On March 6th, 2019, the University of Jember’s delegate and also as Research Assistant at Centre For Human Right Multiculturalism and Migration (CHRM2), Sonia Candra Dewi, presented her scientific paper at the “10th Academic International Conference on Interdisciplinary Legal Studies” at Oxford University in the United Kingdom. The contents conveyed by this UNEJ representative’s paper is related to civil law reform in Indonesia in an effort to protect social entrepreneurship to facilitate the implementation of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Social enterprises are highly regarded in communities due to their positive impacts and their role in aiding problems that are faced in social environments. The lack of certain laws and regulations overshadow social enterprises’ existence and prohibit their advancement and development at the same rate as general companies. Despite the lack of government attention, social enterprises actively support the government to help realize welfare equality in Indonesia. Moreover, the promotion of social enterprises’ activities is in line with the implementation of SDG Number 17. The goal of the SDG number 17 itself is to strengthen global partnerships to support and achieve the ambitious targets of the 2030 Agenda, bringing together national governments, the international community, civil society, the private sector, and other actors. Despite advances in certain areas, more needs to be done to accelerate progress. All stakeholders will have to refocus and intensify their efforts on areas where progress has been slow.
Because these enterprises’ definition has not been regulated in the Indonesian’s law, Ms. Dewi’s paper examines the new concept of social enterprise within the entrepreneurial field. In addition, this paper attempts to describe and explain how several policies can be taken to improve the financial performance of local governments in order to increase local finance revenue. This revenue can then finance social enterprises to fulfill the SDGs recommended by the United Nations. The research, through juridical analysis concentrated on SDG No.17, examines the government rules that protect entrepreneurship. The examination particularly focuses on the partnership between the government as the state apparatus and the actors of social enterprise in the role of community development. The paper focuses on analyzing the development of social enterprises in Indonesia and their relationship to the law economic fields that have significant impacts on the community.
During the question and answer session, Ms. Dewi received many questions regarding the local government legal policy related to the regulations governing social entrepreneurship and UKMK (Small and Medium Enterprises) in Indonesia. Ms. Dewi was also asked by delegates from Renaissance University for solutions to existing problems related to the existence of social entrepreneurship in Indonesia, which is still in the process of defining its definition in PROLEGNAS 2015-2019. PROLEGNAS is an instrument that contains a program to form a law that was arranged in a plan and is also systematic. The establishment of the National Legislation Program is done by DPR (The House Representatives of Indonesia) and the President.
The results of the presentation were the highlight of the event on March 8, 2019. On this day, participants were awarded certificates of appreciation for each delegation and a joint photo session. This certificate ceremony was followed by the signing of a contract for the publication of the accepted papers.