies were all part of the interrelated protection ecosystem. Integrated health post (Posyandu), for example, not only functioned as basic health service providers, but also as one instrument of child’s rights protection. This was the same with school who had key roles in creating safe environment that protected child growth.

This was why understanding stakeholders was critical. Adi explained that stakeholders were parties who had interests or influence in an organisation, program, or resolving specific case.

To make it easy for participants to understand, he offered a few examples of stakeholders in the closest vicinity of the victims - families, schools, village governments, service providers, and community organisations. Participants then identified a number of sectors and parties involved.

In the process, Adi emphasised that stakeholder mapping should not be conducted in general terms, or just by mentioning major institutions. What was critical was identifying specifically the parties with biggest influence to solving the case.

“We must be able to identify who is most influential to the issue at hand,” he said.

He said that after the stakeholders were identified, the next action was to build good relations and communication with them. Strong relation with stakeholders would expand the opportunity for success in advocacy to resolve the case.

Adi then explained the stakeholder mapping stages. The stages included identification of stakeholders, stakeholder analysis, stakeholder mapping, and stakeholder management.

In the explanation, he introduced a diagram used to understand the positions of each stakeholder based on two key aspects – level of interest and level of influence. In the diagram, the horizontal line showed level of interest, while the vertical line showed level of influence.

Each aspect was divided into three categories – high, mid, and low. By using such analysis tool, participants knew whether a given stakeholder tended to support, to be neutral, or even to oppose advocacy.

The method, according to Adi, was critical to help prepare strategies in order to define the rights approach for every party involved.

After the theoretical explanation, participants not only listened. They were prompted to practice the stakeholder mapping technique through Venn Diagram.

Participants were divided into two groups. Each group was tasked with choosing a case of violence against women and children it wanted to analyse. After choosing a case, the groups then prepare stakeholder lists, starting from the nearest groups to victims to those with biggest influence to resolve the case.

In such practice, the size of the circle in the Venn Diagram illustrated the size of each stakeholder towards resolving the case. The position of the circles showed, in the meantime, how close was the relationship was with the victims and the case being managed.

Group discussion proceeded in a dynamic way. Participants exchanged views about parties they wanted involved in the management of cases of violence.

Interestingly, the chosen case for analysis was a case of violence involving woman victim and her boyfriend. Such case often happened in communities and received public attention.

When the result of the discussion was presented, each group was able to identify a number of stakeholders in detail. Victims’ family was perceived as the closest party with important roles in protection and psychological supports.

Beyond the family, participants also mentioned schools, village governments, law enforcement agencies, health services, community leaders, and national institutions as well as National Anti-Violence against Women and Children Commission (Komnas Perempuan) and Protection of Witness and Victims Office (LPSK).

Diversity of stakeholders being identified showed that participants started to have an understanding that case management, with regards to cases of violence, was not strictly about victims and perpetrators. Behind each cases, there were many parties who played different roles in ensuring that victims got the justice and recovery needed.

In the final session, Adi offered a number of key messages that people needed to pay attention to in accompaniment and in advocacy. He believed that stakeholder mapping was not a one-off event. Analysis needed to be updated as the situation changed on the field.

He also reminded that in many cases, people accompanying victims often focused on what happened (events) rather than understanding victims’ and perpetrators’ background. The latter understanding regarding the social, economic, and family context could help identify root problem(s) before effective intervention could be identified.

Another important issue was protection of the identity of victims. Adi highlighted that victims’ identity should not be exposed to the public. What needed to be revealed was the progress of the case management and the key issue so that communities may give their supports without negatively impacting the victims.

“Do not let victims’ identity be exposed,” he said. He also reminded participants to be cautious when using social media or when trying to make a case viral. Although publication may help to gain supports, that action had to be done meticulously so as not to create new legal problems.

At the end of the activity, Adi added one key stakeholder often forgotten in mapping – the government office for women and children protection. That office had strategic role in providing services, accompaniment, and inter-sectoral coordination in case management.

Training in Babalan Village showed that measures to prevent and manage cases of violence against women and children necessitated collaboration. Families, communities, village governments, service providers, and State institutions each had roles to play.

Through participatory learning process, village officials and community leaders not only gained new knowledge, but also develop new ways of looking that protection of women and children was collective responsibility. From the simple village-level space, awareness grew that preventing violence meant building strong protection network, where no one worked alone. (Yosi/Ast).