Building technology to serve the poor is a major challenge in the world today. Technology’s benefits must be brought to people, whatever their status, wherever they are, and in ways they can own and sustain. This is essential to promoting development, addressing poverty, and empowering communities.

For the past fifteen years, a small non-profit organization in the province of Negros Occidental, the Philippines has been addressing precisely this challenge. The ALTERNATIVE INDIGENOUS DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION, INC. (AIDFI) is a social enterprise that tackles the problem of rural poverty by designing, fabricating, and promoting environment-friendly technology which is accessible and income augmenting, for the poor.

AIDFI was initially born out of the social turmoil that accompanied the collapse of the sugar industry in Negros during the 1980s. Hundreds of workers and farmers were displaced and the survival of peasant families was severely threatened. In the wake of this crisis, a small group of social activists which included Auke Idzenga, a Dutch marine engineer, decided to form AIDFI to address the basic needs of the affected farmers. Agricultural production and technology development were their initial strategies, but meager funds and the loss of key members forced the organization to close down. When Idzenga returned to Negros in 1997, however, AIDFI was revived, this time with a clearer focus on innovating technology to help poor, rural families.

AIDFI’s first success came when it redesigned an ancient and largely abandoned technology called the ram pump. The ram pump uses the natural kinetic energy of flowing water from rivers or springs, to push water uphill without the use of gas or electricity. As reinvented by AIDFI, the ram pump can lift water to an upland reservoir, with a volume of 1,500 to 72,000 liters of water per day. Partnering with organizations and local governments, AIDFI does not only introduce machinery, but a whole “social package” which includes community consultation, training of village technicians, transfer of ownership of the water system to the community, and the organization of local water associations to manage the water generation and distribution system.

In introducing the ram pump system to upland communities that do not have easy access to water, AIDFI technicians are able to provide clean, cheap water for household use, livestock raising, aquaculture, and small-scale agriculture. Since reinventing the ram pump technology, AIDFI has fabricated, installed, and transferred 227 ram pumps that now benefit 184 upland communities in Negros Occidental and other provinces across the country. AIDFI has also brought the ram pump technology to help waterless upland communities in other countries; it is now carrying out complete ram pump technology transfer in Afghanistan, Colombia, and Nepal.

AIDFI continues to innovate on technology for the poor. To increase rural incomes, AIDFI has designed and fabricated an essential oil distiller that can process lemongrass into organic oil for industrial users. It transfers this technology to the farmers and provides packaging and marketing support, and a distribution network that now reaches other countries. Going even further, AIDFI has established a “technopark” in their office premises to actually showcase and demonstrate AIDFI-designed technologies that range from cooking and agricultural implements to a biogas plant and a windmill which can generate up to 800 watts of electricity.

In promoting grassroots enterprise, AIDFI has placed the premium on small-scale, accessible, low-maintenance technology that is customized for local needs, energy-efficient, environmentally sound, and one owned and managed by the people themselves. Its struggle to exist as a viable organization has been most trying in both institutional and human terms, but AIDFI has pioneered a way that has already transformed the lives of thousands of rural families.

In electing ALTERNATIVE INDIGENOUS DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION, INC., to receive the 2011 Ramon Magsaysay Award, the board of trustees recognizes their collective vision, technological innovations, and partnership practices to make appropriate technologies improve the lives and livelihoods of the rural poor in upland Philippine communities and elsewhere in Asia.

It’s a great honor for me and the Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation to be here on the stage receiving Asia’s most prestigious award. It’s a crown on the hard work done by mostly silent heroes who come from the grassroots. We are very thankful to the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation for selecting us. This award will help spread our organization’s work faster. May I request all my colleagues to stand up and share the spotlight and then be fully energized.

For AIDFI this means developing the rural communities or, rather, cultivating communities. Young people in the uplands are losing interest in farming because of its low status. But with our essential oil project right in the middle of the mountains, we have proven that with innovative technologies and techniques beneficiaries feel proud and start cooperating again, a value long lost because of the need for economic survival. For these kinds of projects we need decentralized access to water and energy, preferably renewable energy. These require machines, which can be produced locally and lead to industrialization.

