124 American Journal of Economic and Management Business e-ISSN: 2835-5199 Vol. 4 No. 2 February 2025 Evaluation of the Policy for the Preparation of the Village Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMDesa) 2020-2025 in Dukuhturi Subdistrict, Tegal Regency (Case Study in Pepedan Village, Dukuhturi Subdistrict, Tegal Regency Iim Rohimatun Nahdiyyah1*, Aisatul Fitriah2 Politeknik Siber Cerdika Internasional, Indonesia1,2 Emails: iim_rohimatun@polteksci.ac.id Abstract The village is given the authority to regulate and manage its own affairs, in terms of governance and the interests of the village community. In the administration of village government, a village government is formed, the village head as a village official has the authority, rights, and obligations in leading and implementing the wheels of government assisted by village officials. The Village RPJM is a guideline for the village government in implementing development in the village. The guidelines must reflect the vision and mission of the elected village head and represent the aspirations of the community that are accommodated in the aspirations of the residents through village meetings. The theory used as the focus of this research refers to the indicators/criteria of William N. Dunn's theory in his book entitled Introduction to Public Policy Analysis which includes: effectiveness, efficiency, adequacy, equity, responsiveness, and accuracy. The research method used is descriptive qualitative. The results of the study show that: the preparation of the RPJMDesa Pepedan is in accordance with PERMENDAGRI No 114 of 2014 there are supporting and inhibiting factors in the preparation of the RPJMDesa, and the steps taken are reviewing existing regulations and coordinating. Keywords: policy evaluation, program activities, village RPJMD. INTRODUCTION The village is one of the smallest forms of government structure/system in the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia (Setiawan et al., 2024). The village is the initial forerunner or media in accommodating and channeling the aspirations of the community at the basic level for development and governance which is then conveyed to and to be implemented by the government at the level of its authority, both at the village, regional and central levels (Giyanto et al., 2022). Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 6 of 2014 concerning Villages Article 1 Paragraph 1 states that: "Villages are villages and customary villages or referred to by other names, hereinafter referred to as Villages, are legal community units that have territorial boundaries that are authorized to regulate and manage government affairs, the interests of the local community based on community initiatives, origin rights, and/or traditional rights that are recognized Iim Rohimatun Nahdiyyah, Aisatul Fitriah 125 and respected within the system of government of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia". Villages are given the authority to regulate and manage their own affairs, in terms of governance and the interests of the village community (Silubun et al., 2020). In the implementation of the village government, the village government is formed, in which there is an organizational structure consisting of the village head as a village official who has the authority, rights, and obligations in leading and implementing the wheels of government assisted by village officials, in accordance with Tegal Regency Regional Regulation Number 6 of 2015 concerning Village Heads, Village Officials, and Village Consultative Bodies (BPD). The position of village head in the village government is a political position, meaning that the term of office of the village head is 6 (six) years for 1 (one) period and can serve again for a maximum of 3 (three) consecutive terms / periods or not. The election of the village head is a nomination period for the village head, where the candidates for the village head convey their vision and mission during the campaign, of course this is an expectation that will be realized if elected in the form of an activity program (Mvukiyehe & Samii, 2017). The program of activities can come from the evaluation of the performance of the current village head, the aspirations of residents who are dissatisfied with the performance of the current government, or the aspirations of the village head candidates themselves after carrying out observations in the village (He & Wang, 2017). The vision and mission of the elected village head, after being inaugurated by the regent/mayor, must be compiled in the form of a work program that will be implemented during a period of 6 (six) years or 1 (one) leadership period. The vision and mission is realized in the form of an activity program that serves as a guideline for the village government in carrying out the wheels of government in accordance with the mechanism stipulated in the Minister of Home Affairs Regulation No. 114/2014 on Village Development Guidelines. The RPJM Desa is a guideline for the village government in implementing village development. The guidelines should reflect the vision and mission of the elected village head and represent the aspirations of the community, which are accommodated in the aspirations of residents through village consultative meetings (Edwards & Woods, 2017). The content of the RPJM Desa must also be in line with the direction of development policies in the kabupaten/municipality and reflect the condition of the village itself. The Village RPJM is expected to be a systematic and participatory dictionary or guide for development during the 6 (six) years / 1 (one) leadership period, so that the implementation of governance and development in the village can be harmonized and run appropriately. A policy issued by the government is a legal product that is binding and compelling for the relevant government or those under it (Kerwin & Furlong, 2018). Policy is a form of government effort in providing solutions and directions from existing problems as a guide for the relevant government or those under it in carrying out a policy (action) to