🇸🇬EdTech Blog: Desamind's IYouth Conference on Village SDGs 2022

special Virtual Background for Speakers

Yesterday, I was invited by an Indonesian Youth Leader, Hardika, to speak on 'Impactful Youth on Global Partnership' at a Youth Conference on Village Sustainable Development Goals. I met Hardika, a fellow Youth Participant in the Ship For Southeast Asian and Japanese Youth Programme (SSEAYP) Virtual Conference in 2021. It was quite an experience speaking to 200+ participants (there were 400 registrations from countries besides Indonesia, including Hong Kong, Uzbekistan, and Malaysia). A small number of participants were still in high school, while the vast majority were undergraduate students. They come from a variety of organisations, including campus student organizations, local/international youth organizations, and a few come from the public sector.

Ensuring the ability to think global and act local

Event Background

The number of youths in Indonesia aged 16-30 years is 23.86% (64.5 million) (BPS, 2020). Nearly 1/4 of the population is youth and 42.7% of the total youth are living in rural areas. Desamind realizes that the future of our nation lies in the hands of our younger generation through embracing each other and uniting the determination. In addition, with our virtuous goals for advancing rural communities mindset and encouraging them to be literate towards civilization. Thus, we believe that the young generation plays a crucial role in village development in Indonesia. This is in line with Bung Hatta's statement, "Indonesia will not shine because of one big torch in Jakarta, but because of many small candles in the rural”. Organization and participation in youth social activities in Indonesia are growing rapidly (UNWTO, 2016).

In addition to this background, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - a sustainable development program with 17 goals, which are a global development agenda aimed at human welfare and earth planet. Ministry of Village, Development of Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration (Kemendes PDTT) adopted the concept of SDGs into Village SDGs with 18 objectives which become development standards in rural areas. Desamind believe in the need to increase awareness and insight about the Village SDGs in order to organize and measure development activities in the village. The SDGs will end in 2030 (9 years to go), but there are still many targets that have not been achieved yet. The role of young people in the SDGs is very important (Kominfo, 2021).

If we collaborate with various youth organizations/communities, more and more young people will be involved. Welcoming the Y20 activities and the chairmanship of Indonesia in the G20 in 2022.

DesaMind: At a Glance

Desamind was first initiated on January 5, 2020 in Surakarta and officially launched on March 8, 2020. Desamind obtained the legality as Desamind Indonesia Bercahaya Foundation (or Yayasan), hereinafter referred to as Desamind, on April 15, 2021 from the Ministry of Law and Human Rights of the Republic of Indonesia with the number AHU-0014086.AH.01.12. Desamind’s secretariat is located at Safira Waru Housing No. E6 Baki Sukoharjo Central Java, Indonesia. Desamind is a non-profit organization that operates as a development partner of rural communities in education and social affairs in an extensive manner; humanity, economy, environment, to form an advanced, competitive and civilized society.

Despite in a relatively short amount of time, Desamind has achieved numerous achievements within our 1.5 years journey includes: providing Desamind Scholarships for five (and still counting) students to become agents of change in their own village, has seven (and still counting) Desamind Chapters (Rokan Hilir, Majalengka, Bogor, Bandung, Purbalingga, Solo Raya, Jogja), has 12 Regional Lilin-Lilin Desamind (LLD) Community from Sumatra to Maluku. In addition, Desamind also has accommodated 11,947 people on participating in 71 Desamind activities (70% of participants came from the village), partnered with more than 128 various parties from organizations/communities/governments; whether youth organization, a professional community, also the village government, then has more than 615 donors, and more than 1500 items were distributed to the community through the Desamind Charity program. Last but not least, we also have our own flagship activities, such as Desamind Scholarship, Desamind Leadership Camp, Mind-Talk, Mind-Cloud & Mind-Stream, Desamind Award, 1000 for Villages, and Charity Program. More information can be found at https://bit.ly/CompanyProfileDesamind.

Topic Raised

This event raised the topic of Village Sustainable Development Goals which are grouped into 3 pillars of sustainable development, consisting of the social, economic, and environmental sectors. The VSDGs are derived from 17 global goals that are focused on the rural scope, thus it has one additional objective which is classified into the social sector (the 18th goal). However, the committee does not limit it to only referring to the Village SDGs, but also SDGs in general as listed below. The explanation of the SDGs in the village scope adopted from the global SDGs by the Ministry of Villages, Development of Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration of the Republic of Indonesia (Kemendes PDTT RI) can be accessed on the following page https://sdgsdesa.kemendesa.go.id/sdgs- village.

Scope of Material

Importance of empowering youth with a progressive community and its connection with SDGs
Education challenges throughout the world and its solution that can be made by youth activists
Engaging in strategic youth through thought and action, and nurturing leaders of tomorrow.

As I listened to the Opening Speech by Pak Imam (in Bahasa Indonesia), I began reflecting on my prepared pointers and my experiences interacting with youth from different parts of the world. Ever since my high school days, I had the opportunity to host and befriend groups of youth from different cultures and ethnicities and in fact, even now I am in a Leadership Development Program (by Atlas Corps) that spans several continents (includes participants from India, Brazil and more).

It is critical that youth are willing and open to learning from others even if it is beyond their comfort zone. One should adopt the growth mindset and think global whilst starting small by acting local with scaling in mind. I am reminded of Somkiat Kamolpun (Cho) who was our (mine and Hardika's) facilitator at SSEAYP. He is an education officer at the Office of the Higher Education Commission (OHEC), Thailand. I appreciated his wisdom in making us think about how SDG 4 on Quality Education affects the other SDGs. As extracted from https://www1.undp.org/content/singapore-global-centre/en/home/sustainable-development-goals/goal-4-quality-education.html; "Achieving inclusive and quality education for all reaffirms the belief that education is one of the most powerful and proven vehicles for sustainable development." This means that achieving goals or targets in SDG 4 will help with the progress of the other SDGs too. Imagine a world where all girls and boys complete free primary and secondary schooling by 2030 and there is equal access to affordable vocational training, gender and wealth disparities are eliminated, and access to a quality higher education is universal. Such a world would have empowered and educated youth who would be willing and able to contribute to their chosen cause or specific SDGs and more can be achieved together this way.

Also, as an educational technologist, I believe that technology is an enabler and it enhances the power of education as a social leveller. Thus, I do what I can within my locus of control to leverage meaningful technology for teaching and learning at different levels as well as the holistic development of those within my reach. I make games and online adventures to engage the young and pique their curiosity and learn more. These develop their love for learning so that they learn for life. Hence, I'd like to pitch to everyone in the audience to pick up skills and explore adjacent or lateral areas so that in the intersection you may find opportunities to innovate or create something new (and beautiful). Not everyone needs to be an entrepreneur and solve world problems through business solutions, you can also be an intrapreneur and utilise your networks and limited resources to address some of the smaller or closer problems or issues around you first and then look for opportunities to grow your ideas further.

I got a question from Yuda from Bogor who mentioned that many youth in Indonesia are stuck in majors that do not have jobs or are hesitant to switch majors because of lack of interest or passion. I challenged him and those in the audience who were struggling to think about interdisciplinarity and to upskills in sunrise skills like data analytics rather than going for more certifications for the sake of it. They should also see how their skills can be transferrable and that there are opportunities for innovation when they explore how two subject matters intersect. I also shared how different countries have different circumstances so the ability to synergies and learn from good practices go a long way. I encouraged everyone to be agile lifelong learners at the individual level and contribute consistently (even if in small ways) at the community or society level. I hope that we can have more conferences like this in the future to facilitate the meeting of minds at this level.