The AIDFI ram pump model is our flagship, and the only technology we have successfully elevated out of the pioneering stage. Now we have installation teams all over the country. We are also carrying out technology transfer to other countries: Afghanistan, Colombia and Nepal, with more to come. We have exported some ram pumps to Malaysia and Japan as well.

We believe our success is due to our passion, drive, consistency and hard work. All this despite the absence of government support. All our technologies could spin off into small factories or enterprises that can help provide basic needs and create employment in rural communities.

Development work is not easy at all in the Philippines context. Everything is strangled by politics.

Lately we encountered how a mishandled agrarian reform case of one member of our essential oil project resulted in the complete blockage of the factory, depriving 25 cooperative members of their livelihood for months. In defending this case I have also been called a troublemaker, received a Petition non Grata, even called a terrorist by a regional government official.

We in AIDFI have felt the fresh wind of this new government especially at the top. We have seen the serious concern of the agrarian reform secretary for our case. At the same time the Land Bank and the Department of Agriculture have shown serious interest in adapting our ram pump for irrigation. But we know it is still a long way to get this seriousness down to the lowest levels. National government cannot do this alone; strong cooperation with the academe and NGOs, among others, is vital. Government has the resources and NGOs like AIDFI have the grassroots connections, the passion and drive to work with the poor.

We also should rethink and see the opportunities in the uplands, areas long neglected. Unless we do this, the late Bishop Fortich, himself a Magsaysay awardee, warned, “the social volcano is going to burst.” My fondest hope is that our government will create an environment in which programs like ours can thrive. With the Filipinos’ great ability, the Philippines’ tremendous potentials, and strong cooperation among stakeholders, we can be a great nation.

And don’t worry. Despite the difficulties, AIDFI and I will remain at the service of the poor from the Philippines and elsewhere in Asia.

A persistent myth is that the poor cannot afford the best technology, nor are they able to maintain and use it productively. In India, where nearly half of all households do not have electricity, this myth has stood in the way of spreading solar technology and its benefit, cost-efficiency, clean energy, mitigation of climate change, and improvements in the quality of life and livelihood among the poor.

HARISH HANDE, a young engineer from Bangalore, is disproving this myth. Trained in energy engineering, with a doctorate from the University of Massachusetts, he could have chosen an easier career path, but he did not. While a graduate student in the U.S., a visit to the Dominican Republic inspired him with the idea that a decentralized approach in the spread of solar application, using small-scale, stand-alone installations instead of large, centralized thermal stations, is best for reaching poor, remote villages where the technology is most needed. Returning to India, he decided to live with villagers to understand their situation first-hand. This convinced him that, in diffusing a technology, it is not just the product that matters but also the social realities that technology seeks to change.

Putting this belief into practice, he established Solar Electric Light Company (SELCO) India in Bangalore in 1995. SELCO’s principal product offerings were solar PV lighting systems, water heating systems, and cooking stoves to meet the needs of the rural poor. After five difficult years of operation, the company started to net a profit. When it did, pressure from investors forced the company, against HANDE’s wishes, to expand through a franchised dealer network. The ill-considered expansion, combined with rising world prices in solar gear, seriously hurt the company’s finances and diverted it from its social mission of helping the poor. It was a painful but invaluable lesson for HANDE. Facing collapse, he repositioned the company, separated from his business partners and, with the help of the International Finance Corporation and new, socially-minded investors, restructured the company and refocused on its social mission. While SELCO remained a for-profit business, it strengthened its purpose as a social enterprise, measuring performance by how it creates social capital instead of simple financial profit.

SELCO has since demonstrated that indeed the poor can afford sustainable technologies and maintain them, and that social ventures can be run as successful commercial entities. SELCO adopts a triple strategy for reaching the poor, a strategy of “customized products,” “doorstep financing,” and “doorstep service.” It designs and installs solar technology applications based on each customer’s specific needs, whether a two- or four-light system for the home, head lamps for night workers like midwives and rose pickers, or electricity for sewing machines. To enable the poor to access the technology, SELCO has pioneered in linking the sale of solar technologies with credit institutions like rural banks, cooperatives, even self-help groups. Taking service to the “doorstep,” it trains customers in maintenance and provides prompt, personalized help through its wide network of service centers. SELCO is more than just a technology provider. By treating the poor as partners instead of mere consumers, SELCO builds their confidence as it assists them in accessing and using technology to better their lives. Poverty reduction is central to its goal. HANDE says, “Until the poor become asset creators, we are not empowering them.”

