Skip to main content

Day 20: Special Envoy; WRI

We met the Special Envoy to the President on Climate Change. We discussed Indonesia's international obligations on climate change, and what they were doing about it. Some of the issues raised included
  • Role of the subnational governments in the formulation and implementation of climate change policy i.e. they should be a part of the conversation; as should private sector, academics, universities and research institutions
  • Climate change + development goals (SDGs): adaptation; mainstreaming development goals; national adaptation plan
  • EcoMosque Program: received awards; save water, energy and proper waste management
  • Youth want to be taken seriously in the conversation about climate change
  • Blue carbon: marine ecosystem conversation
  • Enforcement of climate change not popular because it feels like punishment
  • Need to find the middle way between development and conservation

Afterwards, we went to WRI where we met Pak Koni who is the current director. He gave a talk about the One Map Policy that WRI has been working on. Some of the issues highlighted include:
  • Base line mapping i.e. moratorium map has been established
    • This is free, and can be downloaded as a shapefile
    • 85 thematic maps to be overlain atop the moratorium map
  • Issues with sharing information between ministries, hence having overlapping concessions.
  • Forest governance is weak
  • Need to engage stakeholders: private sector, communities, indigenous people, villages
    • Requires conflict resolution, which is difficult to accomplish
  • It's in the Economic Ministry because the government recognizes the economic return of having One True Map
    • Legal certainty = better business
  • WRI: assisting governance improvement process: inclusivity, participatory, transparency
  • Indicative one map becomes Definitive One Map
  • Planned completion 2019 of a spatial plan
Labels:
Location: Jakarta, Indonesia

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Opportunities and challenges presented by the AfCFTA

President Kenyatta joined other African heads of state on March 21 in signing the #AfCFTA. What does this mean for Kenya? It means that Kenya's goods and services could have a broader market to sell to. It also means that locally made goods and services will face increased competition from similar products in the African market, especially if other countries have a comparative advantage. What is the projected net effect of these two sides of trade? Well, it's difficult to predict. It depends on which goods are on the schedule of reduction of tariffs both for other countries and Kenya. Pres. Kenyatta signs the AfCFTA Image courtesy of PSCU   Looking at other similar regional pacts such as North America's #NAFTA or the EU, we can see that trade between countries increases many fold. But as in the case of Mexico which saw the bankrupting of peasant farmers due to cheap corn and other agricultural produce from subsidized American farms, the aggregate effect might be po...
Post a Comment
Read more

How well-meaning parents ruined us

Growing up, it was common for our parents to encourage us and tell us how we could be anything we wanted in life. "You can do anything you set your mind to do!" They would cheer us on. "Even the president?" We'd ask unconvinced. "Yes, you could even become the richest man in the world!" All this fascinated us. We vowed to ourselves that we'd in fact become people of substance who would be recognized in the entire world for our achievements. We'd ride in super-yachts like Abramovich and the rest of the mega-rich. We would produce life changing inventions, innovating our way to stardom. We'd become the next prodigy in music and sports. All this is well and good, meant to lift our spirits. Assessing our lives however, no matter how much effort we have put in to realize our dreams and visions, they have eluded us. We have become adept at doing other things though: commenting on FB posts, retweets, identifying the hottest political issue...
Post a Comment
Read more

Look, I am become a diplomat

"You speak very good English, where did you learn?" a person I just met asks. "In Kenya, in school…" I calmly reply. "Wow! You speak English in Kenya?" He continues. "Oh yes, we do …" The conversation goes into how we do (not) live with lions as pets and how I don’t run like "all" other Kenyans they've seen on TV. If you are wondering, this is an actual conversation I have had with persons I have met here in the US. This is not to say every conversation I have had goes this way. On the contrary, in the greater Washington metropolitan area where I live, this is the exception. Any time I have to field questions about Kenya, however, I feel as if the responsibility to represent Kenya and communicate its brand is upon my shoulders. This is despite not getting any training on this aspect of my travel experience. Some other well-meaning people have said, once hearing I am from Kenya, that they visited Uganda, Rwanda, Bots...
Post a Comment
Read more