Reflection on Rural Development: Village Fund, Village Tour, and the Covid-19 Pandemic

In 2015 the central government implemented the Village Fund program for all villages in Indonesia. The objective of this program was to accelerate poverty alleviation and promote village independence. One of the development priorities in rural areas is to achieve village independence by developing tourism villages with village funds. Meanwhile, at the end of 2019, the Covid-19 pandemic that broke out in Indonesia led to an increase in poverty in rural areas. This increased the need for assistance from village funds to help improve the welfare of the poor. In this study, the Giri Manik Village was examined because it was one of the national pilot villages in developing a tourist village using village funds. The research was conducted using a qualitative approach. Data were collected through interviews, observations, and documentation analysis. Based on the results, it can be concluded that developing the physical infrastructure of tourist villages does increase the income of the poor through cash-intensive labour. However, the benefits of tourist villages are largely enjoyed by the village elite. Keywords: village funds, tourist village, village elite, poor people, the Covid-19 pandemi