‘Closing the digital divide between urban and rural areas’
In Indonesia, GIZ is working with the non-profit organisation Common Room to support rural communities with AI-driven pilot projects for climate adaptation. An interview with the head of the organisation, Gustaff H. Iskandar.
What is the idea behind Common Room?
We began as an arts project in the early 2000s, supporting multidisciplinary arts in Indonesia. Over time, we have expanded our focus to close the digital gap between urban and rural areas. Today, among other things, we run a training and capacity-building programme called the School of Community Networks (SCN). Here, people in rural communities learn to develop and operate their own internet infrastructure and services, known as Community Networks.
Why was this approach of interest to GIZ?
Many of our SCN project sites are located in disaster-prone regions with a high climate risk. After all, our local infrastructures play a key role when it comes to connecting people and machines via the Internet of Things (IoT), thereby strengthening climate resilience and utilising AI in a fair way. This is exactly what we are trying to do with our Community-Based Innovation Labs for Climate Resilience, the Co-LABS project, for example in Pulo Aceh in the far west of Indonesia. Despite many challenges, progress so far has been promising.
How does the work align with the digital direction of the Indonesian Government?
Indonesia’s digital transformation agenda aims to enhance economic growth and efficiency. This includes climate data collection. Our work aligns with government efforts by involving local communities in gathering micro-climate data, which is essential for agriculture, fisheries, and logistics but often unavailable.
How does the cooperation with GIZ work?
It enables us to learn as we go and collaborate with experts from different fields. We record the real-life impacts of climate change and contribute directly to developing practical solutions. The collaboration with GIZ has enabled us to explore new, experimental and sometimes speculative scenarios. This allows us to gain insights that may also be of interest to others.
the Co-Founder and Director of Common Room, a non-profit organisation working at the intersection of arts, culture, and technology. His institution is responsible for developing an AI-based climate change adaptation and mitigation solution in rural Indonesia.
