Figure 1 Moderator and the speakers (Prof. Ahmad Erani Yustika, Mr. Vikra Ijas, Mr. Akbar and Mrs. Ari Sutanti) for the second panel of “Building The Sustainable Partnerships to Achieve Sustainable Development Goals” Seminar.
On April 25, 2018, the MM Sustainability of Trisakti University in collaboration with PTT Exploration and Production (PTTEP), Special Task Force for Upstream Oil and Gas Management (SKK Migas) and Tangan Di Atas (TDA) Community held a seminar as one of its series of events titled, “Seminar Membangun Kemitraan Yang Berkelanjutan Untuk Mencapai Sustainable Development Goals”. The seminar, which was held in J.S. Luwansa Hotel Jakarta aimed to share the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals in the various sectors such as oil and gas industry, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO), as well as Social Enterprises in Indonesia. Mr. Afiat Djajanegara as the PTTEP representative gave a welcoming speech to open the seminar. PTTEP is Thailand’s Oil and Gas Company which has been operated for 30 years in 10 countries. In Indonesia itself, PTTEP has begun the oil and gas exploration in 2010. As a newcomer, they realized that it is crucial to building a healthy relationship between government, the private sector, as well as the NGO. Therefore, another similar event will be organized in four more cities, Makassar, Palembang, Medan, and Surabaya, so that the partnership between government, private sector and NGO could become stronger and give a positive outcome to the society as a result.
The opening session was then followed by the two-panel sessions. In the first panel session, four speakers were invited to talk about the implementation of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The invited speakers were Mr. Jalal as the Chairperson of CSRI, Mr. Afiat Djajanegara as the representative of PTTEP, Mr. Yuli Pujinardi from Dompet Dhuafa Organization, and the last was Mrs. Esti Nalurani as the representation of Indonesian Young Entrepreneur Organization (HIPMI). In the last 5 to 10 years, there has been a significant change in the relationship between the industries and the NGOs, especially for the big companies. In 2007, the Indonesian government introduced new regulations concerning the limited company (PT) and also about capital investment. It was stated that every industry in Indonesia should make a contribution to social development through CSR. Mr. Jalal said that it is common for industry and NGO to have a counteractive relationship, while NGOs tried to protect the public interest. On the other hand, industries have their financial target to be achieved. The new regulations in 2007 forces both sectors to establish a partnership in the CSR projects to support the SDG. The reason why both the private sector and NGO should hand to hand to perform CSR is that because they both need each other. Private sectors won’t always have enough human resources to research what kind of CSR they should take in order to fulfill the CSR target. It is essential to understand the social condition before jumping to the conclusion on what CSR should be implemented. NGOs as social organizations have a better experience in understanding social needs than the private sectors. Mr. Afiat added that it is important for the company to choose the right NGO to help them not only in planning the CSR but also to handle the finances. For NGO such as Dompet Dhuafa, the credibility and the professionality of the NGO are the two most vital aspects for the companies in selecting the CSR partners. Dompet Dhuafa as one of the most established NGO in Indonesia, that has been working in the social sector for more than 24 years, was highlighting the importance of the financial transparency and the suitability of the program. The right CSR programs will lead the company to have the Social License to Operate (SLO). The SLO will somehow guarantee both the business profit and activities around the communities and even larger. If we traced the very root of poverty, it usually leads to a lack of knowledge. Knowledge is not always identical with education, it could mean the understanding of how to increase the quality of life, how to start a business to increase income and also to understand the importance of education for the next generations. Even though one of the most popular CSR products is to build the education infrastructures, without educators, it won’t affect much to the communities. There should be communities’ involvement such as training so that they could be more independent in maintaining the continuity to keep the sustainability of the CSR programs.
The last panel session invited four speakers, Prof. Ahmad Erani Yustika from Ministry of Villages, Underdeveloped Regions and Transmigration, Mr. Akbar as the representation of Telapak Organization, Mrs. Ari Sutanti from British Council and the last was Mr. Vikra Ijas as the Chief Product Officer of the crowdfunding Kitabisa.com. On this panel, the topic about social entrepreneurship was brought to introduce how social entrepreneur adapts with the community especially in Indonesia. Most of the time, people do not consider villages as an essential part of the country’s future. However, Prof. Ahmad Erani stated some important point which makes the villages as one of the most potent aspects of the country’s future development. First, the most important aspect of the development is not the economy, which lay on the top of the strong social platform. For example, social communities such as kitabisa.com are not economically capable of reaching their goal, but social support makes it possible. Villagers are well known for their solid relationship with their communities; the willingness to share and help each other is undoubted. Second, the natural resources as the economic investment are mostly located in the villages. Today, the population percentage between village and city is approximately equal, about 50:50. However, in 2050 if the national development plan did not yet consider village as one of the most strategic and priority sectors to be developed, the urbanization would be uncontrollable, and the population percentage in the city and the village could be even more than 70:30. The limitation of the area would lead to severe social conflicts such as criminality, racism and the high rate of unemployment which will weaken the national stability and development. One of the main problems for the villager’s development is the literature access to enhance their knowledge and has been said before that lack of knowledge is the root of poverty, so there is an actual silver lining between the social programs to the national development.
Currently, the government tries to trigger the village economy development through Prukades (Program Unggulan Kawasan Pedesaan) program. Prukades will allow the collaboration between 5 to 10 villages to create their own business based on the most traded commodities within the villages. This program aims to remove the village limitation capabilities by introducing the benefit of collaboration rather than competition. In the last couple of years, social enterprises have risen rapidly in Indonesia. Social enterprise itself is defined by Mrs. Ari Sutanti as the business program to solve social problems, economic problems or even environmental problems. The characteristic of social enterprise in Indonesia lies in the community, similar to the social enterprises’ characteristic in England. Based on this characteristic, the communities have a strong willingness to help each other so many of them have tried to learn about social enterprise. It’s different from another country, in the US the social enterprise or social entrepreneur should visit the community to help them. Based on the British Council research, Indonesia’s social enterprises have contributed in 17 SDS’s sector independently. Many young generations have started to build their social enterprises as social devotion either in the local or national level. The same perspective came from the British Council and the government, Indonesia’s communities have a unique way to solve their problem. Indonesia’s communities tend to be proactive in searching the problem solver rather than waiting for support. Mr. Vikra as one of the founders of Indonesia’s famous crowdfunding platform, Kitabisa.com, has also reminded that projecting the long-term impact is needed in making a business plan. The SDG is ensuring that everything we do today will not neglect the importance of sustainability. No matter what target we have to achieve, it should be a positive impact in the short-term and the long-term.
