One recent Thursday, Ali Madad Ibrahimi accompanied an elderly man from Afghanistan to a registration desk under a big red and white tent in Jakarta’s central district. He translated instructions into the Afghan Dari language, and the pair entered a spacious hall where blue-uniformed officers sat behind rows of desks. He stayed by the man’s side until a COVID-19 vaccine dose has been safely injected into his left arm. However, until just over a month ago, Mr. Ibrahimi – himself an Afghan refugee and an official interpreter with the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR) since 2019 – had to do his work virtually: Government COVID-19 regulations meant that even boarding a bus to a neighbourhood where many Afghan refugees lived, required a vaccine certificate. That changed in late September though, when Mr. Ibrahimi became one of the first refugees in Indonesia to be fully vaccinated, thanks to a private scheme jointly organized by several UN agencies. Around the same time, on September 21, a new decree from Indonesia’s Ministry of Health promised to dramatically increase access to vaccinations for the 13,273 refugees in Indonesia, reflecting broader steps towards greater inclusion for one of the most vulnerable groups in the country. “I’m very grateful to the UN team for providing vaccines for me and other refugees”, he says. “Now that I have been fully vaccinated, I can get back to my routine, assisting my fellow refugees who need interpreters”. ‘Two days full of nightmares’ More than half of the refugees in Indonesia are from Afghanistan, and the majority of them are members of the Hazara ethnic minority, a mostly Shiite Muslim community who were brutally oppressed under the Taliban, before the US invasion in 2001. For many, watching the Taliban retake Kabul in August, was a devastating reminder of the circumstances that forced them to flee.  Since retaking control of Afghanistan, Taliban officials have forcibly evicted thousands of Hazara families from their homes, according to the NGO Human Rights Watch. Another rights organization, Amnesty International, reported in October that the Taliban had massacred 13 ethnic Hazara people in Daykundi province, including a 17 year-old girl. For Mr. Ibrahimi, a former baker, such reports bring back memories of the day in June 2013 that Taliban soldiers stopped him on a journey to buy ingredients for his bakery in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province. They accused him of selling bread to US soldiers and tortured him while he was in detention. Fearing for his own safety and that of his family if he stayed, Mr. Ibrahimi fled Afghanistan overland, leaving his wife, one child, and a new-born daughter behind. “Two days full of nightmares,” he says. “I was lucky they released me in the end.” After crossing the border into Pakistan, a smuggler convinced Mr. Ibrahimi to go to Indonesia where, he was told, he could be resettled. That turned out not to be true, and he has been living in Jakarta for the past eight years. Restrictions on basic human rights Many refugees in Indonesia have waited a similar length of time. Indonesia considers itself a transit country, one through which refugees and asylum seekers travel en route to a safe third country. But because opportunities for resettlement in a third country are virtually non-existent, many refugees and asylum seekers end up immobilized for years with no prospect of resettlement or a safe return. The hardship of refugees in Indonesia is exacerbated by restrictions on some of their most basic human rights: they are deprived of their right to work, for example, and their access to school is often impeded. Indonesia is not a State party to the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees, the key legal framework that defines who is a refugee and details the rights to which refugees are entitled, but the country has ratified key human rights treaties and, says Ann Maymann, UNHCR’s representative for Indonesia, the country “therefore has international obligations to ensure that refugees can exercise their basic rights”. ‘COVID-19 does not know borders’ Discrepancies in access to COVID-19 vaccinations at a national level, mirror broader inequalities that have inhibited the global effort to stop the spread of the pandemic. “COVID-19 does not know borders, differentiate between lower middle and upper-income economies, or care whether you are poor or rich,” says Valerie Julliand, UN Resident Coordinator for Indonesia. “The Ministry of Health’s new decree is an important step towards leaving no one behind and is a welcome expression of solidarity with some of the country’s most vulnerable communities.” Although COVID-19 has devastated both advanced economies and the developing world, refugees are among those who have been hit the hardest. While many governments provided subsidies to offset the economic impact of the pandemic and helped school children with distance