Eco Bhinneka Muhammadiyah Program begins its fourth year in 2024 to voice the importance of maintaining religious harmony through preserve the environment. The program management team held a meeting in Magelang City, Central Java, on 4-7 March 2024 to reflect on program achievements, strengthen capacity, and formulate activity plans and strategies in 2024. The meeting, which was held for 4 days, was attended by 19 people, at of which 13 people are women.
Magelang City was chosen to carry out this activity because this city again won the award of one of the Tolerant Cities in Indonesia in 2023 according to the Setara Institute, from the results of the 2022 Tolerant City Index (IKT) assessment. Magelang City also won the Adipura category in 2022 from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry. Adipura is an award for cities that have successfully implemented cleanliness management, waste management and reduction, as well as providing green open space.
Eco Bhinneka has carried out joint work carried out by interfaith youth communities in 4 regions: Pontianak (West Kalimantan), Ternate (North Maluku), Surakarta (Central Java), and Banyuwangi (East Java). This program has received attention and support from various parties. So the Stakeholder Mapping and Stakeholder Engagement activities became the two key strategies discussed at this meeting.
“The Eco Bhinneka management team needs to carry out stakeholder mapping. Who will be contacted and who will be invited to collaborate when this program will be implemented,” said Ahsan Hamidi, Eco Bhinneka activist and facilitator of this activity. According to Ahsan, with clear mapping, it can be used as a strength in building networks. “One of the keys to the success of this program is our ability to build the network. Therefore, in the future we do not need to hesitate to establish good communication with the parties,” he continued.
The activity continued with the presentation of the 2024 work plan by Triningsih, Finance and Program Coordinator Eco Bhinneka. “Nationally, Eco Bhinneka has targets that must be met, and there are achievements that must be realized,” explained Tri when explaining the 2024 work plan, which consists of some approaches, such as: Intra-religious, Inter-religious, Extra-religious, Cross Cutting Issues, and coordination consortium activities. “I hope that this year we will get more program harvesting, the impact of the program can be more widespread, and we can document it well so that it can be shared with JISRA Global colleague,” she said.
Makhmud Yunus, who currently serves as Head of the Magelang City Environmental Council (DLH), was also present to share his success story in leading Magelang City to achieve Adipura. He explained that community involvement is the key to successful implementation of programs in communities, including the involvement of religious organizations such as Muhammadiyah.
“We are also trying to collaborate on greening programs, adding green open space, sorting waste, so that it can be implemented up to the Muhammadiyah Business Charity Level, such as implementing Adiwiyata in schools,” said Yunus, who is also active as Chair of the Muhammadiyah Environmental Council, the Local Board of Muhammadiyah (PDM) in Magelang City. He also said that DLH is involved in beautifying places of worship, especially historical places of worship, so that they look neat and clean, so that visitors who come can feel happy and comfortable.
Apart from it being important for Eco Bhinneka to approach various parties using peaceful methods, Hening Parlan as Director of the Eco Bhinneka Muhammadiyah Program conveyed the principles of Stakeholder Engagement which can be carried out by the Eco Bhinneka program management team. “Don’t talk about advocacy or engagement if you don’t learn the policies in it. For example, if we want to approach the Environmental Council, we must first know what the institutions at the Environmental Council are like, what the contents of the policies and programs are, and which ones we want to approach to create synergy,” she said.
Hening also explained the importance of trust building efforts through meetings. “We need to build trust, so that we know each other, understand each other, so that we trust each other. How will an organization trust us if they don’t know us well?” she added.
Furthermore, Hening advised the program management team to prepare other people or friends to be invited or formed as cadres, and involved in Eco Bhinneka. The reason is that in managing the program, according to Hening, a person’s leadership cannot be seen in one year, but must be managed over many years, like passing one ladder and then moving on to the next ladder.
(Dzikrina Farah Adiba)
