Jogjakarta, 15 July 2019 – The Department of Social Development and Welfare of FISIPOL UGM held the 21st Biennal International Conference Of International Consortium for Social Development (ICSD) titled “Strengthening Social Development to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”. The conference brought 250 presenters from 28 countries and took place from 16 July to 19 July in Universitas Gadjah Mada.
Manohar Pawar as the president of ICSD, who hails from Charles Sturt University Australia, expressed his appreciation for FISIPOL’s hard work in bringing ICSD’s international dialogue. ICSD, that have been going on since the 1970s, has the main goal of building social consciousness on sustainable development. “Even though ICSD have been held in almost 50 years, ICSD is still relevant because of the various social problems that also increase. The most important point from ICSD is looking at the potential of human resource,” said Manohar Pawar.
Other than that, David Androff from Arizon State University, United States, stated that conferences become an important activity in making policy formulation. “Since its independence through the Bandung Conference, Indonesia has been experiencing vast development in the aspect of democracy, and even have been an example for other countries. Through ICSD, together we can strengthen tools to achieve the aim of SDGs,” said David. The main recommendation that is proposed by David is social protection policy and the increase of public institution through social equality as important entities, especially in South States.
Through ICSD, five main things are going to be discussed. First is regarding social justice. Second, is the improvement in the standard of living, third is regarding gender equality, fourth is on social development that is environmentally oriented, and lastly is to improve public leadership for peace and human rights.
FISIPOL UGM’s Dean Erwan Agus Purwanto said that Indonesia, as a part of the global community needs to present international dialogue. As a World Class University, Universitas Gadjah Mada, together with FISIPOL and the Department of Social Development and Welfare are committed to be the academicians to the world’s society that supports governmental vision that focuses on human development.
Janianton Damanik, the Chief Executive of the 21st ICSD added that UGM’s mission as a World Class University is done through the improvement of its collaboration with international institutions and also introducing to society that the campus has a significant concern toward the resolution of social issues.
Responding to the issue that Indonesia is experiencing increase in GDP but also with an increase in inequality, Manohar stated that Indonesia can improve its human resource aspect through education with local style. In line with Manohar, Erwan stated that local institutions can cooperate with each other and manage the existing potentials, especially in the era of digitalization that produces digital literacy that has huge potential in developing human resource. Through ICSD, it is hoped that the reasearch that comes from various backgrounds and cross-countries can push the acceleration of development, exchange of knowledge, and constructive collaboration.