To date, SELCO has reached more than half a million people by installing solar lights in 120,000 households, microenterprises, and community facilities. Already one of the world’s largest solar technology providers to the poor, SELCO still has a huge market before it. But HANDE has learned his lessons well: he will not sacrifice the development process for numbers, or his social mission for rates of return. Modest and unassuming but intensely determined about his work, HANDE says: “India has a fantastic opportunity to solve two huge problems, reduce poverty and combat climate change. This is India’s chance to combine and address both issues in a holistic way.”

In electing HARISH HANDE to receive the 2011 Ramon Magsaysay Award, the board of trustees recognizes his passionate and pragmatic efforts to put solar power technology in the hands of the poor, through a social enterprise that brings customized, affordable, and sustainable electricity to India’s vast rural populace, encouraging the poor to become asset creators.

It is an honor to receive this prestigious award, named after one of the great visionary leaders of the world. It is very humbling to follow the footsteps of social stalwarts like Ela Bhatt, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Vinoba Bhave and many more. I have grown up reading about these luminaries and have been inspired by their work and sacrifice.

The citation of the Award has emphasized on three very important aspects, social enterprise, sustainable energy and asset creators. These three words epitomize the foundation for a world that is caring, peaceful and equitable.

These are times where material growth has taken precedence over the environment, social well-being and equity. The very foundation of society has become unsustainable. Now the time has come for all stakeholders to inspire and help grow social enterprises which can balance social, environmental and financial sustainability. Social enterprises will help negate the increasing divide between the rich and poor by making the poor asset creators and employers. The increased sense of equality will help create very stable social structures, leading to a much-longed peaceful world.

We, at SELCO, believe that one of the ways to achieve the goal of equity is via the path of renewable energy. And more so, the powerful linkage between poverty alleviation and decentralized renewable energy automatically provides solutions to the ever-growing problems of global warning and climate change, the brunt of which is mostly borne by the poor.

The Award belongs to the employees of SELCO, their families and its many partners who have tirelessly strived in trying to alleviate poverty by making affordable energy accessible to the poor. Today, when more than three billion people rely on no or unreliable energy services and that too from harmful fossil-based fuels like kerosene, this Award comes at a very critical time. The UN Foundation has declared 2012 as the year for Sustainable Energy For All, thus this immense recognition from the Magsaysay Award Foundation will further give impetus to the cause.

Islamic education is perceived by many, often in ignorance, as narrowly traditionalist and even reactionary. What is ignored is that, over the past century, traditional Islamic schools have responded to modernizing influences in many positive ways. This is shown in Indonesia where such changes are of enormous consequence, Indonesia is not only the world’s largest Muslim country, it is one where over fifty thousand Islamic schools are a major stream of the national educational system.

A sterling example of a modern, socially-innovative Islamic school is Nurul Haramain Putri Narmada in West Lombok, a peripheral region where a conservative Islam is dominant and deforestation and poverty are a major challenge. A pesantren, the oldest type of school in Indonesia, Nurul Haramain was established in 1996 by a young, progressive Muslim cleric named HASANAIN JUAINI. The son of a religious teacher who ran a pesantren for boys, HASANAIN opened his own pesantren after completing his university studies.

Against a tradition that reserves education for boys, HASANAIN decided to open a girls’ school. Starting with fifty girls, he evolved a learner-centered program aimed at developing each student’s full potential. Now a pesantren of five hundred students and sixty teachers (half of them women), HASANAIN’s school offers a government-accredited five-year secondary education program. It is the first in Lombok to achieve 100 percent computer-based learning, where students are provided with personal computers and teaching assistants, even at night. While religion is at the core of its program, as in the traditional pesantren, the school is pluralist in orientation and stresses secular subjects like the sciences. Students are exposed to diverse learning opportunities, encouraged to think critically, and motivated to pursue higher studies. It is not surprising that the school ranks No. 9 nationwide in university entrance examinations. Yet HASANAIN says, “To be No. 9 is not the target, but how we have developed all the capabilities of the student.”

