Towards the latter end of the trip, we started to focus in on the themes of economic development and poverty alleviation. This is of course a fascinating topic to me and one that we had ample time to explore in Indonesia.
I'm going to frame this discussion around three examples that we learned of in Jakarta, eastern Bali, and Jakarta respectively. To me, they clearly and starkly represent the past, present, and future of development paradigms.
First, let's begin with IBEKA. IBEKA treks into the remote reaches of Papua, itself one of the least accessible places on earth and installs micro-hydropower plants on the many rivers that course through the jungles. According to IBEKA itself, it began as a reaction to government inefficiency and inability (which I totally sympathize with). Many of its founding members were actually jailed by the government back in the day (potentially as suspected Communists but I really don't know). According to our guest speaker, IBEKA is completely and totally opposed to anyone making a profit and benefitting others at the same time. If you don't believe me, perhaps I can dig up the powerpoint slide he presented showing the precise point at which the good social entrepreneur icon turned from green to red and became evil. Don't get me wrong, IBEKA was doing tremendous work to lay the foundations of an electrified society in very needy areas, but I found his mentality to be completely calcified and closed to the idea that perhaps there were sustainable approaches that he might consider. It seemed to me like the more paternalistic efforts that developed world NGOs have been trying for decades.
Okay, let's move on to the East Bali Poverty Project. While Bali is generally an affluent region (although nowhere near as pretty as what I imagined) due to its tourism industry, the eastern part of the island is poor, isolated, and perched on fragile soils on the slopes of the two volcanoes that formed Bali. David Booth found this region in the 90's when he was looking for the absolute poorest place on Indonesia. Apparently this was it so he set up shop here to start what I would describe as a series of Millennium Villages. He raised money and then pumped in capital to build roads, off-grid electric systems, and recruit teachers. He did a lot of cool things besides (like planting Vertiver grass to stabilize the slopes so that gardens could be grown) those large projects and today the villages are transformed. Certainly still not well off but vastly improved from where they started. I was impressed I must say but many of my peers were not. Perhaps that is because the entire visit felt like a pageant, complete with children singing "Thank you all so much" plaintively as our vans / trucks rolled up. That part was pretty silly. I hope that the kids didn't have to wait long for us to show up. But, not shocking I suppose that a ton of cash and concerted technical expertise can improve a system of villages but still, I thought the progress was awesome. This system to me epitomized the type of development work that we see most often through Jeff Sachs and others. Pump in cash and break the poverty cycle.
Okay, now to Ruma. Ruma is a for-profit social enterprise in Indonesia that trains rural entrepreneurs to sell prepaid phone cards and electricity via mobile networks (much of Indonesia is covered by 3g and other data networks). The company is staffed by former members of BCG, Kiva, the UNDP, Yahoo, E&Y, and many other well known entities. I really like the model. They train the owners of small shops how to get set up with a mobile tablet, a printer, and with the prepaid phone cards (a system that Ruma built the back end systems for). From there, the owner hustles to sell the products to the local area residents. They make more money, people have more connectivity, and Ruma makes more money to expand its operations. Win, win, win. From this base, Ruma has also expanded to offer research services to some of the larger CPG firms that are eager to design products that are valuable to the base of the pyramid market. This to me is the epitome of the new guard of development workers. Ideas that benefit the poor but also generate earnings for the institution, enabling it to continue operating and incentivizing it to perform well. However, I must admit the potential for a biased perspective. Is it shocking that I found the young entrepreneur, fresh out of consulting and an MBA, to have the best perspective?
I'm going to frame this discussion around three examples that we learned of in Jakarta, eastern Bali, and Jakarta respectively. To me, they clearly and starkly represent the past, present, and future of development paradigms.
First, let's begin with IBEKA. IBEKA treks into the remote reaches of Papua, itself one of the least accessible places on earth and installs micro-hydropower plants on the many rivers that course through the jungles. According to IBEKA itself, it began as a reaction to government inefficiency and inability (which I totally sympathize with). Many of its founding members were actually jailed by the government back in the day (potentially as suspected Communists but I really don't know). According to our guest speaker, IBEKA is completely and totally opposed to anyone making a profit and benefitting others at the same time. If you don't believe me, perhaps I can dig up the powerpoint slide he presented showing the precise point at which the good social entrepreneur icon turned from green to red and became evil. Don't get me wrong, IBEKA was doing tremendous work to lay the foundations of an electrified society in very needy areas, but I found his mentality to be completely calcified and closed to the idea that perhaps there were sustainable approaches that he might consider. It seemed to me like the more paternalistic efforts that developed world NGOs have been trying for decades.
Okay, let's move on to the East Bali Poverty Project. While Bali is generally an affluent region (although nowhere near as pretty as what I imagined) due to its tourism industry, the eastern part of the island is poor, isolated, and perched on fragile soils on the slopes of the two volcanoes that formed Bali. David Booth found this region in the 90's when he was looking for the absolute poorest place on Indonesia. Apparently this was it so he set up shop here to start what I would describe as a series of Millennium Villages. He raised money and then pumped in capital to build roads, off-grid electric systems, and recruit teachers. He did a lot of cool things besides (like planting Vertiver grass to stabilize the slopes so that gardens could be grown) those large projects and today the villages are transformed. Certainly still not well off but vastly improved from where they started. I was impressed I must say but many of my peers were not. Perhaps that is because the entire visit felt like a pageant, complete with children singing "Thank you all so much" plaintively as our vans / trucks rolled up. That part was pretty silly. I hope that the kids didn't have to wait long for us to show up. But, not shocking I suppose that a ton of cash and concerted technical expertise can improve a system of villages but still, I thought the progress was awesome. This system to me epitomized the type of development work that we see most often through Jeff Sachs and others. Pump in cash and break the poverty cycle.
Okay, now to Ruma. Ruma is a for-profit social enterprise in Indonesia that trains rural entrepreneurs to sell prepaid phone cards and electricity via mobile networks (much of Indonesia is covered by 3g and other data networks). The company is staffed by former members of BCG, Kiva, the UNDP, Yahoo, E&Y, and many other well known entities. I really like the model. They train the owners of small shops how to get set up with a mobile tablet, a printer, and with the prepaid phone cards (a system that Ruma built the back end systems for). From there, the owner hustles to sell the products to the local area residents. They make more money, people have more connectivity, and Ruma makes more money to expand its operations. Win, win, win. From this base, Ruma has also expanded to offer research services to some of the larger CPG firms that are eager to design products that are valuable to the base of the pyramid market. This to me is the epitome of the new guard of development workers. Ideas that benefit the poor but also generate earnings for the institution, enabling it to continue operating and incentivizing it to perform well. However, I must admit the potential for a biased perspective. Is it shocking that I found the young entrepreneur, fresh out of consulting and an MBA, to have the best perspective?
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