Daya Pertiwi Foundation: Improving Economy in Nusa Penida in the Province of Bali

The Daya Pertiwi Foundation refers to “Power that emerges from the Earth.” It was founded by Made Dharsana Polak – and associates – after a realisation that the economic backbone of Indonesia should be made up of small and medium enterprises. Since its creation in the 1980s, it has been a mechanism to bridge differences of economic inequality and the socio-economic gap at a grass-roots level, with a vision to act as an instrument to empower the local communities in which it operates, that is trusted by stakeholders, whilst setting-out to realise the overall objectives of the Daya Pertiwi Foundation, which has an overall mission to increase the quality of life of the marginalized communities by becoming more egalitarian.

By serving the entire community without regard to race, tribe or belief, and by being an organization that applies an ethos of total transparency, the Daya Pertiwi Foundation aims to fight for human beings to live fulfilling lives by developing real economic activities, in the form of an alternative economic community, sustainability, technologies and products, based upon local wisdom and expertise, whilst also supporting enhanced agricultural productivity and creative cottage industry.

In the beginning, their activities were based mostly on good will, but have now attracted support and funding from several European funding agencies and charities, including NOVIB from the Netherlands, a German charity called Bread for the World, and NCOS from Belgium, whilst they have in the past also enjoyed strong support from the European Union.

Domestically, the Daya Pertiwi foundation cooperates with all of the relevant national institutions at local, regional and national levels, as well as all of the related bureau services such as industry, trading and small-scale industry, whilst also working in cooperation with some private sector companies including an airline and a bank.

Today, their partners include several international stakeholders including the ICCO from the Netherlands, as well a merger with the EED and Bread for the World.

A major milestone for the foundation came in 2012 when the United Nations ECOSOC granted Daya Pertiwi a consultative status giving them the right to attend the United Nation’s assembly and placing their representatives in New York, Geneva or Zurich, with privileged access to other UN social development institutions.

Yet having achieved so much, the Daya Pertiwi Foundation is not resting on past glories, nor are they satisfied with their achievements so far and continue to innovate and expand their programs throughout the Indonesian archipelago.

In Nusa Penida, which belongs administratively to Bali province, but lags considerably behind it in their socio-economic development, the programs being run include environmental renovations to plant community forests, involving the local populace as the executors, where, in a bid to empower the local community, Daya Pertiwi has also formed a home industries business group, such as a weaving industry and animal husbandry to support the local communities economy.

Unfortunately for the inhabitants of Nusa Penida, with its dry climate and unfertile ecology, the island lacks the cultural and ecological richness of Bali. As a consequence, it hasn’t benefitted from the larger islands booming tourist development. A hilly region with low precipitation rates irrigation was not possible and land degradation has become widespread, mainly due to previously intense cultivation of unsuitable flora and poorly adapted and understood agricultural techniques, all having resulting in a dearth of productive farming and an acute scarcity of water, felt most keenly in the dry season.

Now with a local economy consisting of mostly of small-scale subsistence agriculture as the major economic activity, as well as fishery and, more recently, seaweed cultivation which constitute the major activities for the coastal population. Thus such paucity of economic opportunity had led to considerable migration to Bali and other parts of Indonesia.

Therefore prior to the Daya Pertiwi Foundation setting-up an integrated rural development project, very few secondary economic activities existed. This has now changed and alternative economic ventures have been flourishing including; livestock, cottage industries, social forestry, handicrafts and the processing of agricultural produce.

The position of women was also markedly less advantageous than in Balinese society more generally, with women still subordinate to their husbands. Thanks to Daya Pertiwi Foundation programs however, this situation has now rapidly ameliorated, with notable differences in social relations between families living in the coastal area, who are in closer proximity to external influences, than amongst the families still living on the hills. Consequently, women are increasingly engaging in economic activities and achieving greater autonomy and economic security over their own lives.

In view of these local environmental and social challenges, the Daya Pertiwi Foundation had to set out and develop strategies to improve local agricultural methods, including a diversification of economic activities aimed at decreasing dependency, such as the optimization of livestock development, a more integrated farming system, using crop by-products as animal feed and the rotation of food crops and leguminous forage crops to increase the local soil fertility, as well as the cultivation of forage crops to enhance agricultural diversification and the development of alternative off-farm production activities, natural resource development via social forestry and other anti-erosion measures, as well as the adoption of a self-help group approach within local rural communities to help cope more effectively with the limitations of the human resources available.

The sub-district of Nusa Penida was also sub-divided into two ecological zones, coastal and hilly, with the specific variations in their distinct ecological characteristics of coastal and agricultural productive potential taken into account and therefore determining their use between coastal and agricultural, with enhanced agricultural yields used to fulfill people’s daily needs such as food preservation to offset the dry-season.

The positive impact of the extensive reforesting program initiated by the Daya Pertiwi Foundation has been dramatic, deploying fruit, foraging and improved soil management methods with a particular emphasis on plants that are best suited to the local environmental and climactic conditions of Nusa Penida, as well as utilizing those that promise to yield the highest economic value, such as cashew net production.

The objectives and goals of this overall program had set out to achieve a palpable improvement in the socio-economic position of the most vulnerable indigenous people, as well as an increase in overall soil fertility and a reduction of forest degradation, whilst at the same time to increase the levels of critical productive soil.

The Daya Pertiwi Foundation enables a more generalized improvement in the overall condition of the physical environment, with improved distribution of the water supply and the fundamental strengthening of the lives of the people of Nusa Penida so as they are better able to lead independent lives and to take empowered roles in the continuing economic development of the islands on a long-term and sustainable basis.

Ultimately, the vision of the Daya Pertiwi Foundation is as a bridging organization, which along with its vision and mission established from the outset of the foundation’s founding, sets out to give inspiration, dignity, independence and material improvement to people’s lives.