learning, refugees often did not have access to such measures. Meanwhile, around 86 per cent of refugees are hosted in developing and low-income countries, which tend to have less resilient healthcare systems and struggle to cope with the needs of their own populations. Vaccinations can reduce pressure on those healthcare systems, but refugees did not often have access they required. UNHCR says that the precariousness of refugees’ situation in Indonesia has led to a deterioration in refugees’ mental health. Refugee and writer Hussain Shah Rezaie claimed in a recent Op-Ed for the Jakarta Post newspaper, that 12 refugees had died by suicide in the previous two years. Refugees are an asset In the same way that equitable access to COVID-19 vaccinations benefits both refugees and the communities that host them, better access to education and employment for refugees ends up also being universally beneficial, says Ms. Maymann. “We continue to advocate for refugees’ inclusion and for the government to see that refugees are an asset,” she says. “Refugees bring productivity, they can start businesses that employ locals, pay taxes, and generate income. “They enrich the culture of the host countries by bringing different practices, foods, and religions. And given the chance, they can contribute to a stronger and more vibrant world.” For Mr. Ibrahimi, becoming vaccinated was an important step towards greater inclusion and a decent life. “I don’t mind living in Indonesia, the people are very nice,” he says, “I hope one day I can open my own bakery and make Afghan bread popular here, or in another country, if I ever get resettled”. The UN in Indonesia To date, more than 40 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been delivered to Indonesia, through the COVAX mechanism, supported by UNICEF and the World Health Organization. But outside of private schemes and the determined efforts of some local governors, refugees were not included in the national program until recently. The private scheme that enabled Mr. Ibrahimi to be vaccinated, was jointly organized by UNHCR, IOM, and UNICEF and the Resident Coordinator’s Office. The decree allows refugees with UNHCR-issued identity documents to access both private sector vaccination schemes and the national COVID-19 vaccination scheme in areas where at least 70% of the population have received a first vaccine dose. That means that refugees in up to six of Indonesia’s 34 provinces are now eligible for the COVID-19 shot. To date, UNHCR calculates that more than 4,800 of Indonesia’s population of 13,273 refugees, or about 36%, have received at least one COVID-19 vaccination dose. That falls some way short of the 58% of the general population the Indonesian government says had received at least one vaccination dose as of 31 October. UNHCR works closely with the Indonesian Government to ensure the refugees can live in dignity while they are waiting for a more permanent solution. This includes continuing advocacy with local governments for more refugee children to enroll in national schools, providing digital and entrepreneurship training for refugees, and advocating for refugees to have access to health services, including access to COVID-19 vaccines.      

Every year on Oct 24 United Nations staff, diplomats, and governments around the world celebrate UN Day, the anniversary of the United Nations’ founding 76 years ago. To mark this year’s observance, the UN in Indonesia’s communications team produced a video designed to answer some of the questions that most commonly arise about the UN and its work. In the 28-minute-long video, UN Resident Coordinator for Indonesia Valerie Julliand joins the heads of 19 UN agencies to field questions on subjects ranging from whether the UN has an army, to how Indonesians can contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to the difference between migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. “UN Day is really for all of us to celebrate diversity, inclusion, and of course peace,” Julliand says in the video. “The objective of the UN is to ensure that all people, no matter who they are, where they live, or what they believe in can live a life that is safe, free, dignified and prosperous,” Julliand adds. The “autocomplete”-style video is just one of the ways the UN in Indonesia commemorated UN Day 2021. The video featured alongside Indonesian language lesson plans about the SDGs and a letter from the Resident Coordinator addressed to students as part of a commemorative educational kit distributed to more than 80 schools across Indonesia. The UN in Indonesia also joined forces with Indonesia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), who organized a virtual run to commemorate UN Day. Some 3,000 slots MOFA opened for participation through its dedicated event website were filled within the first four hours of the run opening. A parallel TikTok and photo competition is scheduled to close on Oct. 27.