It is not just academic excellence that makes HASANAIN’s school a different kind of school. Responding to criticism that boarding schools are “ivory towers” isolated from society, HASANAIN has deliberately integrated school learning into the life of the community. While the pesantren is traditionally controlled by a single teacher, HASANAIN has built a model of community ownership through a membership system. Moreover, he has turned his school into an axis for community development. His integrated approach to education gets students and teachers involved in issues of environmental quality, livelihood enhancement, and good governance.

He initiated a social forestry project that involves the community in conserving the environment while increasing their household incomes. The project has successfully reforested a once-barren thirty-one hectare tract through a scheme in which families, motivated by a grant of livestock for short-term needs, are allotted a hectare each for them to plant, nurture, and eventually harvest trees according to a clear business plan. HASANAIN further believes that schools have a role in promoting citizen participation in local governance. Thus, he organized representatives from 130 pesantrens in his district into a Coalition of Pesantrens against Corruption, to lobby for reforms and hold public officials accountable. He has himself been a vocal advocate on issues pertaining to elections and the management of public funds. In his combined roles as cleric, teacher, community worker, and social entrepreneur, HASANAIN is a living example of the kind of education he preaches.

His modernizing innovations have been criticized by some. But for HASANAIN, there is no divide between teaching religion and calling public officials to account, or between running a school and getting the community to plant trees. One who teaches by his work and not just by his words, HASANAIN speaks of what he does in terms homely but wise: “Everything starts with a seed.” “Those who take must give. It’s a big sin if you take and not give.”

In electing HASANAIN JUAINI to receive the 2011 Ramon Magsaysay Award, the board of trustees recognizes his holistic, community-based approach to pesantren education in Indonesia, creatively promoting values of gender equality, religious harmony, environmental preservation, individual achievement, and civic engagement among young students and their communities.

Upon learning that I was selected for the Ramon Magsaysay Award, the first response that came to my mind was, “Oh, God! You just want me to work harder! Oh my God! I thought I have already reached the limit of what I could have contributed.”

But after seeing that other Magsaysay awardees, previous and present, have done much greater work to deserve this honor, I feel myself to be way behind them. The gap could be as far as the distance between the earth and the sky. Again, I asked myself, “What could this be?” Deep in my mind, I sincerely think that the late President Ramon Magsaysay, through the Award that he has inspired to exist, wants me to contribute more, following his footsteps in his patriotic struggles for the people of the world.

When at last the results of the Awards selection were to be officially announced, yet another question emerged: “Am I ready to accept this award?” My gratitude to Allah that I have not reached the point of insanity to refuse the award, even though I think I do not deserve it. By the way, I am thankful that this is a sweet “mistake.” I promise that I will work harder to reach, in the future, that level of contribution expected of a Magsaysay awardee.

The future promises new opportunities and requires renewed vigor. This award has strengthened and energized me to reach my goals. Together let us unite and mutually extend our help to the people of the world so that in this era of globalization, we will live in a spirit of brotherhood.

With this opportunity, I am urging everyone to set President Magsaysay’s dedication to the world as our example. To me, he is now present and whispering to me, “If I, after my death, can still do this noble work, why shouldn’t you, who are still alive, be able to do better?”

To my children in Pondok Pesantren Nurul Haramain Putri (Nurul Haramain Girls’ Islamic Boarding School) in Narmada as well as all female students in Indonesia, this award is for all of you. Keep struggling and prove to the world that without the contributions of women, the pillars of the world will collapse.

Terimah kasih.

In many places in the world today, citizens are engaged in a historic struggle to democratize their societies, often under conditions of extreme difficulty and danger. One such place is Cambodia. The country was traumatized by decades of war and the genocide perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge, which left 1.7 million Cambodians dead. The country took its first step to establishing a “multi-party liberal democracy” when it proclaimed a new constitution and embarked on its first democratic elections in 1993. Cambodians have gone through five national and local elections since then. But democracy’s progress has been slow and turbulent, and elections have been undermined by factionalism, fraud, violence, and the threat of a return to authoritarian rule. Many know that the central challenge is for Cambodians to claim the electoral process as their own, by protecting it as an instrument for building a democracy. One of those who have bravely stepped up to this challenge is a Cambodian engineer named KOUL PANHA.