focus on the goals to be achieved. A policy is born from a long process with various considerations. The process includes agenda setting, policy formulation, policy adoption, policy implementation and policy evaluation. Policy evaluation is the last step after policy implementation (Valle-Cruz et al., 2020). American Journal of Economic and Management Business Vol. 4 No. 2 February 2025 126 Policy evaluation is an assessment step of the substance, implementation, and impact resulting from the implementation of a policy, in other words, evaluation is intended to assess things that occur in the overall policy process and as an effort to assess the usefulness of programs that have been launched by the government. Based on the background and focus of the research that has been described, the problem formulations in this research include, How is the Preparation of the Village Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJM Desa) in Pepedan Village, Dukuhturi District, Tegal Regency? The purpose of this research is to find out the preparation of the Village Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJM Desa) in Pepedan Village, Dukuhturi Subdistrict, Tegal Regency. RESEARCH METHODS The method used in the research is qualitative, the object of research was conducted in the Dukuhturi District of Tegal Regency. In Dukuhturi Sub-district itself, there are 18 villages with different classifications (independent, independent, and self-sufficient villages) and have different SOTK (organizational structure and work procedures). Of these, the researcher will take 1 (one) village, Pepedan Village, as the object of research, based on the IDM (Village Development Index) of Tegal Regency, which shows that Pepedan Village is classified as a developed village. RESULT AND DISCUSSION Strategic Issues of Pepedan Village Government Measuring the success of an existing public policy, can depart from several indicators that become points in knowing the success of a policy itself, as we know that the policies issued by the government are certainly a form of solution that is expected to overcome existing problems or at least suppress the impact caused by existing problems. In the long run, the policy can benefit the wider community (Greenberg et al., 2017). The strategic issues for the medium-term development of the Pepedan Village community in 2020-2025 are as follows: Poverty management Poverty is a national issue that is the first priority because it is a sustainable development issue. /Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Realizing SDGs activities as an effort to address poverty in Pepedan Village for the next 6 (six) years is a continuous effort. There are several indicators behind this condition, including : a) There is still low access to basic services that include ownership of livable housing. b) Low food price coverage ability. c) Poor education and health. d) There are still low business and employment opportunities due to weak capital and other access such as skills and productivity, which leads to the inability of households to generate family income. Iim Rohimatun Nahdiyyah, Aisatul Fitriah 127 Unemployment Rate Unemployment is a term for the labor force that includes people who are not working at all, people who are looking for work, people who are waiting for further work projects and someone who is trying to get a decent job in accordance with their profession and discipline (Ibarra, 2023). The issue of unemployment in Pepedan Village from year to year has always been an important concern because the level of open unemployment from 2014 - 2018 amounted to an average of 817 people and is an increasing trend because the issue of unemployment will not be able to be resolved by the village government alone. Improved quality of resources Although the Pepedan Village government is not fully responsible for improving the quality of life of the community, because the Pepedan community is an integral part of and interacts with other communities, efforts to improve human resources remain a concern (Asamoah & Osei-Kojo, 2016). Improving the quality of life of the community is one aspect of efforts to improve community welfare. The benchmark of successful development of human resource quality is the human development index (HDI) whose development tends to increase (Runtunuwu, 2020). This can be seen in the HDI of Tegal Regency in 2013-2017 which always increased during that period, namely in 2013 from 63.50 and in 2017 to 66.44 or an average growth of 1.24 and this figure is higher than the HDI of Central Java Province. The success of increasing HDI in Tegal Regency was based on the development of the health and education sectors. Sustainability of infrastructure development and the environment Related to the issue of infrastructure development that is the responsibility of the Pepedan Village government includes: a) Construction / maintenance of neighborhood roads / alleys b) Construction / maintenance of waterways to prevent flooding during the rainy season c) Fulfillment of waste handling infrastructure d) Fulfillment of village government building/office infrastructure e) Fulfillment of sarpras for posyandu services for toddlers, elderly and pregnant women f) Fulfillment of infrastructure for youth and community empowerment g) Fulfillment of other supporting infrastructure h) Village governance and public service quality. There are still various problems in realizing birkorasi reform in accordance with applicable rules and regulations, among others: a) Aspects of change management b) Aspects of management c) Resource aspects of village officials and RT/RW administrators d) Aspects of performance accountability e) Aspects of public service. American Journal of Economic and Management Business Vol. 4 No. 2 February 2025 128 In terms of the management of village administration as a means to support organizational performance, optimal change management efforts have not been implemented (Dwiningwarni et al., 2022). The low educational status of village officials and other village institutions is still an obstacle in carrying out