Indonesia—Mitra Kunci Initiative

Indonesia is a growing regional and global player, having experienced a remarkable democratic and economic transformation over the last two decades. However, the country remains at a development crossroads, with 40 percent of the population earning less than $2 a day.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)’s Mitra Kunci Initiative provided Indonesia’s poorest and most vulnerable with the skills needed to be productive members of Indonesia’s workforce. Young people, women, and people with disabilities received training, information, and resources to prepare them to meet the needs of the private sector.

By assisting Indonesia’s efforts to improve the skills needed to work in the local market, more Indonesians can break the cycle of extreme poverty, have the opportunity to reach their full potential, and contribute to global prosperity and self-reliance.

As a result of program interventions, more than 40,300 poor and vulnerable young people have new skills, including 704 young people with disabilities, and more than 15,800 poor and vulnerable young people have new or better jobs.

Sri Setyaningsih, center, advocates for people with disabilities in Boyolali with two of her business team members.

Sample Activities

• Improve the quality of workforce development programs through targeted grant programs and gender and social inclusion training.
• Implement innovative workforce development models, such as community engagement workshops and a youth internship program.
• Increase collaboration between key workforce development stakeholders through a series of learning workshops and establishment of a coordination hub to share good practices.

Select Results

• The Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology incorporated the Mitra Kunci-developed student entrepreneurship modules into its online accredited courses so that they are accessible nationwide, and students will receive university credit for their completion.
• Helped 40,300 poor and vulnerable young people to obtain new skills, including 704 young people with disabilities, and more than 15,800 poor and vulnerable young people have new or better jobs.
• Trained 1,030 service providers (578 male and 452 female) who serve vulnerable persons.
• Trained 592 lecturers and 908 students as facilitators via the project’s Student Community Service on Entrepreneurship (KKN-TKWU) program. Through 11 partner higher education institutions, KKN-TWKU has reached more than 3,100 villages and 146 cities and districts across Java.
• APINDO, a large employer’s association, fully supported the scale-up of the Guideline for Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) in the Workplace amongst its partner companies across the country.
• Brought a new dimension of GESI to the government’s online job-matching platform.