KOUL knows firsthand what brutalities are possible in the absence of a true democracy. He was eight years old when his father and relatives were killed by the Khmer Rouge. The indescribable trauma impelled him to dedicate himself to changing his society. He finished his university degree, taught in Phnom Penh, and was already involved in the human rights movement even in the time of the dictatorship. When Cambodia embarked on its first free elections in 1993, he joined the non-partisan Task Force on Cambodian Elections, and was one of the organizers when this task force became the Committee for Free and Fair Elections (COMFREL) in 1997. KOUL assumed the role of COMFREL executive director in 1998; returning home after earning a master’s degree in the Politics of Alternative Development, he threw himself full-time into COMFREL’s mission of assuring that Cambodian elections are free and fair.

Under KOUL’s leadership, COMFREL has become the country’s leading independent organization on electoral issues. It aggressively campaigns for responsible voting and electoral reforms, using all available media. In protecting the 2008 electoral process, COMFREL and its partners trained and deployed over ten thousand volunteers, covering 60 percent of the country’s polling stations. For the first time in Cambodia, a citizens’ parallel “quick count,” initiated by COMFREL, helped forestall the manipulation of results by establishing voting trends three days after the elections. They have also proactively campaigned for the wider political participation of women, who constitute half of Cambodia’s population, a campaign that has seen a subsequent increase of women in public office.

Based in Phnom Penh, COMFREL maintains a nationwide network of partners and has mobilized, since its inception, over fifty thousand election volunteers; more than 150,000 Cambodians have participated in COMFREL’s training programs, workshops and other activities. This is an impressive show of civic participation in a democracy still so young. Even more significant is how COMFREL has gone beyond elections, into post-election issues of governance. It actively lobbies for reforms in matters like election campaign finance and the national budget. In 2003 it initiated Parliamentary Watch, which monitors the performance of legislators and officials using benchmarks and concrete indicators in grading government performance at both local and national levels. COMFREL’s monitoring reports are publicly disseminated.

Democracy in Cambodia remains fragile, and the situation complex and dangerous. KOUL has experienced harassment, and he knows he has to walk a tightrope for COMFREL to continue doing its work. But despite the legitimate fears of friends and family, he remains committed to using every inch of democratic space to empower his people in building a homeland that is democratic and free. Recalling the tragic experience of millions of Cambodians and his own family, the soft-spoken KOUL says: “I think Cambodia has suffered enough. This pushes me to do something as a citizen of Cambodia, to make sure the suffering does not happen again.”

In electing KOUL PANHA to receive the 2011 Ramon Magsaysay Award, the board of trustees recognizes his determined and courageous leadership of the sustained campaign to build an enlightened, organized and vigilant citizenry who will ensure fair and free elections, as well as demand accountable governance by their elected officials, in Cambodia’s nascent democracy.

First of all, I would like to thank the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation for granting me such a prestigious award. I am very much honored for myself, my family and my country Cambodia.

Before the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) was established, along with other former prisoners of conscience I initiated the first human rights movement to prevent Cambodia’s return to civil war, the genocide, the brutality of human rights abuses, oppression and disasters.

After UNTAC finished its mission, I, along with other leaders of civil society organizations realized that as Cambodian citizens we have the responsibility and obligation to continue to promote democracy and citizen participation. We set up two mission goals. Our first core mission goal was to help create an informed and favorable climate for free and fair elections. The second mission goal was to strengthen the meaningfulness of post-election periods by encouraging citizens to participate in democratic governance and decision making. This is in order to implement reforms and increase the accountability of elected officials.

We believe that a fragile democracy like Cambodia is not just about elections; it is about the sustained work to aggressively campaign for free, fair and meaningful elections, which are necessary in order to promote democracy. This is why we have devoted great efforts to strengthen citizen participation in genuine democratic elections.

Although these mission goals have been partly implemented and fulfilled, Cambodia currently is facing challenges, limiting the democratic space that allows citizens to freely express and engage in democracy and human rights activities. For me personally, this is a frustrating situation.

This award is a new source of energy that gives me strength to work harder and to reinforce the courageousness of the organizations that I work for and engage with.

