Yogyakarta, August 30th 2021─The Department of Social Development and Welfare (PSdK) is back with Social Development Talks or SoDeT on Monday (30/8). In a SoDeT titled “Empowerment for Social Mission and Environment: The story of SNV in Empowering Farmers”, the PSdK Department invited the attendees to directly hear the story of SNV as an NGO who empowers farmer with Aang Ilahang as the Rubber Program Manager in SNV.
Aang started his story by giving a short introduction about SNV, both in the global or national case, and the inclusive economy concept that SNV is creating. The inclusive economy concept is implemented through the responsible sourcing from smallholder approach that can improve relations throughout the supply chain and include farmers more. Other than that, the inclusive economy concept is also used to detect unsustainable practices and deforestation in the supply chain.
The responsible sourcing from smallholder approach combines two approaches that are implemented at the same time, which are the pillar of minimum sustainable product requirement as well as the pillar of support for farmers. This approach combines the request from buyers to mitigate risk in the supply chain by supporting small farmers to help them increase their livelihood and production. To make it happen, SNV created efforts to increase farmer’s capacity, both at the individual or organizational level. Aang also said that the actions that SNV is doing is related to the inclusion of companies and the opening of access to the market in order to implement the responsible sourcing from smallholder approach
Other than the general idea of the responsible sourcing from smallholder approach from SNV, Aang also talked more about his experience as the Rubber Program Manager. Several topics that have not been explained were covered in the question and answer session with SoDet attendees. In the closing, Aang underlines the importance of data accuracy because programs are always held based on real data. Discussion was then closed by Rezaldi Alief Pramadha, S.E., M.S.S., a FISIPOL UGM PsDK lecturer as the moderator with a photo session. The recording of this SoDeT can be seen through FISIPOL UGM PsDK’s official Youtube channel.