Background

The Government of Indonesia has prioritized 10 tourism destinations across the country which is called “the next 10 Bali’s”. A large amount of funding has been allocated to transform these areas to be world class tourism hot spots. In addition to developing the infrastructure such as roads, airports and ports, it is also paramount to develop the capacity of local human resources and involve local communities in tourism activities so that benefit of tourism promotion reaches local people through employment and business opportunities.

The ILO, the UN specialised agency with the mandate of promoting Decent Work, has accumulated knowledge and experiences relevant to tourism sector development: eco-tourism and green jobs, skills development and local economic development. It intends to contribute to employment creation in the tourism-related sectors and support Indonesia’s transition to a sustainable economy by sharing its expertise and collaborating with its tripartite constituents – the government, workers’ and employers’ organizations on the priority national tourism development initiative.

During a meeting between the Minister of Coordinating Ministry of Maritime Affairs (CMMA) and the ILO Country Director in January 2019, the Minister requested the ILO to design and propose a pilot project on sustainable tourism development in collaboration with his Ministry. Both parties at the outset conducted a joint scoping missions in Lombok and Lake Toba area in order to discuss project concept with local stakeholders and gather necessary information for project conceptualisation. Subsequently, a validation workshop was organized jointly by the CMMA and ILO in April 2019 by inviting all stakeholders from Lombok and Lake Toba as well as relevant stakeholders from the national level.

As follow-up to the validation workshop, the ILO together with CMMA has agreed to continue to co-organize capacity building activities in Lake Toba and Lombok island for business, particularly, small and medium enterprises in the tourism sector. The said activity would utilize an existing ILO training tool that has been widely used in Indonesia which is the SCORE HoCo module. The module itself aims to support SMEs in national and global supply chains improve productivity and working conditions and provide decent work.

Purpose

The large majority of employment for both women and men is found in SMEs and the key to sustainable economic development that leads to effective poverty reduction lies in competitive and growing SMEs. Based on current research shows that innovations in work organization, continuous workplace learning, good labour-management relations, and respect for workers’ rights are important ways of raising productivity while also promoting decent work. The issue that this activity will address is to foster responsible and sustainable workplace practices, economic, social and environmental in SMEs in order to improve their productivity and competitiveness in a manner that contributes to sustainable economic development. By building the capacity of local businesses and workers, they could benefit from the tourism activities.