Wow !

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We just spent a weekend with friends at a place called Panaruban.

These friends are very special people.  Iskandar Kuntoadji and Tri Mumpuni run an organisation called IBEKA.  This page focusses on Puni (as an Ashoka Fellow), but also tells the IBEKA story.  Make sure you work your way through the four pages of information if you possibly can (see the line half way down the page that reads The New Idea | The Problem | The Strategy | The Person).

Iskandar gets only one small mention, but I'm sure Puni will forgive me saying that IBEKA is very much a team effort.  While Puni is the public face the real work is split pretty evenly between social preparation (Puni's speciality) and the engineering and construction handled by Iskandar and his technical team.

I'm a bit in awe of how well they do both sides.  Their community engagement seems to be about as good as it gets - and the engineering planning and execution is practical and disciplined.  How can I know this?  Well there is a track record of 15 years and around 60 different projects.

This photo shows the Cinta Mekar power station.  It's a 500 kw micro-hydro station a few kms from Panaruban.  In the centre left of the photo you can see Iskandar and a couple of colleagues working on a pico-hydro turbine test.  There is a laptop on the platform just above turbine that is monitoring its performance.  The technology in both the power house and on the test site is a mixture of purchased and locally developed - with the most important components being locally manufactured and locally serviceable.

And 100 metres behind me when I took this photo is the health centre that is partially funded with profits earned by the village cooperative that owns and operates this power station.

It's really interesting talking to Puni and Iskandar about their 'failures' over the years.  They are like most very good businesses (or NGOs I suppose) - they don't lightly countenance failure - and have a whole variety of strategies to work around and through common problems.  But after a few penetrating questions, I have discovered that their strategies do invariably include the most important problem solving strategies of all - persistence, discipline and, in the end, a willingness to 'walk away' when fundamental values are at risk of being compromised.
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