Move it 2020: Innovative Solutions to Unlock Access to Financial Institution for People with Disability in Eastern Indonesia

This research investigates physical barriers and societal attitudes that prevent people with disabilities to access financial institution in Gorontalo province in eastern Indonesia. Various reports indicate there are about 27 million Indonesians living with disabilities. The latest national census reveals that more than 11.71 per cent of the total number of people with disabilities in Indonesia live in the Gorontalo Province, in the island of Sulawesi, in eastern Indonesia. Most people with disabilities in Indonesia as well as in Gorontalo have very little or no access to financial institutions, which makes them incapable in making a sustainable economic contribution to the community and makes them dependent on others. Reports suggest many Indonesians with disabilities are denied access to own their own businesses, register their own bank account and importantly to manage their own finances. This is in contradiction of the principles of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which Indonesia has ratified, and denies the rights of persons with disabilities to legal capacity in financial institutions as stipulated in Article 9 of the 2016 Disability Law. Access to financial institutions is limited, if not absent. Only 0.5 percent of microfinance clients come from this underserved community, according to a survey conducted by the Center for Financial Inclusion (CFI), an independent think tank housed at Accion.