On this very special occasion, I would like to thank my family, friends and the organizations that I work for and engage with, as well as donor organizations. They have given me enormous support, trust and encouragement. I would also like to express my appreciation for colleagues, stakeholders, and the leaders of national and regional organizations, including the Asian Network For Free Election (ANFREL), for their collaboration and strong solidarity with us, that strengthens our work for the democratic cause in Cambodia and Asia.

I would like to acknowledge in a special way the Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia, or COMFREL. I owe this achievement to the COMFREL staff, board members, our huge network of activists and volunteers. In particular I am grateful to our member-organizations including the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC), who work unceasingly so that we might attain the goal of a truly free, democratic society in Cambodia.

India’s rise as an economic power has not erased the blight of poverty on millions of its citizens. While numerous organizations wage war against poverty, still a huge population remains either unreached or poorly served. More men and women, particularly the young, are needed to respond to this formidable social divide. Young, committed leaders like NILEEMA MISHRA.

NILEEMA was born to a middle-class family in the village of Bahadarpur, Maharashtra. With a master’s degree in clinical psychology, she could have gone on to a comfortable life as an urban professional. But even as a child, NILEEMA was sensitive to the crippling poverty in her village. When she was only thirteen, she told friends that she had made up her mind she would not marry, so that she could devote her whole life to helping the poor. This was not merely a young girl’s romantic fancy, as subsequent events would show.

Five years after finishing her studies in 1995, Nileema returned to her village to organize Bhagini Nivedita Gramin Vigyan Niketan (BNGVN), or Sister Nivedita Rural Science Center, named after an Anglo-Irish missionary who devoted her life to helping Indian women of all castes. BNGVN did not begin with a development model in mind, except the conviction that the community’s problems must be addressed from within the village itself. Inspired by Gandhi’s vision of a self-sufficient, prosperous village, NILEEMA decided that her group would not work out of the priorities of donors, or compete for government projects. People would identify their own problems and find the solutions themselves. In her determined manner, Nileema repeatedly told village women who confided their problems to her: “Don’t despair, we shall find a way.”

And they did find the ways. Starting with a self-help group of only fourteen women, other self-help groups followed, engaging in microcredit and such income-generating activities as the production of food products and distinctive, export-quality quilts. BNGVN enabled these changes by training women in production, marketing, accounting, and computer literacy. Inspired by NILEEMA, the women went on to build a warehouse so they could procure supplies in bulk at better prices, and formed an association that now has outlets for its products in four districts of the state. Traditionally confined to the home, these village women have become productive, articulate, and confident in their ability to think for themselves.

But the men in the villages, too, had their problems. Driven by extreme economic distress, a shocking wave of farmers’ suicides struck Maharashtra. NILEEMA and her group responded by raising their work to the level of the village itself. BNGVN helped create a village revolving fund that provided loans for farm inputs and emergency needs; they addressed health problems by building over three hundred private and communal toilets; and activated a village assembly to discuss and resolve local needs.

The success of Bahadarpur inspired NILEEMA to expand her work. In less than ten years, BNGVN has formed 1,800 self-help groups in two hundred villages across Maharashtra. Its microcredit program has caused to be distributed the equivalent of US$5 million, with a hundred-percent loan recovery rate. But the most critical change has taken place in the villagers’ sense of themselves, their newfound confidence that they need not despair, that working together, they will find a way. For NILEEMA, now thirty-nine years old, the way has not been easy. She has had to battle frustration and failure, to find which approaches work best for each village. But she remains resolute and passionate about her work. Asked what gives her the greatest pride, she speaks of the villagers: “I’m very thankful to them. They are ready to improve themselves.”

In electing NILEEMA MISHRA to receive the 2011 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership, the board of trustees recognizes her purpose-driven zeal to work tirelessly with villagers in Maharashtra, India, organizing them to successfully address both their aspirations and their adversities through collective action and heightened confidence in their potential to improve their own lives.

First of all I would like to thank Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation for giving me an opportunity to share this platform with all the eminent personalities in the social development field. I thank the Foundation for coming to our small village and understanding what we are doing and giving it recognition at an international level. I must take this opportunity to thank all my colleagues and supporters who form the backbone of this work. Without them this dream would have been a dream.

