Youth is often called the agent of change. To date, there are more than one billion young peoples around the globe. Quoting the Population Census 2020 data published by the Statistic Indonesia, Indonesia population is dominated by young people consisting of millennials generation (25.87 percent) and Z
generation (27.94 percent).
“Youth today is the leader in the future,” said Nataniel Dominggus Mandacan, the West Papua Secretary in his opening speech in the Youth 20 (Y20) Plenary Summit 2022 in Manokwari on 18 June 2022. Young people are the potential that could serve as the driver for a development transformation of a country.
The Y20 Plenary Summit 2022 held in Manokwari here was entitled Diversity and Inclusion. It was the first time for West Papua to host the global summit here. Nurul Hidayah Ummah, Co-chair of Y20 Indonesia 2022 said that young generation survey in the G20 countries shows that three out of four youngsters believed that the diverse and inclusive community are very crucial to create a better and stronger future.
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Creative economy embracing diversity and inclusion values was one of the derivative topics on the hybrid event here. Nurul said that the economic circle and business chain that builds inclusive values by introducing local culture, employing youth and vulnerable group and adopting innovative and sustainable practices are deemed the imperative keys to better economic and social development for the future of Indonesia.
Sandiaga Uno, Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, agreed with the youth aspiration presented in the Y20 global forum. As to him, the existence and involvement of youngsters are very important to build sound and sustainable economic system. Young people are rich with fresh idea, creative, proactive, and can solve problems with innovative approach and have more courage. This is deemed the strong point of young people which is required to boost the state leverage to cope with the various challenges.
“Therefore, to build economy, youth involvement is not only required as workers, but also create jobs, expand the existing opportunity, create, and empower small and medium enterprises (SME),” said Sandiaga.
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Paskalis Awak, a youngster from Tambrauw, West Papua, proved the importance of youth roles in building local economy. With his nine colleagues, Paskalis established Lingkar Jerat Papua cooperative which operated in 2015 with notary legal basis in March 2021. The cooperative runs its business by selling wild board meat from the community. Lingkar Jerat Papua does not merely sell the raw meat but also processes it into sausage.
For people in Papua and Maluku Island, wild boar is one of their daily protein resources. The animal breed very fast with many piglets so they become pests destroying the locals crops. The mammalian here is also one of the predators of turtle eggs along the Tambrauw coastline which jeopardizes the turtle sustainability. The community usually hunts the wild boar. Lingkar Jerat Papua sells the meat with higher prices for the welfare of the community and the cooperative members.
“The cooperative members wages are on daily basis. Any cooperative member selling the meat will get Rp10,000 per kilogram as a commission. We sell the processed meat to people in Sorong and its surroundings,” said Paskalis.
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The toil made by Paskalis with Lingkar Jerat Papua is deemed part of the local youth efforts to contribute the development of creative economy while promoting inclusion. Despite the shocking fact by pandemic and pig flu in Sorong and its greater areas, Lingkar Jerat Papua survives and continues its operation by providing benefits to the surrounding community so far. Paskalis has proved that young people, if they have opportunity, could contribute to the development of economy and promote a more prosperous and sustainable future.
Similarly, the government with the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports commits focusing on building human resource capacity, particularly young generation. Wisler Manalu, the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports’ Deputy Assistant for Partnership and Youth Appreciation, said that youth should do a concrete action to cope with inequality, empower the vulnerable group, and create sustainable growth. “I seriously hope that we can work together to create a better life for the future,” said Wisler closing his speech.
Editor: Nur Alfiyah
