Indonesian Green Entrepreneurship Programme (IGEP): IGEP Forum

The Indonesia Green Entrepreneurship Programme (IGEP) assists the national Government in reducing unemployment and at the same time reducing GHG by creating new green entrepreneurs in various sectors of the economy in Indonesia. As part of the programme, there are several activities that will be undertaken in Indonesia and one of them is to organize an IGEP forum with relevant national stakeholders in Indonesia.

Background

Indonesia with more than 237 million people in February 2012, it faces 6.32 per cent unemployment rate and 11.6 per cent poverty rate (BPS, 2012). The higher portion of unemployed is youth. Entrepreneurship has been selected as a strategic way to reduce unemployment, poverty reduction and inequality in Indonesia. President of Indonesia launched the national programme on entrepreneurship almost a decade ago (see President instruction number 04/1995). Since then, there are about 17 ministries promotes entrepreneurship in various approaches, including trainings, access to finance, and/or exhibition, which can be selected autonomously by each ministry. However, until now, there number of entrepreneurs in Indonesia has not been reaching 2 per cent of the population. The results of each ministry program vary, in which the multi stakeholder consultation found that there is lack of join action to promote entrepreneurship, means that the current entrepreneurship programme is an independent program, and it is also mainly focuses on economic aspect.

Beside the employment challenge, Indonesia also faces environmental challenge. Until 2010, Ministry of Energy and Mineral reports that more than 50% of the energy used in Indonesia are sourced from oil mining and coal, which are non renewable. This energy is used for industry, transport and household with 44 per cent, 36 per cent and 11 per cent of energy consumption respectively (Ministry of Energy and Mineral, 2011). Indeed, beside the energy used, the industry, transports and households are the major source of pollution in Indonesia (Ministry of Environment, 2009). At the G-20 meeting at Pittsburgh, the President of Indonesia commits to reduce CO2 by 26 per cent with own initiative and up to 41 per cent with international supports by 2020.

The ILO responded to the will and provided technical assistance through the Green Jobs Project in Asia from 2010 – 2012. Tourism sector was selected as the pilot sector. Through the assistance on green business (green homestay) and competency standards (eco-tour guide), the project found that a green entrepreneurship programme, a programme can respond to social, economic as well as environment concerns concurrently, is needed. Such programme may need to cover both technical and managerial aspects and include other sectors along value chain.

The Indonesia Green Entrepreneurship Programme (IGEP) will assist the national Government in reducing unemployment and at the same time reducing GHG by creating new green entrepreneurs in various sectors of the economy in Indonesia. As part of the program, there are several activities that will be undertaken in Indonesia and one of them is to organize an IGEP forum with relevant national stakeholders in Indonesia. Furthermore, the organization of the IGEP forum shall be a joint initiative between the ILO and the relevant institution, where, both institutions will share resources.

Activities

A half day IGEP Forum will be organized in Jakarta to promote and advocate green entrepreneurship to relevant stakeholders in Indonesia. Various resource persons and experts will share information and experiences on various entrepreneurship programmes and green entrepreneurship in Indonesia which will cover a wide range of topics on green jobs, existing entrepreneurship programmes, green entrepreneurship, access to finance and relevant government policies that would support green entrepreneurship in Indonesia.

Objectives

The objectives of the IGEP Forum are to:
  • Share experiences of national stakeholders on entrepreneurship in various sectors.
  • Facilitate the dissemination of information on Indonesian Green Entrepreneurship Programme (IGEP).
  • Share ideas on how to further create and promote the Indonesian green entrepreneurship program and identify financial modalities.
  • Identify existing government policies that could support the creation and promotion of Green entrepreneurs.