2021 GCSA Great Practice: Gampong Berdaya Tampur Paloh (The Empower Gampong Paloh Program)

PT Pertamina Hulu Energi as the Upstream Subholding of PT Pertamina (Persero), the Indonesia’s State-Owned Energy Company, consistently strives to improve the welfare of communities around the operational area through corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities in the Community Involvement & Development (CID) aspect.

Subholding Upstream Pertamina carry out its CID programs as part of commitment on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) to support the embodiment of the U.N Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) achievements in its long-term strategy. This commitment aligns with the Sustainability Focus of Pertamina, which emphasizes into the Corporate strategy, roadmap and initiatives ESG as well as inline with the support to SDGs.

One of the flagship programs of Subholding Upstream Pertamina implemented that targets vulnerable groups is Empower Gampong Tampur Paloh Program. This program is led by Regional Sumatera of Subholding Upstream Pertamina, through Pertamina EP (PEP) Rantau Field in Tampur Paloh, a village in Simpang Jernih Sub-District, East Aceh, Indonesia's westernmost Aceh Province. The village is considered as a remote and an underdeveloped village, atau or falls into the 3T region category (Frontier, Outermost, and Disadvantaged) in Indonesia.

PEP Rantau Field has developed a comprehensive program to address the fundamental problems experienced by Tampur Paloh Village in education that generates social, economic, and environmental issues, such as high number of child marriage, increasing poverty rate and rising illegal logging, which caused environmental degradation.

The Company synergizes with multi-stakeholder with the involvement of community groups, local governments, civil society organizations, universities, and stakeholders who have succeeded in initiating several programs with education as their primary focus, which then to be further developed targeting health, environment, and economic aspects. The program is also developed by integrating the core competencies of PEP Rantau Field, as an oil and gas enterprise that focuses on reducing emission.

Among them are through education by establishing Merdeka School that offers middle and senior high school education in remote area, developing sustainable management of water and sanitation, and strengthening the economy of local people through Village-Owned Enterprise that integrates the core competencies into the program, by creating the innovation of Citronella Grass (lemongrass) Distillation Tool with Zero Smoke.

Education has driven significant changes that it improved various aspects of life. The rising level of education in the community has impact on the declining child marriage rate from one in every two children married before the age of 18 to one in ten children. Number of illegal logger were decreased to 88%. In addition, the health level of the community showed improvements with 100% people have now access to available clean water and sanitation, while the decent and sustainable jobs increase community income. These achievements support the efforts to achieve Goal 3 of Good Health and Well Being, Goal 4 of Quality Education and Goal 5 of Gender Equality.

Furthermore, the significant fall in the number of child marriage in Tampur Paloh aligns with the target of The Government of Indonesia to reduce child marriage by 2030 in its efforts to contribute to the SDGs. The latest social return on investment (SROI) results showed that the program has provided social benefits of more than IDR 2,48 in total for the Company and other stakeholders.