GMA Brandtalk
Tracking
Archives
Filtered By: Topstories
News
Kickbacks weaken social projects, Indonesian NGO worker says
This year, six awardees from different parts of Asia take center stage in the annual Ramon Magsaysay Awards, the Asian equivalent of the Nobel Peace Prize, to serve as models of leadership and service. In this series, GMA News Online asks each awardee: What can the Philippines learn from your story? Corruption, which plagues both the Philippines and Indonesia, tends to sideline programs that empower communities to run government-given technologies, says an Indonesian non-government organization (NGO) worker who received the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award this year. Tri Mumpuni, who promotes micro-hydropower technology in her country, says that widespread corruption allows governments to produce technologies without any thought for the necessary support systems. 
“It means it’s only the technological aspect, that’s it. They don’t care about the social aspect. They don’t care abut the capability of the community to handle this system," Mumpuni says in an interview with GMA News Online. Worse, many government officials consider social projects as “tools for corruption" that allow them to get kickbacks and enter anomalous deals, says Mumpuni, executive director of the Institut Bisnis dan Ekonomi Kerakyatan in Indonesia. In contrast, she says her group's projects in Indonesia show that technology is not an end in itself but merely a means to an end. (Read her story in the document below) “Electricity is not the main goal, but the potential to build villages that are economically empowered," Mumpuni says in a citation by the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation. Mumpuni advises countries like the Philippines to ensure their projects’ sustainability by involving local communities. (Watch video below) “You have to make sure that the local community that is going to implement the technology could understand very well the technology. They should also prepare themselves to participate in the development process. So they will create their sense of ownership," she says. - KBK, GMA News
OTHER RAMON MAGSAYSAY AWARDEES:
Tri Mumpuni Courtesy of RMAF
OTHER RAMON MAGSAYSAY AWARDEES:
India's ‘listening ear’ seeks to end farmer suicides The twin problems of drought and debt were driving Indian farmers to kill themselves. How did Nileema Mishra, one of the six Ramon Magsaysay awardees this year, stop the farmer suicides in her village?
Solar engineer tells youth: Don’t repeat India’s BPO ‘mistake' India’s call center culture has produced “glorified secretaries" who have become cynical about their future, warns a Ramon Magsaysay awardee from the closest competitor of the Philippines in business process outsourcing.
Indonesian educator trains students to help communities Why should a student go to school? The practical reason, for most Filipinos, is to get employed. But for Indonesian educator Hasainin Juaini, students should also address their community’s needs.
