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Achievements in Indonesia

Written November, 2003

Protecting Biodiversity, Creating Jobs

Indonesia is the largest Muslim, and fourth most populated, country in the world. The Asian financial crisis hit the country hard, with the number of Indonesians living below the poverty line increasing from 17 to 25 percent. The country continues to struggle with deeply entrenched poverty, problems with government service delivery, and the challenges of forging a new democracy.

After the fall of the Suharto regime, civil society flourished. The number of organizations multiplied, supported by the influx of external aid and funding. Yet nongovernmental organizations that provide capacity building for fledgling foundations were scarce; Synergos helped filled the gap.

One of the most critical issues facing Indonesia is its environment. The country is home to one of the world's richest areas of biodiversity and the destruction of natural resources is a growing threat to communities' livelihoods. In the 1990s, a national grantmaking foundation was created -- KEHATI, the Indonesian Biodiversity Foundation (Yayasan Keanekaragaman Hayati Indonesia) -- to support conservation, sustainable use, and equitable sharing of the benefits of Indonesia's biodiversity.

In 2002, Synergos supported KEHATI to increase its program development capacity through a learning exchange. Three KEHATI grantmaking and program staff traveled to the Philippines to study enterprise development and public-private partnerships.

Prior to the trip, Synergos prepared the staff for the experience, identifying what they needed and wanted to learn when they got to the Philippines. Once they arrived, they were accompanied by Eugene Gonzales, a Filipino Senior Fellow with expertise in microenterprise development. Gonzales was able to enrich their learning by prompting the right kind of dialogue and ensuring that KEHATI staff was exposed to relevant experiences.

Exchanges included visits to operating projects, talks from experts in microenterprise network building, and a meeting with a bank supporting microenterprise development though small loans.

KEHATI has since produced a manual on microenterprise development, detailing roles, perspectives, funding, and stages of sustainable enterprise development using natural resources (tuber roots, dried rattan for furniture, fish ponds and medicinal herbs).

"The learning exchange helped KEHATI understand not only more about the need to bring more of a business perspective into the foundation," says Anida Haryatmo, KEHATI's Program Director, "but also the importance of working with other key partners to achieve positive results. We hope that contacts we made with the institutions and Eugene Gonzales in the Philippines will continue to benefit KEHATI and its partners."

The contacts did continue. Later in the year, Gonzales visited Indonesia for a follow-up exchange. Synergos also helped KEHATI with other forms of fundraising -- Senior Fellow Marissa Socorro Camacho-Reyes, also from the Philippines, made a presentation to KEHATI senior staff on raising monies in the capital market.

These efforts are just the beginning. Synergos will continue to enhance local foundations' capacity to solve development problems through research, learning exchanges, and foundation capacity building in the years ahead. And we are working to share best practices developed by KEHATI and other foundations with the region with foundations and philanthropists around the world.