Emerging Environmental Leaders

THE PROBLEM

Climate change and environmental protection are key challenges of this century. Indonesia in particular, being one of the most biodiverse places in the world has much at stake both on land and in its waters. The current records show that Indonesia is a world’s leader in deforestation overtaking Brazil and a second-largest contributor to marine plastic pollution that also faces alarming signs of overfishing. Urgent environmental action is needed to protect the region’s critical biological diversity and natural-resources dependent livelihoods, and to mitigate the effects of climate change.

THE SOLUTION

In an effort to address the above problem, the David & Lucile Packard Foundation engaged Kopernik to assess and design options for an Emerging Environmental Leaders Program that provides a range of support to emerging leaders working to achieve environmental and social sustainability in Indonesia. Over the course of the research Kopernik conducted 53 interviews with a range of respondents that included: potential leadership program candidates, past leadership program participants, leadership program implementers, funders and potential host organizations. The team reviewed several studies on the effectiveness of leadership training before developing a comprehensive design for a program that would provide the necessary skills as well as networking and mentoring opportunities to emerging environmental leaders in Indonesia.

THE PROJECT RESULT

Following our research, we found that while a number of leadership programs already exist in Indonesia there’s an appetite among emerging environmental leaders for opportunities to develop hard, soft and transformative leadership skills and for an engaged network of leaders across different environmental sectors that receive continuous networking and mentorship support. Based on the analysis of this research, Kopernik’s experience and understanding of the Indonesian context in addition to collaboration with the Packard Foundation team, a design has been developed for the Emerging Environmental Leaders Program in Indonesia. The proposed leadership program was designed specifically for a diverse audience of emerging Indonesian leaders and would provide its participants with the ability to:

• Form meaningful connections with a diverse group of other emerging leaders in Indonesia;

• Develop a holistic mix of hard, soft and transformative leadership skills needed to lead an organization, team and to influence policy;

• Participate in an active alumni network following the completion of the program that continues to provide peer support over the longer-term;

• Access personalized mentorship to guide in the development and strengthening of individual programs and organization;

• Receive financial support as committed leaders to advance promising projects and ideas.

THE BROADER IMPACT

The leadership project was launched with a wider aim to strengthen the environmental and social sustainability sector in Indonesia, and to lead the development of a set of new organizations and institutions in country. The project seeks to encourage capable and effective leaders that are collaborating to advance important policy decisions and management practices in support of long-term environmental and social sustainability.