IDF 2019 Volunteers: The Role of Youth in Absorbing Knowledge and Building Experiences

IDF 2019 Volunteers

"As volunteers, we are not only given assignments that must be fulfilled before the deadline, but we are also encouraged to participate actively at the conference and during discussion sessions," said Kartika Fitrianingsih, a volunteer for the Support for Social Media at the Indonesia Development Forum (IDF) 2019. 

Kartika said the committee ensured that the volunteers gained as much knowledge from the two-day event on July 22-23. In addition, according to Kartika, IDF has sent an important message that through any sector, anyone can contribute to Indonesia's development.

"Those who are successful in their respective fields can make a positive impact, for example by empowering small businesses, opening up jobs, inspiring young people. Or what’s more, informing policymaking. "The impact they make to their region will contribute to the whole Indonesia," she continued. 

Kartika is one of a total of 65 volunteers who took part in the two-day IDF 2019 event. They were divided into five occupational categories. Besides helping the social media team, there were also volunteers joining the Support for Parallel Session, Support for IDF Evaluation, Support for Marketplace, and the Bravo Team who assisted participants and speakers with disabilities.

Each category was led by one team captain. Each captain was responsible for ensuring group coordination. The responsibility includes communicating with representatives from the Ministry of National Development Planning / National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) as organizers and representatives from the Knowledge Sector Initiative (KSI) as the main donor for the implementation of IDF 2019.

The volunteers are young people aged between 18 and 23 years old, coming from Jakarta and the surrounding areas. They went through a selection process that started in June 2019. A total of 901 people registered online. Bappenas and KSI were in charge of the selection. The selection criteria include, among others, their experience and motivation for wanting to join the team. The volunteers who passed the selection were then briefed about their assignments and prepared for doing their work at IDF. To ensure that IDF would go inclusive, all volunteers underwent training on how to support persons with disabilities, called GESI (Gender Equality and Social Inclusion) Awareness Training for IDF 2019 Volunteer, which was facilitated by the Bravo Team.

This year was the 2nd time Bravo Team conducted such task for IDF volunteers. To support persons with disabilities in the implementation of the IDF 2019, volunteers had to understand the concept of equality in the world of disability. The volunteers from the Bravo Team continuously conveyed how non-disabled participants interact with persons with disabilities. 

Rizky Pratiwi who became the Captain of the Bravo Team at IDF 2019 expressed her pleasure and pride in joining IDF.

“IDF 2019 is one of the platforms for the government in channeling aspirations to inform policymaking by the Indonesian government," Rizky explained.

Rizky said that he was very impressed with the inclusive implementation of IDF.

"The material discussed was quite comprehensive, and the speakers were from different backgrounds," Rizky added.

Nur Mochamad Rozien Nabila became the Captain in the Support for Parallel Session team. IDF 2019 has provided an important opportunity for him to get to know and interact directly with people from different backgrounds, including the speakers and participants in his favorite session, namely the East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) Special Plenary session.

"The session opened up my insight that all Indonesian citizens have the potential and opportunity to develop their region. Through IDF, my sense of nationalism gets bigger. I was reminded through IDF that every child in the nation has an obligation to care about the country," he added.

The experience of being the Support for Evaluation Team Captain in IDF 2019 left a deep impression for Haniifah Rihhadatul’aisy. Hani and her team were responsible for getting a lot of respondents to survey and process the data.

"During my time as captain, I was very much aware that I had to come earlier than my members did on the D-day. I still remembered that someone from Migunani (implementing institution of the 2019 IDF Evaluation) said that this IDF used state budget, therefore we had to really carry out this survey to the best that we can. This is for the country, of course," said Hani.

In this year’s IDF, Hani admitted that she learned a lot from the implementation of the Marketplace. She said IDF Marketplace was uniquely designed: it was similar to the traditional markets. This market did not sell goods. Instead it sold ideas. According to Hani, this concept was fresh, as it was never used anywhere before.

Hani said, "The owners of the idea presented it well and the results will be recapitulated in the form of graphics. This is indeed the most interesting for me!"
 

Agreeing with Hani, a volunteer from the Support for Social Media team, Muhammad Naufal Maulana, revealed that IDF 2019 turned into a vortex of many ideas.

"Basically, it becomes a forum for initiators to convey their ideas for Indonesia's sustainable development," said Naufal

Naufal said he had the opportunity to interview important international figures, environmental and humanitarian activists, and researchers who were active in their fields to create new ideas and empower the community. The information he obtained during IDF 2019 greatly helped him to explore the subject he liked very much, which is sustainable development. Many of these issues were discussed during IDF 2019.

All 65 volunteers completed the task of making sure that everything could run smoothly during IDF 2019. Minister of National Development Planning / Head of Bappenas, Bambang Brodjonegoro, in his closing remark also conveyed gratitude to them. They are an important part of IDF 2019 which adopted the theme "Mission Possible: Seizing the Opportunities of Future Work to Drive Inclusive Growth."

Thanks to the volunteers. Hopefully, we can continue to develop knowledge for the development of Indonesia!