Today, I am getting appreciated for my work and what I have given to the society. But it would be right if I say, I have gained a lot from the village where I come from. I have learnt from them that they have lots of potential for growth. They have a strong wish for betterment. A little support and direction would help them to become self-reliant, while maintaining their self-esteem. They can make wonders for themselves. I believe that being educated does not mean I would have all the solutions for their problems and I would be better than they. We have a rich culture. People are wise. They certainly know their problems as well as its solutions. There is a selfish section of society which is not willing to find solutions to the problems of poor. So they expect the poor to remain poor. Hence the gap between poor and rich widens. This leads to various social problems. All the differences and discriminations are man-made. There are many stumbling blocks that have built inequality into our social systems. To bring back equality, the poor have to develop in every respect, economic, financial, as well as social. So change in the social systems is very important and that is what we in BNGVN emphasize.

I believe if a person’s basic needs get fulfilled, he gets ready for social reforms. So our main focus is on helping the poor become self-sustainable by establishing a strong social system in our village, which would enable villagers to be responsible and answerable towards the development of the village. Gramsabha, or the Village Assembly and People’s Participation, are the best solutions for village development. People come together and discuss the village problems by themselves; after all, they know the reality that surrounds them and thus are the best judges of own lives. They find solutions and bring progress for themselves. We in BNGVN just play the role of facilitators.

Further we have realized that it is not sufficient to work on a particular issue like women empowerment or sanitation etc. We believe that if we keep “family” as a focal point and work towards its development, “Family” being a part of the community, community development is inevitable. “An Ideal Family” is a base for “Ideal Village”. We have tried our best to inculcate this concept in our villagers. We have tried to bring out a culture where people will believe in unity and cooperation. The whole village is now working hard to be an “Ideal Village” in real terms. That is why we say, Bhagini Nivedita Gramin Vigyan Niketan works for “Development By the People, For the People and Of the People.”

It is a land of familiar ironies and contrasts. An archipelago of astounding natural wealth and one of the world’s fastest-rising economies, Indonesia is also a country where the environment is threatened and poverty is widespread. The government is aggressively expanding power generation capacity to feed the economy but 90 percent of installed capacity still depends on “dirty” fossil fuels and, even then, over a hundred million Indonesians, or half the nation’s population, are without electricity.

It is both a daunting problem and an exciting possibility, turning Indonesia’s vast reserves of sustainable energy into power, and at the same time releasing the dormant economic power of its rural population. This is the challenge that drives the life of TRI MUMPUNI.

Born in Semarang, Central Java, her father an economist, her mother a social worker, MUMPUNI developed a social conscience early in life, and, after earning a degree in social economics, immersed herself in rural development work. A turning point came in 1980 when she married Iskandar Kuntoadji, an engineer who in 1979 helped form Yayasan Mandiri, the first Indonesian nongovernment organization to promote hydropower technology for community development. Though the group was short-lived, Kuntoadji built considerable knowledge in hydropower technology. With his technical expertise and MUMPUNI’s social development commitment and entrepreneurial abilities, in 1993 the young couple formed People-Centered Business and Economic Institute, with the Indonesian acronym IBEKA, short for Institut Bisnis dan Ekonomi Kerakyatan. As a nongovernment organization, IBEKA committed itself to developing micro hydropower systems for impoverished rural communities.

This proved to be a daunting undertaking. As IBEKA’s leader, MUMPUNI had to struggle with restrictive state regulations, complex financing requirements, and the draining demands of social mobilization work. To meet the twin challenges of a social enterprise, remaining viable as a business without compromising its social mission’she had to focus all her energies on working at the level of the poorest communities, as well as with the highest government authorities. Operating deeply in the country’s remote regions had its grave dangers: in Aceh in 2008, MUMPUNI and her husband were kidnapped by former rebels, brought into the jungle, and forced to raise money from family and friends to ransom their freedom.

Skill, creativity, and determination, however, have turned IBEKA into an outstanding Indonesian example of social entrepreneurship, and cast MUMPUNI as a much-admired and influential leader in the field of community-based renewable energy. From its base in Subang, West Java, IBEKA has built sixty micro hydropower plants, with capacities ranging from 5 kilowatts to 250 kilowatts, providing electricity to half a million people in rural Indonesia. Equally important, it has done this through a community-based development approach that goes beyond the technology to the socioeconomic empowerment of communities. Putting a premium on community participation and ownership, IBEKA organizes electric cooperatives, trains villagers in technical management and resource conservation, and provides support in fund-facilitation and income-generating activities.

