Opening the Door for Papuan Women to be Enterprise Leaders

On 4 – 9 of September 2012 we went to Nabire Papua. Physically Papua looks a bit different from the rest of Indonesia. Geographically this is the largest province in the country with high percentage of virgin forest. On the contrary it has the lowest population density, inhabited by 2.851.999 people only. 

Interesting to know that even though it has less than 3 million inhabitants but they have more than 300 ethnic groups with their own distinct culture. Considering the very diverse languages, Bahasa Indonesia is therefore playing a crucial function as intermediary language use by the people to communicate to each other from different ethnicity. Wherever we go we can communicate with Papuan by using simple Bahasa Indonesia.

According to statistical data 31,11 percent of the province population -- or 996.590 citizens – live bellow national poverty line. This means every 3 persons in Papua 1 out of them are poor, such a huge poverty number. Seeing around the villages and the streets we can confirm the high rate of poverty there, people wore very simple and sometime torn cloths and have very poor housings.

However I did not see cases of extreme poverty in term of people having difficulty in getting daily staple foods.  One of the native Papuan, Mr Hey, said that in the province, people do not worry about their foods because they have wide fertile land and people can just plant their foods or collecting herbs from the nearby forest.

The current basic problem of native Papuan therefore are not regarding to lack of food availability. It is more on food habit. Even though their land provides sweet potato, yam and cassava they prefer to consume rice which have to be imported from Java. Second problem is regarding to basic needs and facilities they can’t produced by them self as such cloths, health services, medicines, and education services.

Other important problem for Native Papuan is relating to their lack of competitive urge. Blessed by rich natural resources, fertile land, and easy access to foods, Native Papuans do not worry of food shortage. Thus they do not see the point of saving capital and consequently loss their appetite for economic competition. Instead of saving money, they prefer to invest in social capital. Distributing to their neighbors once they have more harvest in their land. This is among the difficulty for Papuan stay in the highland to develop entrepreneur behavior.  

Under such circumstance Oxfam introduced Enterprise Development Program (EDP). The EDP has quite ambitious objective which is to increase households’ income of indigenous Papuan through local economic development. It is hope that the economic activities will increase family income which at the end will be able to fulfil fundamental rights of indigenous Papuan as such rights to education, health, economic and social justice.   

One of the small enterprises supported by the EDP project is PAME Mandiri. It has the ambition for promoting Papuan organic coffee produced center highlands nationally which therefore will be able to increase the quality life of native Papuan especially women.

I think in the future, PAME Mandiri is potentially growing into a leading coffee producer. First reason is the company strategic location. PAME located in Nabire which considered as easily access town, plays as transit spots for other districts in central Papua to travel outside. PAME Mandiri can also easily access highland Arabica farmers whom stay in nearby mountainous districts of Paniai, Dogiai, Deiyai and Pegunungan Bintang. Second reason is product quality. Fertile land of Papua highland has enabled coffee farmers to grow organic coffee easily. With the technical skills supported by Oxfam, PAME Mandiri is capable to support native Papuans to plant and harvest coffee properly. 

It is the best time for Oxfam to promote native Papuan women leadership in entrepreneurship. Current director of PAME Mandiri is a young native woman named Veni Tanati. Veni together with Roselina Rumbiak – the founders – are very promising in their capability as entrepreneurs. Coming from Papua seashore culture, Veni and Roselina, did not face significant social and cultural problem. On the contrary John Tatogo – one of PAME staffs – faces a more serious problem to change his entrepreneurship spirit. Originally from highland district of Paniai, John has difficulty in saving money and starting an individual business. Under strong communnalism, there is a social pressure for John to share more money for the communal needs.

Considering those socio-cultural context, Oxfam’s EDP program for native Papuans therefore needs to be done step by step with strong dedication of field officers. This is because we are working to transform a big change by introducing entrepreneurship spirit – which normally grows in an individual capitalist environment – into a community still embracing communal culture. I am happy our Papua area office understands the situation completely, and develops strategic programs to address the challenges. Simple programs as such literacy course, personal planning, and family financial management are indeed very important to be introduced to our beneficiaries.

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