Dear Friends:

Since May 2001, it has been the privilege of the Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research at Harvard University (HPCR) to develop and maintain the web portal on “Building Human Security in Indonesia.” HPCR launched this portal as part of the Conflict Prevention Initiative, which developed web portals on conflict prevention and conflict management for policymakers and practitioners, in partnership with the United Nations and with the generous support of the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID).

This initiative benefited greatly from HPCR’s partnership with local Indonesian organizations, notably the Center for Peace and Security Studies at Gadjah Mada University.

To date, close to four thousand users have registered on the Indonesia portal and use it regularly to gain access to information, analysis, academic resources, as well as online discussion fora and conferences on critical issues in Indonesia and the region. Currently, the portal features a database of over four thousand documents. It hosted two e-conferences on the “Sources of Insecurity in Indonesia” in 2001 and on “Building Sustainable Peace and Fostering Development in Papua” in 2002. This has represented a fantastic success which HPCR is tremendously proud of.

Due to funding limitations, the Indonesia portal will regrettably cease to be active at the end of December 2004. Since the current database contains valuable information for practitioners, our documents database will continue to be accessible online throughout 2005, and updated on a minimal basis. Conditions permitting, we hope to be able to reactivate this portal in the future.

HPCR has devoted itself to pursuing the most rigorous standards of quality for the information and analysis found on the portal, and the feedback and contributions of our user base have been invaluable in this endeavor. It is with much gratitude that we recognize the very integral part played by this community and we thank you for your involvement and interest in our work over the past few years.

Your questions and comments are welcomed and can be addressed to Ms. Devorah Isaac, Program Associate, at disaac@hsph.harvard.edu.

Kindly,

The Program on Humanitarian Policy
and Conflict Research at Harvard University