Women and Sustainability

Speakers

• Tri Mumpuni, Director, IBEKA
• Ayesha Barenblat, Director, Stakeholder Collaboration, BSR (Moderator)

Highlights

• IBEKA is investing in hydropower to introduce electricity into rural communities and help alleviate poverty by creating income-generating activities. The hydropower plants are managed by community cooperatives, formed mainly with women who manage the revenues earned from selling excess energy. They then reinvest those revenues into community-development activities. It is through self-sufficient models like this one that sustainable development is realized.

• In order to increase women’s empowerment in a sustainable way, IBEKA has worked to educate both men and women in local communities on the project’s benefits. In order for the model to be sustainable, it should be adapted culturally and socially according to local norms.

Memorable Quotes

“Electricity is not an end goal. The goal is how this electricity can provide added revenue for community development.” —Tri Mumpuni, Ashoka Fellow, IBEKA Foundation

“We make a one-time investment, and the impacts are sustainable. Every time I talk to any financial group or donor agency, we have to make sure this is not charity. Most government programs are designed to give money, but once you stop helping [communities], they return to poverty. If you create a program that provides sustainable income, this will take them on the path out of poverty.” —Tri Mumpuni, Ashoka Fellow, IBEKA Foundation

Overview

Barenblat introduced Mumpuni, whose organization has built 60 small hydropower plants in collaboration with Indonesian villagers who run them as cooperatives to provide electricity in rural areas. Mumpuni also works with the Indonesian government and the national utility to connect the power plants to a microgrid so that any additional energy is sold to generate revenue to reinvest in community development in the form of schools, hospitals, and roads.

Barenblat asked Mumpuni to describe her vision for IBEKA, and how she secured the seed funding, acquired buy-in from government, and mobilized people in villages to encourage women to run the cooperative.

Mumpuni explained that her efforts to increase access to energy and electricity also help alleviate poverty. Many women in the rural communities where Mumpuni works do not have opportunities to improve their livelihoods, so she looked for ways to provide revenue-generating activities for them. These women could then use their income to invest in community improvements. IBEKA started the process through what she called “social preparation,” using campaigns to educate villagers about the extra value that power generation could bring.

Mumpuni outlined three benefits of this model. First, the hydropower plants provide the necessary energy for household needs and income-generation activities. For instance, women use the time usually spent collecting firewood to generate income-producing patchouli oil, which they sell for a profit. Second, the excess energy is fed back into the grid and sold by the local cooperative, which then decides how to reinvest that revenue into the community through free schooling and free healthcare focused on maternal and infant health.

Third, the revenues are used as seed capital, since many of the rural communities are unable to receive bank loans because of their lack of collateral. Once they have earned the revenue, they are able to set their own lending rules and provide loans to community members at much lower interest rates.

Barenblat asked the audience to use these examples to think about how they provide funding for women’s programs and how to ensure that they are sustainable. Mumpuni explained that local benefits—such as those created by Mumpuni’s organization, which promote sustainable gender equity—can be created by building trust with local partners. It works best when those partners have competency, integrity, and intimacy with the local community. Mumpuni also expressed her hesitancy to work with big foundations or multilateral institutions because she is concerned that the time involved in the proposal and bidding process and the paperwork required throughout the life of the grant cycle take up valuable resources of small organizations.