Publications

There is increasing pressure, both from governments and from investors for all businesses in Indonesia to implement sustainable development principles, including oil and gas (O&G) companies. Engaging stakeholders, especially local governments, in an accountable and professional manner is necessary to apply sustainability principles to business and corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs. Engaging local government is easy to contemplate but almost always somewhat harder to undertake. It requires courage, patience and determination over time. There is rarely a quick fix solution to a problem and initial attempts sometimes can be a frustrating and disappointing experience - falling short of initial hopes and expectations. But it does not have to be that way.There is mounting evidence from stakeholder engagement initiatives in different areas of Indonesia (e.g. Musi Banyuasin Regency and East Kutai Regency) that such approaches can be highly effective and sustainable when designed, developed and managed in a systematic way.We would like to share our experiences in developing a multi-stakeholder engagement approach and initiatives with two local governments. The objectives of the initiative were to (a) increase CSR and sustainable development planning and management awareness with local governments, (b) strengthen local communitys capacity for developing a preventive peaceful offcourt conflict mediation mechanism, (c) strengthen the capability of local government, private sector, community, and civil organizations to improve public services, especially pertaining to health and education, and (d) improve the aptitude of local government, community and economic institutions to create a better business environment for private investment.Based on our experience, there are four main stepsto develop accountable and sustainable stakeholderengagement initiatives: (1) identify thestakeholders, what their interests are, and how theywork, (2) develop an appropriate stakeholderengagement model, (3) set up a stakeholderinstitution through a participatory process, and (4)develop plans of action to meet sustainabilitychallenges.