I started the year with CLOCC (Clean Oceans through Clean Communities) in Indonesia, where the hugely impressive team is putting in the hard work to change hearts and minds about waste management.
Why does their approach work?
🤗 People-centric. An approach that embraces the human side of waste is going to win-out every time over a technology-first approach. Any kind of infrastructure is still going to need residents to understand what’s required of them, to participate, and to be willing to pay. Start with the hearts and minds and the rest follows.
🐌 Slow. We all know the story of the tortoise and the hare, right? 🐢 🐰 Big changes don’t happen overnight. Transformational change is a long game. Be patient. Stick with it. Keep going, little-by-little, step-by-step. Never lose sight of your goal. When you take time making sure the foundations are secure, whatever you build after that will be much more steady.
🦉 Sympathetic. Do people want this? I mean, do they really want it? Why? What’s in it for them? What are their priorities? Their needs? How can we design a waste management system with, around, and for this village? Local ownership is key. People have to want it. There’s no forcing any kind of system onto anyone – it doesn’t work. Focus on the local benefits, in the language of the people who actually live there. This can be quite different to donor-speak.
🕸 Innovative. There are a great many shared challenges with waste management, but they needn’t become universal barriers. Try lateral thinking approaches such as Edward do Bono’s “Po”. You never know what novel ideas you will generate. It’s best to do this in a group with plenty of local representation. The CLOCC team have come up with some really exciting ideas and we can’t wait to try them out….
Thanks to all the team for your hospitality and your pioneering spirit! ✊ 🏆 ♻ 🤗 Here’s to another year of growth 🌴 🌴 🌴
To learn more about this approach visit the website of local implementing partner Yayasan Rijig Pradana Wetan.