ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT AND SOCIAL EQUITY IN PAPUA PERSPECTIVE OF THE POPULATION IN RURAL AREAS IN MAIRASI, KAIMANA REGENCY, WEST PAPUA

The objective of this present research is to analyze the relationship between the policy of road infrastructure development and social equity in Papua, especially in rural area in Mairasi, Kaimana, West Papua. To get the needed information, a quantitative-qualitative or mixed method was employed to evaluate the policy. An after and before evaluation type was used to analyze the impacts of the socio-economic changes before and after the road was built. This present research was focused on the accessibility impacts on the access to education, health, market and banking. The tool for the analysis was the Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test. The results of the analysis showed that the access to education had the mean value of 2.40 which is higher than that before the roads were built, namely 2.29. The discrepancy is significantly meaningful where the p-value was 2.20. The access to the market showed the mean value of 2.35, which is higher than the mean value before the roads were built, 2.04 where the discrepancy is said to be significantly meaningful with the p-value of 0.000. Then the access to banking had the mean value of 2.54 where it is higher than that before the roads were built, 2.04, and this discrepancy is significantly meaningful with the p value of 0.000. The results of the analysis showed that the development of the road infrastructures had significant impacts on the access to education, health, market and banking among the population dwelling in Mairasi rural areas. Moreover, the evaluation of the policy performance resulted in the proper policy in terms of services effectiveness, construction cost efficiency, responsiveness to isolatedness, equal distribution to limit the gaps, adequacy in solving socio-economic problems, and the fulfillment of equity aspects intended to maximize the population prosperity in the rural area in Mairasi.