Capacity Building for Pundi Sumatra Field Team
Entering the programme implementation, Pundi Sumatra increased the capacity of the Field Staff. They conducted training from 14 to 15 March 2024 at Pundi Sumatra Meeting Room. During this two-day activity, field assistants learnt to conduct participatory studies and methods on the problems and conditions of the assisted communities.
Dewi Yunita, CEO of Pundi Sumatra, explained that field facilitators act as the spearhead of empowerment activities that determine the speed of development in the field. She emphasised that facilitators must have the willingness and concern and continue to cultivate curiosity, creativity, and develop innovations and new approach strategies. Facilitators must try to encourage social change more quickly.
"Facilitators must also be equipped with the ability or master mentoring methods. They are required to understand the assisted community thoroughly, so that they can map the potential and existing problems, so that they can design activities based on the actual needs and situation in the village," said Dewi.
The field team provided training materials on Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) and Free and Prior Informed Consent (FPIC). These two materials became the initial basis for developing programmes in each assisted location.
PRA and FPIC as Approaches to Project Planning and Management
On the first day, participants received material on the concept of PRA and its application by Damsir Chaniago and Riya Dharma as resource persons and training facilitators. The PRA material was divided into two sessions, the first session discussed historical tracking techniques, changes and trends, and the concept of sketch maps. The second session covered the techniques of venn diagrams, seasonal calendars, and cause and effect analysis.
Based on Riya Dharma's presentation, the PRA method is an effective method to foster community participation. This method is a development approach based on community involvement from the beginning of activities, planning, implementation, to monitoring and evaluation.
"When we talk about PRA, the knowledge and problems at the village level will be explored. The long-term results are institutions, and sustainable community actions," Riya said. Furthermore, Riya also explained that the community is positioned as the main actor, while the facilitator is an outsider so that the facilitator should act as a party that refines the arguments of the community.
The PRA techniques presented by Damsir include 1) Tracing the flow of history; 2) trends and changes; 3) Participatory mapping; 4) Transect technique; 5) Garden sketching; 6) Seasonal calendar preparation; 7) Venn diagram; 8) Cause and effect analysis; 9) Livelihood assessment; and 10) Semi-structured interviews.
According to Damsir, to quickly understand these techniques, the ten techniques can be grouped into four points, namely space, time, decision, and flow.
"The time aspect is also related to the seasonal calendar, don't let people be busy holding meetings when it's harvest season, people won't come," he said.
Entering the second day of the training, Pundi Sumatra presented Dr Maroto, S.Hut., M.Hut. as a resource person to fill in the Free Prior Informed Consent (FPIC) material. Maroto explained that FPIC is a process to ensure indigenous or local communities to exercise their fundamental rights that state whether they agree or disagree with an activity, programme, or policy that will be implemented and has the potential to have an impact on areas, resources, and people's lives.
"Usually there will be two socialisations to reach this agreement. The first socialisation only tells you about the programme that will be implemented, not directly asking for approval. Then in the second socialisation we have to answer questions that still arise. From here, there must be an agreement. If there are those who do not agree, we will usually give them a deeper approach," he explained. Marwoto further explains that gender equality must also be included in development programmes, both in terms of voting and the end result.
Introduction to the Institute by the Executive Board
In addition to increasing capacity, the Pundi Sumatra Team workshop introduced the institution that is managed by the Executive Board. Pundi Sumatra's Executive Board consists of Mahendra Taher as chairman, Syafrizaldi as secretary, and Hambali as treasurer. They oversee the running of Pundi Sumatra. The Executive Board runs the institutional activities with an organisational structure that includes top managers to junior staff.
In his presentation, Mahendra Taher explained that Pundi Sumatra was established in 2006 as a programme.
"Our role is very, very different from the NGOs in Sumatra. We manage a number of funds and then we forward them to several NGOs and communities in the village, such as co-operative groups. We give a range of 40 to 120 million, and that's from all parts of Sumatra except Aceh," he said. Furthermore, Taher also shared that the grant distribution activities have only stopped since 2018, at which time the role of fund distribution began to decrease and Pundi Sumatra began to carry out the mandate as a regional facilitator in the TFCA Sumatra programme.
"The first time we moved as an implementor was in 2015 in the Sudung programme," he added. Until now, Pundi Sumatra has 3 ongoing programmes, namely the Cendikia Programme, Sudung Programme, and Kokke Programme (Commodities and Conservation).
The three programmes owned by Pundi Sumatra actually have great aspirations for the welfare of the community and conservation simultaneously. At the end of the meeting, Hambali said that Pundi Sumatra was initially established based on trust and national network.
"Make friends with as many people as possible. Build a wide network, because that is one of the assets for us to grow," Hambali concluded.