ACTION, fully funded by the European Union, has the objective to enhance marginalized community’s resilience and solidarity in responding to the impacts of pandemics. This includes urban farming initiatives to support family’s food security resilience and to connect them to new marketing opportunities.

The handover event marked the official opening of the demonstration plot spaces, which aim to inform people about their function and benefits. Throughout the project’s implementation, ACTION will set up demonstration plots in 40 villages in East Jakarta City, Bogor District, Yogyakarta City, East Lombok District and Makassar City.

Supporting collective action

The plots will be used as tools for interactive training and teaching. They are designed to support collective action to strengthen food security and an alternative economic recovery at the family level. The plots serve as examples to demonstrate seedlings method, composting and use of recycled household items for planting, which in turn could be applied by local communities to reduce their expense on food by growing their favorite and nutritious vegetables at home.

The demonstration plots were developed together with representatives of local communities in order to take available land space and local food consumption and production plans into account.

The handover event welcomed participants from the local governments of East Lombok District, including Vice Regent, District Secretary, related Departments, Subdistrict Heads of Selong, Lenek, and Montong Gading, along with Villages Heads of Selong, Denggen Timur, Denggen, Montong Betok, Perian, Lenek Lauq, and Lenek Kalibambang, as well as local community representatives and media.

Locally-shaped solutions

During the event, Hivos invited all attendees to visit and tour the demonstration plot. In addition, a community farming session was organized to collectively plant seeds with representatives of communities in Selong Village.

Michel Farkas, Hivos’ Executive Director ad interim, says: ”We believe that locally-shaped solutions can bring about the transformational change necessary to turn the tide. What makes the work of the ACTION project very relevant is the idea of building solidarity and resilience through community-led effort. Establishing urban farming demonstration plots is a good example of that. Today’s symbolic handover from ACTION to the local government and stakeholders shows the key role local communities play in developing food resilience and economic recovery opportunities.”

About the European Union

The European Union (EU) is an economic and political union of 27 member states with a population of 470 million. Together, the EU has built a zone of stability, democracy and sustainable development whilst maintaining cultural diversity, tolerance and individual freedom. In 2012, the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for advancing the goals of peace, reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe. The EU is the world’s largest trading bloc, and the world’s largest source and destination of foreign direct investment. Collectively, the EU and its Member States are the largest donor of Official Development Assistance (ODA), providing more than half of ODA globally.

For more information about the EU and its relations and cooperation with Indonesia see Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Youtube.

To support partner countries in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic and its consequences, the EU has launched the “Team Europe” approach. The objective of the Team Europe approach is to combine resources from the EU, its member states and European financial institutions. Team Europe has mobilized around €200 million (IDR 3.5 trillion) in grants and loans to support Indonesia. €6 million (IDR 108.5 billion) in grants are dedicated to support civil society organizations to address the health and socioeconomic impact of the Covid-19 crisis in Indonesia. Team Europa is investing over €3 billion to help secure 1.8 billion doses of vaccines for 92 low and middle-income countries. Indonesia is one of the beneficiary countries.

About the ACTION project

The EU-funded ACTION project aims at increasing the participation of civil society organizations in preventing and mitigating the risks caused by the Covid-19 crisis and ensuring that vulnerable and marginalized groups in Indonesia have equal access to social and economic recovery programs. This two-year project is implemented in 15 sub-districts and 40 villages in DKI Jakarta, West Java, Yogyakarta, West Nusa Tenggara, and South Sulawesi in two phases. The first phase will focus on the initial response to the pandemic, while the second phase will help to mitigate the social and economic impacts. Women, people with disabilities (PWD), elderly, youth, SME entrepreneurs, and CSOs will directly benefit from the project.

The ACTION project is coordinated by Hivos and implemented jointly with:

Center for Indonesia’s Strategic Development Initiatives (CISDI)

CISDI is a civil society organization that supports the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through health development and involvement of youth in health development. CISDI conducts a study of issues based on experience in managing primary healthcare reinforcement programs in suburban areas as well as outermost, frontier, and the least developed areas, research and analysis of health policies, social change campaigns, and its involvement in health diplomacy at the national and international levels.

Alternative Education Circle for Women (KAPAL Perempuan)

The establishment of KAPAL Perempuan is to build women and social movement that are capable of realizing social justice, gender equality and justice as well as peace in the public and private sphere. KAPAL focuses on strengthening women’s leadership through feminist critical education, organizing and evidence-based advocacy, especially for women at the grassroots.

Pamflet

Pamflet is a human rights based organization founded and organized by young people. We are focusing on youth movement, as well as encouraging new initiatives for change in social and cultural areas, especially related to human rights issues, politics and democracy, and gender and sexual diversity. We support the youth movement in Indonesia and manage the knowledge on youth through developing centers of information, documentation and organizing capacity building for young people.

The Association for Advancement of Small Business (PUPUK)

PUPUK was established from initiation program of Small Industries Advancement (PIK) – West Java Chamber of Commerce (KADIN Jawa Barat), and the initiatives of three professional groups of Entrepreneurs, Academics, and Economic Activist began in 1979 in cooperation with a German institution, Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung (FNSt). In 1988 declared independently with the goals to expanding the region scope and more comprehensive achievements and institutionalized into PUPUK, and was legalized as an Association. PUPUK provides technical assistance to empower small businesses and strengthen the ecosystem to stimulate new strong entrepreneurs in facing economic competition.

Advocacy Center for Disability, Women and Children (SAPDA)

SAPDA Foundation, stands for Advocacy Center for Disability, Women and Children, based in Yogyakarta, and established in July, 2005, is a non-governmental organization (NGO) with a vision of “the struggle to bring about change, justice, freedom, welfare & equality to fulfil and protect the rights of women, persons with disabilities and children in an inclusive society on the basis of equal human rights.

For more information, please contact:

Yesua YDK Pellokila | ACTION Project Manager, Hivos | ypellokila@hivos.org