ACCESS shared the Collaboration Stories at Rumah Resiliensi Indonesia

The ACCESS Project participated in the Rumah Resilensi Indonesia (RRI) event at the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (GPDRR) event in 2022 in Nusa Dua Bali. Along with other disaster management-related projects in UNDP Indonesia, ACCESS exhibited information and stories on how the project supports community resilience in remote villages in East Nusa Tenggara, Southeast Sulawesi, West Sulawesi, and Central Kalimantan.

ACCESS National Project Manager, hosted a story-telling session with Rani Eka Huang, Solar-PV Power Plant local operator from Muara Ripung Village Barito Selatan Central Kalimantan, and Eddy Ratno Susanto, Patriot Energy ACCESS Program at the Ignite Stage of the RRI, and invited Rani and Eddy to share their stories from the field on how access to electricity through ACCESS and access to the internet through BAKTi Kominfo helped to increase resilience in their communities.  

"I joined and applied as a local operator because I want to help people in the village get electricity," said Rani. "I thought only men were allowed to run a power plant, but then I knew that women can." Rani is one of 23 women recruited and passes the selection as a local Solar-PV power plant operator. With 30 other operators from remote villages receiving support from the ACCESS Project, Rani was trained and certified as a power plant operator by the Human Resource Development Center (PPSDM) Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.

Eddy Ratno Susanto was deployed in October 2021 for 18 months of community outreach activities at the Muara Ripung village residents to develop, operate, and maintain the Solar-PV power plant granted by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) through the ACCESS Project. "We conduct community consultation and meetings regularly," said Eddy. "Through these meetings, we identify the community potential and risk. Including exposure to natural disasters. These findings, translated into a social map and will be beneficial to support the local community resilience against disaster."

Rumah Resilensi Indonesia is a group of activists and communities concerned about disaster risk reduction in Indonesia. The Coordinating Minister of Human and Culture Development opened the group with the hope that it would facilitate information and innovation collaboration among its members to improve the country's resilience against disaster.

"This spirit of collaboration is the key message we want to share with the audience," said ACCESS representative. Using the story-telling approach on the stage, she shared stories from the local communities in Muara Ripung village and the project partnership with other Indonesian government agencies as an example of a working collaboration. Under collaboration with the BAKTi KOMINFO, ACCESS provides not only electricity but also internet access. The project provides electricity to run the internet infrastructure, and the internet supports the remote monitoring process of the electricity service. At the international level, Indonesia and Timor-Leste exchange information and support to develop clean energy access.