The spirit of gotong royong is taught to children from a very young age at schools all over Indonesia. It is the Indonesian brand of volunteerism, or communal work—where members of a community gather to accomplish a task. Traditionally, the task could be to fix a neighbor’s home, or build a road or a bridge.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Global Initiatives, Singapore will welcome over 600 business & sustainability leaders, senior government officials, UN agencies, NGOs from across the globe for the Responsible Business Forum on Sustainable Development (RBF) in Singapore on 22-24 November 2016. Large-scale conferences tend to be highly resource-intensive with major sources of greenhouse gas emissions, pollution and waste for the host city and residents. Taking the environmental impact into consideration, the 5th Responsible Business Forum in Singapore sets itself the ambitious target to be Asia’s first Zero Waste to Landfill Zero Emission Event, underpinning its commitment to a sustainable economy not only with the issues addressed in the programme but also in the logistics of putting the event together. This is the first time such efforts have been undertaken at a large-scale business conference in Asia.

In spite of its infamous environmental track record, palm oil has brought considerable prosperity to rural Indonesia. However, as market demands for sustainable palm oil rise, the future remains uncertain for many small-scale oil palm farmers who are dependent on the cash crop. Often unable to afford the capital required to invest in better agronomic practices, which limit the need for further plantation expansion, some small-scale farmers are at risk of being cut out of the market with little alternatives to turn to.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Asia-Pacific Development Effectiveness Facility (AP-DEF) opened a two-day meeting on aid ahead of the upcoming Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation. More than 100 government delegates and development experts are exploring how to design integrated national financing frameworks for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Asia-Pacific. “Domestic sources of finance are emerging as a key driving force for sustainable development in Asia-Pacific,” said Haoliang Xu, UN Assistant Secretary-General and UNDP Director for Asia and the Pacific. “These new sources of finance allow us to expand the existing development cooperation and partnership.”

Imron, a 35-year-old boat driver and a father of two, is a modern day sea gypsy. He is part of the Bajau community in Indonesia’s South East Sulawesi—no longer nomads but still hunting for their food and living in stilt houses above the water. “We are born and die from the sea,” he told me. “We believe that our ancestors are sea animals. When I was born, the elder saw that I was accompanied by a mythical octopus. This means I do not eat octopus and if I am lost at sea, my ancestral octopus will guide me.”

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Indonesia, Statistics Indonesia (BPS), and Rifka Annisa, conducted a survey on health and life experiences in four districts in the provinces of Papua and West Papua. It found the rate of violence against women to be similar to the global statistics—38 percent of women who participated in the study have experienced a physical or sexual violence at least once.

Indonesia is located in the Pacific Ring of Fire where several continental plates collide. As a result, the chain of islands is frequently at risk for earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions. Additionally, Bali and Lombok are categorized as high risk areas according to the Indonesian Disaster Risk Index (2013). Airports in both provinces experienced operations shutdown due to volcanic eruptions from nearby Mount Rinjani in August 2015.

Citizens who are asked for bribes or become victims of other misconduct by judges and other judicial apparatus are now able to report it to the authorities using a new reporting system by the Oversight Body of the Supreme Court.

he Social Good Summit captivated hundreds of tech-savvy youth with inspiring messages about how to take advantage of technology to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Speakers from Maritime and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti to actor and UNDP’s SDGs Mover Reza Rahadian called on young people to get involved, from supporting sustainable fishing to helping remote villages with access to renewable energy to improving the state of education in Indonesia.

Indonesia’s role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals took center stage at a special event at United Nations headquarters this week. The event, jointly hosted by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Government of Indonesia, “Implementing 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: From Global Commitment to Local Action”, took place on the sidelines of the General Assembly where the world meet to discuss global development annually.

Jakarta, Indonesia - Twelve top Indonesian teams presented innovative ideas to Government representatives and social impact investors at the UN offices in Jakarta today. The ideas ranged from a platform to give slums access to waste collection services, to a way to buy used cooking oil from poor households and turn it into biodiesel.

The Indonesian Papua and West Papua provinces are endowed with abundant natural resources and biodiversity. Yet they are unable to convert this into public wealth and have the highest poverty rates in the country—almost three times the national average.

The UN Development Programme (UNDP) has leveraged low-cost innovations, knowledge exchanges between countries in the region, and emerging technologies, to provide new opportunities to some of the most marginalized communities in the Asia-Pacific region, says its 2015-16 Results Report.

Germany’s Deutsche Post DHL Group and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) are once again conducting their joint preventative training, known as Get Airports Ready for Disaster (GARD), from September 5 to 9 at Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport

Jakarta, 29 August 2016 – United Nations Development Programme’s bi-monthly Climate Dialogue this week confirmed that progress has been made towards peatland restoration in Indonesia...

Tangerang, Banten, August 30th, 2016 – United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Indonesia and Indonesia’s Financial Services Authority (OJK) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) today to jointly promote financial literacy and financial inclusion in support of the Sustainable Development Goals.

PEKANBARU – Representatives of the Kingdom of Norway and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) visited Bengkalis and Kampar Districts on August 23 and 24, 2016 to monitor progress of the Community Based Forest Fire Management (CBFFM) program across the two districts.

A milestone agreement between UNDP and the Financial Services Authority (OJK) marks the first step towards harnessing the potential of financial inclusion and unlocking the potential of banking and financial services to reach the Sustainable Development Goals throughout Indonesia.