Sustainable Development, Natural Resource Funds and Education Investment: Evidence from Indonesia

^1,2,3,4 Development Planning, Research and Development Agency of Palembang City, South Sumatera Province, Indonesia 30131
¹ Universitas Tamansiswa Palembang, South Sumatera Province, Indonesia 30126
⁵ The National Research and Innovation Agency, The Republic of Indonesia 12710
⁶ Professor, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS), Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan 106867 7

^* Corresponding author: alamhidayat79@gmail.com

Abstract

Sustainable development entails a developmental pathway that maximizes the utilization of natural and human resources while ensuring their harmonious integration into the developmental framework. Environmental stewardship, which yields social, economic, and cultural advantages, should adhere to principles of caution, environmental inclusivity, decentralization, and acknowledgment of, as well as reverence for, indigenous wisdom and ecological integrity. Community welfare can be achieved by meeting fundamental needs, one of which is education. Quality resources will be able to contribute to more sophisticated technological advances so as to increase production efficiency. This study analyzes the role of the Natural Resources Revenue Sharing Fund (DBH SDA) on government investment in education in 491 districts/cities in Indonesia using panel data regression analysis. The results of the analysis showed that per capita DBH SDA in Indonesia in the 2010-2012 research period had a positive and significant influence on government investment in education. The selection of the period was based on the consideration that there had been a resource boom during which the world’s demand for natural resource commodities increased, followed by an increase in commodity prices, so that it had a positive impact on increasing the source of revenue for countries or regions that had an abundance of natural resources.