their main duties and functions. This is characterized by a lack of ideas in dealing with problems. In the aspect of performance accountability, we continue to be spurred by the timeliness in completing various tasks but still the quality is not just the completion of a job, because in services we still have to pay attention to speed, accuracy, accuracy and low costs in providing public services. The indicators that determine the success of a policy evaluation which are the focus of the research discussion in this study refer to indicators/criteria from William N. Dunn's theory in his book entitled Introduction to Public Policy Analysis which includes: effectiveness, efficiency, adequacy, equity, responsiveness, and accuracy. Effectiveness itself is defined as whether an alternative (action or action) achieves the expected result (effect), or achieves the purpose of the action taken (Burlyuk, 2017). Efficiency concerns the amount of effort required to produce a certain level of effectiveness. Adequacy concerns how far a level of effectiveness satisfies the needs, values, or opportunities that generate the problem. The adequacy criterion emphasizes the strength of the relationship between policy alternatives and expected outcomes. Equity is closely related to legal and social rationality and refers to the distribution of consequences and efforts between different groups in society (Young, 2020). An equity-oriented policy is one in which the consequences or efforts are fairly distributed. Responsiveness concerns the extent to which a policy satisfies the needs, preferences, or values of particular groups in society. Appropriateness is usually open- ended, because by definition this criterion is intended to reach beyond existing criteria (Santiago- Delefosse et al., 2016). Therefore, there is no and cannot be a standardized definition of appropriateness criteria. Evaluation of the Policy for the Preparation of Pepedan Village RPJMD 2020 - 2025 Effectiveness In the effectiveness indicator, the preparation of the RPJMDesa in Pepedan Village has achieved the expected results and objectives. The results or objectives are in the form of community aspirations that can be conveyed and accommodated in village deliberations and strengthened by activity programs that are reflected in the vision and mission of the elected village head can be realized in the RPJMDesa (Sumadi et al., 2022), where the RPJMDesa is used as a guideline by the village government in carrying out the implementation of government and village development that is directed and planned for the next 6 (six) years in accordance with Law Number 6 of 2014 concerning Villages and PERMENDAGRI Number 114 of 2014. Efficient Efficient is an effort made to achieve the goals aspired to precisely by the way or the most effective way possible, the efforts or steps taken by the village government in the preparation of RPJMDesa are in accordance with the rules in PERMENDAGRI Number 114 of 2014, these efforts are in the form of: Iim Rohimatun Nahdiyyah, Aisatul Fitriah 129 1) Formation of the RPJM Village drafting team, by the village head through a Decree on the Formation of the Drafting Team; 2) Alignment of district/city development planning policy direction, through a review of the RPJMD of Tegal Regency 2019-2024 and the strategic plan of SKPD of Tegal Regency as an effort to integrate with village development policies; 3) Assessment of village conditions, through harmonizing village conditions to compare data and real conditions of the village so as to know the current picture of the village as a whole, then carrying out village deliberations with the community to assess the potential, community problems, to then be made in the form of proposed activity plans to be proposed in the preparation of RPJMDesa, finally the team carried out location checks, related to physical development with the assistance of Public Works in making drawings and calculating the value of development. 4) Preparation of the draft RPJMDesa, through activities to understand the rules of both PP, Permen, and Perbup related to the regulation of the use of funds that are the source of funding for budgeted activities, and the next stage determines the budget ceiling for each year. 5) The preparation of village development plans through village development planning meetings, these activities are in the form of deliberations between the BPD, the Village Head, and the Compilation Team. Where the drafting team reports to the village head the results of the draft that has been made to be revised or approved to be determined. 6) Determination of the Village RPJM, the village head determines the RPJMDesa by issuing a perdes RPJMDesa after obtaining approval from the BPD through a BPD decision. Responsive Responsive indicators in the preparation of RPJMDesa are known that both from the point of view of the community, the village head, and the drafting team state that the policy is satisfactory or in other words the policy can meet the needs of the implementation of village government on an ongoing basis (Rusalia & Suffianor, 2024). The obstacles faced are that there is no systematic preparation of RPJMDesa, so it is possible that the systematics or composition of RPJMDesa between sub-districts will be different (outside the details of activities from the siskeudes format) products from the Ministry of Home Affairs (KEMENDAGRI), the next obstacle is the uncertain budget ceiling (estimate) and new rules that apply, this can have an impact on activities in the year to be implemented, the activity program can be carried out or not and replaced with new activities, of course this is inversely proportional to the understanding of residents. Accuracy Based on the written documents observed by the author, both the Pepedan Village RPJMD and Permendagri No. 114/2014 on village development guidelines, it is known that: a. Permendagri No. 114/2014 on village development guidelines, is a reference or basis used by the village government in preparing village development guidelines to carry out village governance, based on the vision and mission