ILO: Coastal communities are enabling key to Indonesia’s blue economic development and implementation

Michiko Miyamoto, Country Director for the ILO in Indonesia and Timor-Leste, joined fellow development experts in presenting perspectives at the G20 Side Event Seminar on the Development of Indonesia’s Blue Economy Roadmap held on 7 September in the Island of Belitung. Opened by Suharso Monoarfa, Minister of National Development Planning (Bappenas), the seminar featured presentations from international contributors, including UN Resident Coordinator for Indonesia, Valerie Julliand and Marine and Coastal Ecosystems Programme Officer of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Ole Vestergard.

The seminar set out to propose and promote the Blue Economy Roadmap as a solution to support Indonesia’s economic transformation at the national level and to explore best practices as well as success stories supporting Blue Economic Development. The event preceded the main meeting of the Development Working Group under the Indonesian G20 Presidency.

Human capital is a resource that is currently underutilized within Indonesia’s Blue Economy."

Michiko Miyamoto, Country Director for the ILO in Indonesia and Timor-Leste

The majority of Indonesia’s population, ranging from 65-70 percent, live in coastal areas, with a large proportion of these reliant on ocean-based sectors for their livelihoods. Thus, in her presentation, Michiko focused on the potential of the Blue Economy Roadmap to create jobs and improve livelihoods in coastal communities in Indonesia, as part of a human-centred recovery from the pandemic.

“Human capital is a resource that is currently underutilized within Indonesia’s Blue Economy,” she stated, explaining that coastal communities should be considered key enablers of blue economic development implementation, as well as one of the main beneficiaries of a more inclusive and sustainable maritime economy.

She also used the examples from the ILO Skills for Prosperity Programme in Indonesia, funded by UK government, to show how local skills development partnerships have stimulated the new micro-businesses in sustainable coastal tourism. “The majority of participants supported through the programme have been women, most of whom are earning an income for the first time,” she explained.

She added that the programme has been delivered in North Sulawesi, which includes the Super Priority Tourism Destination of Likupang. “Budo village, one of the communities supported through the programme, has already been recognized by the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy as one of Indonesia’ top 50 tourism villages. It is now a popular mangrove eco-tourism destination, beginning to attract international as well as domestic visitors.”

The Skills for Prosperity programme has also demonstrated how international academic cooperation can begin to create positive change through skills transfer and capacity building through Indonesian institutions as well as helping to establish them as Centres of Excellence. In addition, the programme has established partnerships between four Indonesian polytechnics and four international academic institutions – each focused on a different sector of the maritime economy: Coastal Tourism, Shipbuilding, International Logistics and Seafaring.

In the city of Manado, North Sulawesi, where the programme focuses on delivering local economic support for sustainable tourism, University of Gloucestershire in the UK has worked with Polimanado and the University of Klabat. Their role has been to support academic research and build the capacity of the institutions to play a greater part in supporting local community participation in the tourism industry; while encouraging students and teachers to learn and develop through the community-based activities.