MUMPUNI works at the national level in promoting the role of hydropower in development, and in designing and implementing new models of government-business-community joint ventures in micro hydropower facilities. Boldly enterprising, she has effectively lobbied for changes in state policy that now allow independent micro hydropower plants to sell electricity to the government’s national grid. Despite what IBEKA has already accomplished, MUMPUNI knows that the task ahead remains formidable: there are still some twenty thousand villages without any electricity. But this is not just about technology and numbers. She says, “Electricity is not our main goal, but the potential to build villages that are economically empowered. This is my highest task.”

In electing TRI MUMPUNI to receive the 2011 Ramon Magsaysay Award, the board of trustees recognizes her determined and collaborative efforts to promote micro hydropower technology, catalyze needed policy changes, and ensure full community participation, in bringing electricity and the fruits of development to the rural areas of Indonesia.

I believe that poverty is not the problem of development; poverty is a symptom of the larger problem of local communities who are disconnected from the local resources surrounding them, that can contribute to their human well-being. We are now living in a world of great disconnectedness: this is apparent at so many different levels. Many people, especially the poor, carry a sense of inadequacy from being part of a system that sees them not for what they are, but as numbers and elements of some statistical ledger.

IBEKA was founded by my husband and I in the 1990s, to unify what was even then breaking apart and disconnected; IBEKA sought to change this by sharing the world the way it is meant to be shared. Community has to be reconnected to their local resources, and the technology used has to be brought closer to the community. Thus the idea of “Community-Based Electrical Power Supply” was born. I thank my dear husband Iskandar for pioneering the concept and serving as my inspiration. Also for the many sacrifices he has made over the years, in ensuring that our vision of personal happiness is continually augmented by our caring for others! He has always been by my side, showing that a deep spirit of love binds us in this magnificent enterprise of life.

I assert that, contrary to general belief, we live in a generous world of great abundance: alongside this belief is my conviction that eradicating poverty succeeds only if this natural abundance is shared, nurtured, and guarded. Furthermore, natural wealth is to be shared at the grassroots level; wealth cannot be created or sustained by “top-down” approaches. Through the construction of micro-hydro generation plants in isolated communities previously without electricity, IBEKA has shown that our approach can succeed. Now, we would like to broaden our approach by using other technologies that will allow for increased economic impact but still in a sustainable way.

IBEKA and our community partners are propagators of sound eco-management. We are also guardians. IBEKA seeks to ensure that every investment made will create tangible welfare at the community level: every rupiah we spend must be put to good use. That is why we create community institutions that assume responsibility for operation and maintenance of facilities, as well as ultimate ownership.

Economic productivity is the outcome of such community-driven designs. IBEKA offers different micro hydropower models: one is an isolated power-grid operated and maintained by the community for their community’s own electrification; the other model is where redundant energy can be sold back to the grid. Income generated from such sale is put to collective use for village development purposes, such as giving scholarships to poor families. The great beauty of both approaches is that the entire structure is consensus-based, not imposed from the outside!

I am deeply honored to be part of a lineage of Ramon Magsaysay award recipients that include people like Mother Theresa and Muhammad Yunus: champions of the frail and poor, They and other Magsaysay awardees have always intuitively understood that in order for us all to be happy, we need to bring together disparate pieces into a whole: they are holistic thinkers with a deep respect for the community, and for the individuals that make up these pockets of living cultures.

I would like to end with a warm thank-you to all my colleagues at IBEKA, without whose passion and commitment I would not be standing here today: so this award honors you, too, dear fellow travelers on this path of unification!

My deepest thank you to the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation for honoring us with this great prize: it is my heart-felt wish that all 1.8 billion people in the Asia-Pacific region will share equitably and fairly in our wonderful natural resources, and that all people everywhere have access to basic energy in the form of electricity at a fair and affordable price! My final wish is that we all become good stewards of our responsibilities, and inspire others to share all the good things of this world!