Nissa Wargadipuras’s earliest memories involve learning how to live with nature. Her childhood home’s backyard in the hilly town of Garut, West Java was a little forest where her father planted vegetables, herbs and fruits. Her mother produced traditional medicine from the plants for their family and their neighbours. “Whenever I came home from school, my mother always asked me to do some “hunting,” Nissa says. The tradition of the “backyard hunt” has long been part of ethnic Sundanese life in West Java, Indonesia. “I ‘hunted’ guava, coconut, turmeric, cayenne pepper, everything. I could find all that I needed in my parent’s backyard.” Sundanese people in Nissa’s village consider their homes not only a place to rest and take shelter, but also a means to provide them food and make a living. Nissa’s idyllic memories of her Garut childhood speak to the deep roots of family farming in rural Indonesian life. But her struggles to maintain those traditions against political adversity and poverty are illustrative of the threats family farmers have faced across Indonesia. Searching for solutions Nissa was a high school student in 1989 when she first realized that her family’s livelihood—and that of other farmers in Garut—was threatened. She joined a student movement to protect the rights of local farmers and resist the government’s policy of land acquisition. Eventually, the struggle yielded results. “Finally, in 1997, around 700 farmers got their land back,” she said. The following year, Nissa and her friends established the “Pasundan Farmer Union”. The organization became one of the most influential farmers’ organizations in West Java, and today it has more than 100 000 members. Getting their land back was the first step, but it didn’t protect farmers from the ravages of poverty. Nissa experienced the desperation firsthand when she lived with a farming community at the foot of the Papandayan mountain in West Java.  Farmers planted vegetables based on orders from intermediaries who controlled the city’s central market. These intermediaries provided farmers with seeds, agrochemical fertilizers and vitamins. They also encouraged farmers to move towards monoculture to reach their production targets. The high costs of the inputs increased the farmers’ dependency on the intermediaries, and when the price of vegetables dropped, farmers were left with little means of subsistence.   Not an ordinary school Nissa decided to find a way to empower the farmers, decrease their dependency on intermediaries and rekindle the experience of living close to nature. But the only way farmers and their children would regain confidence in their traditional wisdom, Nissa reasoned, was through education. In 2008, Nissa and her husband established a farmer field school called At-Thariq (meaning “the way” in Arabic) to teach agroecology, food security and religion to young people. Students also enrolled in traditional schools for formal education. Students sleep and eat at the school. They also receive sustainable farming lessons, learning mainly by doing. On only one hectare of land, Nissa designed a planting system based on intercropping, where various crops are cultivated simultaneously in the same field. The planting area is divided into several zones: a zone for tropical fruits, a fishpond in another zone and a staple food zone where they grow cassava and taro. The school also grows a variety of vegetables such as tomatoes, water spinach and herbs. Activities begin at 4 a.m. with morning prayers. After that, the high school students prepare for school, while the college seniors prepare food for breakfast and lunch and harvest the vegetables, fruit and fish that would be needed for dinner. In the afternoon, the elementary students tend the farm. In the evening, they learn more about agriculture and on the weekend, they spend all day on the farm. The school only admits 30 pupils because the farm can only feed 30 people. “Students must eat from the farms that they manage. This is one of our main lessons,” explains Nissa. Close to home Nunung Nurhasana spent five years at At-Thariq during high school and college. After graduating from the college of education in Garut, she returned to her village. Armed with her studies and experience from At-Thariq, Nunung applied the ideas that she learned. Nunung’s village produces a variety of fruits such as bananas, papayas and coconuts. She and the women farmers in her village process the leftover fruit into snacks and beverages, which she then promotes and sells on social media. Nunung says she spends very little on meals because, “I have everything I need in my family’s backyard.” At-Thariq has more than 1 000 alumni. Most, like Nunung, stay in their village and apply the lessons they learned.  Family farming “Nissa’s journey offers some solutions to many of the challenges facing us in our efforts to create more sustainable and resilient food systems,” says Pierre Ferrand, FAO’s focal point for family farming in the Asia Pacific region.  “Family farmers must be at the heart of agricultural transformation.” Family farming preserves traditional food products, contributes to a balanced diet, uses natural resources sustainably and safeguards the world’s biodiversity. Through its Family Farming Initiative as part of the Decade of Family Farming, FAO encourages living examples, like Nissa’s, of the values and lifestyles that concretely help the world attain a more sustainable future. The seeds of agricultural transformation that Nissa planted 12 years ago have started to bear fruits. And it all started in her backyard.

