The government should take stock of the entire volunteering sector and reflect on how it can make a difference by enabling what, Dharendra Wardhana, a deputy director at employment directorate at the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), defines as “the ecosystem, basically the awareness and readiness of stakeholders related to the volunteerism at every levels (from central to local and in each line ministries)”.

According to Dharendra, who has a strong interest in social capital and civic engagement, there is no need, at least not yet, to come up with a stronger regulatory framework to better govern volunteerism, one key element of the broader concept of civic engagement. If properly harnessed, volunteerism can be the best “glue” linking policy-making with the citizenry and investing on it would bring the quality and depth of Indonesia’s democracy to the highest level.

Dharendra’s point of view underscores that it is better first to map and understand the many existing volunteering initiatives to better enable them on the ground before moving on with further regulatory measures.

Based on a survey conducted by Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) in 2018, Indonesia has the highest proportion of its people volunteering with a score of 53 percent. This data shows that the desire of Indonesian to join a volunteering program is very high.

What can be done by the government to tap into this potential and desire to contribute?

Talking only about formal forms of volunteering, the country can boost several best practices, from Indonesia Mengajar (Indonesia Teaches) that builds youth leadership positively impacting local schools to the work being carried out by Taruna Tanggap Bencana (Disaster Responsive Youth) in the area of natural disasters, where the country truly stands out.

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