Story From the Field: Recognizing Locals Right to Transform Lives

Providing equal energy access sustainably and reaching the most rural places in Indonesia has always been a challenge, particularly to maintain decentralized power stations due to the lack of ownership of the local communities. Poor maintenance, willingness to share the energy service costs, stealing, and destruction of built facilities are some of the issues needed to address communal rural electrification development. 

On the other side, people's participation in the energy transition is a crucial driver for reducing energy inequality and accelerating emission reduction, as an essential part of sustainable development. "For Indonesia, the energy transition is at the core of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The energy transition is very crucial in ensuring the SDGs goals," said Arifin Tasrif, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, virtually, Monday (15/3) evening at Global Commission on People-Centred Clean Energy Transitions, organized by the International Energy Agency (IEA). On that occasion, Arifin said that this plan was essential to accelerating emission reduction and involving and empowering the community in the energy transition process.

To ensure the fair and voluntary involvement and empowerment of the community in the clean energy development, the Accelerating Clean Energy Access to Reduce Inequality (ACCESS) project, an initiative of rural electricity development under the partnership of MEMR and UNDP Indonesia, with funding support from Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) performed the FPIC process.

The Free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) aims to establish bottom-up participation and consultation of an indigenous population before developing on community land or using resources in an indigenous population's territory. With the process, communities will be adequately informed about development projects promptly and have the opportunity to approve or reject these projects free from undue pressure. 

Community of Wangkolabu (30/9) in Muna Southeast Sulawesi held a meeting on the ACCESS Project plan for the Free, Prior and Informed Consent consultation.

The ACCESS Project meets and consults with the community leaders, local government officials, and all community groups in every 23 villages to ensure that the local stakeholders at the project sites receive adequate information about the project, including the process, benefits, the grievance mechanism, as well as the risks and consequences. 

"In my village, we worked with the local church's youth to distribute information and raise people feedback." Said Marcel S. Mega, village facilitator from Eka Pata Village in East Nusa Tenggara. He also consults with women groups about the project. In his village, 2 of 9 village representatives for the FPIC consultation are women. In total, 275 village representatives from 23 villages (201 men and 74 women) participated in the village consultation and gave formal consent for the ACCESS Project in their respective villages.

Initially, FPIC is a mechanism developed under international law. The 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) recognizes FPIC as an aspect of indigenous peoples' right to property, cultural rights, and self-determination. The affirmation of the requirement for indigenous peoples' FPIC emerges from the jurisprudence of the Human Rights Committee, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, and the Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights.

But now, FPIC is emerging more broadly as a principle of best practice for sustainable development and adopted by various organizations, including private sectors, to manage their social risks in the development projects. "When implemented effectively, FPIC has huge support for the sustainability of the facilities provided," said Mathilde Sari, the National Project Manager of the ACCESS Project. "FPIC represents a critical tool in the realization of indigenous self-determination, promoting community participation in decision-making and mitigating the risk of social conflict around natural resource projects."

The Project Role in Protecting Local Rights

• The ACCESS Project is conducted in compliance with the UNDP Social and Environmental Standard
• ACCESS provides gender-based training for all the village facilitators and maintains a "Pocket Book" guidance for stakeholders inclusion, including the free, prior, and consent mechanism. The project also provides a grievance mechanism and a whistle-blowing system to address public concerns.
• Through its monitoring and reporting system, ACCESS raises awareness and advocates for effective gender equality and social inclusion.

Author: Salman Nursiwan, Monitoring and Outreach ACCESS Project