of the elected village head. b. The RPJMDesa document is a description of the activity plan or program of the elected village head that is discussed with other stakeholders and adjusted to the needs of the community in American Journal of Economic and Management Business Vol. 4 No. 2 February 2025 130 the village, which contains activities that will be carried out by the village government in answering or overcoming existing problems in the village. The activities in the Pepedan Village RPJMD itself largely contain activities related to infrastructure development, community empowerment, community development and governance in accordance with the problems and needs conveyed during the village deliberation, of course, if referring to the accuracy indicator, the RPJMDesa is intended to be useful as a guideline for the implementation of village government administration. Supporting and Obstacle Factors in the Preparation of Pepedan Village RPJMD 2020 - 2025 Based on the research that has been conducted on the preparation of the RPJMDesa document, both through interviews with resource persons and examining the implementation documents, there are generally 2 (two) important factors that influence, namely supporting and inhibiting factors. Studied more closely, these factors play a role in producing village legal products (guidelines) in the implementation of village governance. These factors include: Supporting Factors: Supporting factors that can be seen from the Pepedan Village RPJMD 2020-2025 preparation document include: 1) The clarity of the legal umbrella in the preparation of the RPJMDesa, both the village head and the drafting team run or carry out these activities based on applicable regulations, including: a) Law No. 6 of 2014 on Villages; b) Government Regulation No. 60 of 2014 on Village Funds from the State Budget; c) Regulation of the Minister of Home Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia Number 114 of 2014 on Village Development Guidelines; d) Regulation of the Minister of Village PDTT Number 16 of 2018 on the Determination of DD Priorities in 2019; e) Tegal Regent Regulation Number 4 of 2019 concerning Procedures for Allocating and Implementing and Determining the Location of Village Funds; f) Tegal Regent Regulation Number 4 of 2019 concerning Procedures for Allocating and Implementing and Determining the Location of Village Funds; g) Tegal Regent Regulation Number 5 of 2019 concerning Procedures for Allocation and Implementation and Determination of Village Fund Allocation 2) Coordination is well established between the village head, the drafting team, and the BPD as the supervisor of village administration, which can be seen from the involvement of the three elements in the preparation of the RPJMDesa according to their authority. 3) The enthusiasm of the community is quite high in participating in attending and having opinions in every deliberation in capturing aspirations, so that the hopes and desires of the community can be conveyed and accommodated in the planning of RPJMDesa preparation activities. 4) Good human resources, in this case the drafting team and the village head, who are able to understand the rules that govern or become the basis for implementing these activities, so that each stage can be carried out properly. Inhibiting Factors Iim Rohimatun Nahdiyyah, Aisatul Fitriah 131 The inhibiting factors in the preparation of the Pepedan Village RPJMD 2020-2025 consist of : 1) Preparation time that exceeded the target Implementation time in preparation The Pepedan Village RPJMD 2020-2025 exceeds the limit stipulated in PERMENDAGRI No. 114 of 2014, where the implementation exceeds 3 (three) months, this is because it coincides with the implementation of the elections. 2) Systematization The systematics of preparing the RPJMDesa Document (the result after the RPJMDesa is completed) is not regulated in detail in PERMENDAGRI No. 114/2014. 3) The budget ceiling is uncertain, so that planned activities may not necessarily be carried out or implemented according to the planning year or allow for new activities, according to the applicable authority, especially from the upper government level. 4) Efforts Made in the Preparation of Pepedan Village RPJMD 2020-2025 The efforts made in the preparation of the Pepedan Village RPJMD by the drafting team were: a. Review and understand PERMENDAGRI Number 114 of 2014 concerning Village Development Guidelines as the basis for the preparation. b. Coordinate with KASI. PMD in the preparation of the RPJMDesa CONCLUSION Policy evaluation is the last stage in the flow of public policy, from the evaluation it can be seen the success or failure of a policy, so that normatively a recommendation will be obtained whether the policy can be continued, needs improvement, or is terminated. Evaluation also assesses the relationship between theory (policy) and its implementation, whether it is appropriate or not. From the evaluation results, we can assess whether a policy/program provides benefits or not for the village government and the community. The village government in its implementation refers to or is guided by Law No. 6 of 2014 concerning Villages, which then in detail on each implementation of authority, obligations and duties is regulated again with derivative regulations, one of which is PERMENDAGRI No. 114 of 2014 concerning Village Development Guidelines, which regulates the preparation of village government implementation guidelines made by the elected village head and his team. This is intended so that in the implementation of the leadership period of the elected village head, there is a clear direction and guidelines, not just the origin or origin of sound and in harmony with the government regulations above, which are intended for village development through activity programs.Policy evaluation that has been carried out by researchers in the preparation of the 2020-2025 RPJMDesa in Pepedan Village, Dukuhturi Subdistrict, Tegal Regency refers to the theory of William N. Dunn, which consists of 6 (six) criteria. 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