Batik, the technique of creating patterns on textiles with wax-resistant dyes, is a living art passed down by generations of Indonesians. But today's artists, already struggling to compete with commercially produced versions of their product, face an uncertain future amid the COVID-19 pandemic. On Oct 2, Indonesia’s National Batik Day, UNESCO Jakarta and its partner Citi Foundation hosted a virtual celebration of batik called "Batik: Karsa Adhikari." With a name taken from the Sanskrit words “intention” and “special,” UNESCO’s online commemoration explored the cultural roots of batik and gathered experts to discuss how to make the industry more sustainable. “Batik is both an expression of Indonesia’s cultural heritage and an economic lifeline for hundreds of thousands of people, many of them living in rural communities that have been hit hard by the pandemic,” says Valerie Julliand, UN Resident Coordinator for Indonesia, “youth engagement is vital to keeping the artform alive for generations to come.” Batik is a living art. It touches all aspects of Indonesian life: from the batik slings designed to bring luck to the babies they cradle, to the funary garments in which the dead are often shrouded. But it is time consuming and labour intensive to create. Handcrafting an intricately patterned garment can take weeks, but mass-produced prints can be produced far cheaper and saturate the market in days. Even before the pandemic, that made for tough conditions for some 18,000 small and micro-scale batik businesses currently registered with Indonesia’s Ministry of Industry. But COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted small enterprises, heaping pressure on young creatives in one of Indonesia’s most traditional sectors. It was recognition of the cultural and economic importance of Indonesian batik that prompted UNESCO to designate the art a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity on Oct 2, 2009. Twelve years since that designation, there is renewed urgency for young people to embrace the artform if it is to survive into the future, speakers from the Indonesian Government, UNESCO, and the private sector emphasized at Batik: Karsa Adhikari. "Youth engagement is a must,” said UNESCO Jakarta Director Mohamed Djelid, “To this end, however, we have to empower [young people] with the means to take this heritage forward." To ensure that young people engaged in batik production have a fighting chance of survival, UNESCO and Citi Indonesia established Kita Muda Kreatif four years ago. It helps nurture young creatives as they strive towards building sustainable businesses. The programme has provided business capacity-building to over 400 young cultural entrepreneurs living around UNESCO designated sites and other popular tourist destinations in Indonesia. The CEO of Citi Indonesia, Batara Sianturi praised the programme’s achievements in a year that COVID-19  has stretched the sector to the limit. Cultural industries such as batik not only provide decent employment opportunities, they also help make the economy more inclusive as they favour young people and women as key actors, he said. "I'm glad to see that more than 50 percent of participants in the Kita Muda Kreatif program are female,” Sianturi told the audience, “I believe that they can bring positive contributions to anything they do." In the run up to Batik: Karsa Adhikari, UNESCO and its partner had provided educational kits to hundreds of kindergarten and elementary school students containing eco-friendly dyes. At the event, they practised making batik patterns on a plant pot guided by the co-hosts. Central Java's Deputy Governor Taj Yasin Maimoen applauded the young students’ awareness of batik. He encouraged young people to wear batik as an expression of national pride and learn about their ancestors through studying its motifs and patterns. But he also reminded them to pay attention to the waste from the batik industry, advocating the use of natural dyes to protect the environment. UNESCO’s event wrapped up with a virtual tour of a batik-producing village in Klaten, Central Java, and a fashion market promoting batik products from young creatives as part of the Kita Muda Kreatif programme. ​​ "Batik is our cultural heritage,” said Khaleili Nungki Hashifah, the owner of Creative Batik in Yogyakarta and one of the artists whose work was displayed, “it is our responsibility to love and preserve it." Watch the recorded "Batik: Karsa Adhikari" event below.