Action Forum for Indonesia Responsible Business ” Doing Partnership To Leave Poverty Behind”

From 17th – 18th December 2015, Indonesia Business Links organized The ASEAN Responsible Business Forum in Jakarta, Indonesia. With theme “Doing Partnership to leave poverty behind” it was co-hosted by ASEAN CSR Network, TNP2K, Accenture, KemPPN/BAPPENAS, CitiPEKA & CITI Foundation, and Planas DRR. More than 300 participants from various backgrounds such as business people, government officials, academicians, and NGOs attended this forum which was sponsored by Freeport Indonesia, Unilever, and Bank Mandiri. This two days event presented not only interesting but also motivational discussions and ideas. The main objectives of this forum are 1) to provide proof positive that CSR is about shared value not merely charity, 2) to elevate partnership for development among private sector, government, and civil society from dialogue to real action, 3) to encourage real and immediate actions in the area of transparency, disaster preparedness, and youth empowerment.

Bambang Widianto, the Deputy for Policy Support on human development and equitable development/TNP2K Executive Secretary, officially opened this forum with a keynote speech on complementarities between government and business initiative in poverty reduction efforts to improve social welfare and business sustainability.
On high level panel discussion, chaired by Heru Prasetyo (IBL), six distinguished speakers; Dr. Yanuar Nugroho (Deputy Chief of Staff for Analysis and Oversight of Priority Programmes, Executive Office of the President, Republic of Indonesia), Dr. Elan Satriawan (Policy Working Group Coordinator, TNP2K), Diah S. Saminarsih (Special Staff of the Minister of Health Unilever Indonesia), Muhammad Saleh (Member of Audit Committee, PT Unilever Indonesia Tbk), Victor Rembeth (Planas DRR) discussed on about how to achieve sustainable business through ethical partnership with the right beneficiaries.

In the first day, there are four parallel afternoon workshops that discussed four main ideas related to responsible business. The four workshops were organized in collaboration with our co-hosts and aimed to provide recommendation for business sector. Each workshop had experts and professionals who shared their analysis and experiences in business sector. The workshop are:
•    Workshop 1: Targeting the Right Beneficiaries in CSR and Development, in collaboration with TNP2K (The National Team for Acceleration of Poverty Eradication)
•    Workshop 2: Private Sector Roles in Employment and Income Generation, in collaboration with TNP2K (The National Team for Acceleration of Poverty Eradication) and Accenture
•    Workshop 3: Ensuring Ethical Business: Positioning Indonesia in ASEAN, in collaboration with ASEAN CSR Network
•    Workshop 4: Private Sector Roles in Disaster Risk Reduction, in collaboration with Planas DRR (National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction)

On the second day, this forum focused on how to empower youth as potential assets in business. Elvera Makki from Citi Indonesia, Utami Anita Herawati from Prestasi Junior Indonesia, Veronica Colondam from YCAB Foundation, and Mirthley Aponno from IBL shared their experiences on youth empowerment programs. On the next session,  Yanti Triwadianti as the Executive Director of IBL facilitated a learning forum on  how to facilitate cross sector partnership for development. This learning forum also involved the participants from NGOs, corporate, government officials, and academicians to discuss the challenges and their experiences in doing partnership. Yanti Triwandiantini emphasized the importance of understanding and mutual trust in doing partnership in order to achieve the mutual benefits.

The Chairman of IBL, Heru Prasetyo, emphasized that AFIRB is a place to show positive proof that CSR is about mutual benefit and shared value, not merely charity. “We need to improve the partnership for development among business sector, government, and civil society. We need to take further step from dialog to real action, especially in transparency, preparedness in facing disaster and youth empowerment.”

Lily Widjaja as the Conference Director explained that AFIRB was an opportunity to share how to build real action, understand the challenges and the importance of inter generation approach, and also ensure that achieving prosperity will not fail because of corruption and natural disaster.

You can download the materials from our speakers through this link: DOWNLOAD the presentasions here.

You can also find the photos documentation in our Facebook fan page Indonesia Business Links (IBL).