Mr. Ivjyot Singh and Ms. Simren Singh, Program Officers of ICA-AP went on an exposure visit to Indonesia from August 5-8. The objectives of the visit were to: understand the motivation of young individuals in furthering the cooperative model, look for partners for the Global Cooperative Entrepreneurs (GCE) Youth Ambassadors’ training, understand the incubators set up for cooperatives and further partnerships in the context of research such as mapping of cooperatives.
Our first stop in Indonesia was at DEKOPIN, our member organization, where we met Mr. H. Muhammad Sukri, Secretary General, Mr. Ilham Nasai, Manager (International Relations), and young members from the Youth Co-operators Communication Committee. The representatives of DEKOPIN briefed us about the role and functions of DEKOPIN, its current activities on promoting cooperatives amongst youth and the overall national cooperative movement in Indonesia.
ICAAP staff with DEKOPIN Secretary General and the Youth Co-operators Communication Committee, Jakarta.
Our next stop in Jakarta was at Kopindo, an organization representing the Indonesian youth cooperative movement. Mr. Pendi Yusup, Chairperson of Kopindo shared the vision of creating cooperative cadres to develop future leaders, and presented Kopindo’s work on ‘Rebranding Cooperatives’ via popular methods like Vox Pop, digital platforms, etc.
Day 2 began in Purwokerto where we took part in pitches made by cooperative start-ups. Pedi Help stood out the most as it provides a platform where one can request household maintenance services like carpentry, gardening, etc.
ICA-AP staff with the team of Innocircle Innitiative and young founders of cooperative start-ups incubated by them.
Later in the day, we attended a focus group discussion organized by the Indonesian Consortium of Cooperatives Innovation (ICCI) on the theme “Rejuvenating Cooperatives through Innovation”. We shared our current engagement with youth highlighting GCE, the ICA-AP committee on youth cooperation and the global research on youth. The event was attended by people from different backgrounds like academic institutions, business groups, community leaders, government officials and media.
On Day 3, we met the team from Innocircle Initiative of Kopkun to understand the incubation ecosystem of cooperatives in Indonesia. The same day we traveled to Yogyakarta where we visited Koperasi Edukarya Negeri Lestari (KEN8). The primary cooperative has its own coffee brand ‘Wikikopi’, which they promote through their cafes. The most striking feature of this cooperative was the participation of members in terms of their skills and not in terms of their monetary contribution. We also visited a co-working space, which though privately owned, hosted a cooperative cafeteria.
The Antologi collaborative space.
Our last day started by addressing the students of Mercu Buana University, Yogykarta, via a seminar on “New Model of Cooperatives in Indonesia.” We spoke about different existing models in the Asia Pacific Region such as shared-service cooperative model, multi stakeholder cooperative model, etc. Speakers from Indonesia threw light on new emerging models of cooperatives in Indonesia. Our last pit stop was visiting Kopma, a student cooperative in Universitas Gadjah Mada. One interesting highlight of this cooperative was that it had a very sound and robust operational structure that any enterprise aspiring idealism would envy, thus, making it a perfect case study.
To conclude, one can say that the Indonesian youth involved in cooperatives, truly own the cooperative movement. Young people don’t just see cooperatives as an enterprise which may give them a livelihood but truly believe in the social and community aspect of the cooperative. The emerging trends were not a result of a transition that had happened overnight but one that has been a result of democratic deliberations of different stakeholders who believe in economic democracy as a solution to emerging problems of the new world.
