The National Institute of Public Administration (NIPA) and Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) once again held the Empathetic Leadership Training for civil servants. This time, the theme is “Living with Hazardous and Toxic Waste: Threats and Opportunities”, on December 4, 2019, in Cilegon, Banten.

Cilegon is an industrial city that produces B3 (hazardous and toxic) waste of almost 24 thousand tons annually. Some of the B3 waste is thrown to the river, planted in the ground, or sent to the waste processing company. B3 waste is defined as substances, energy and/or other components which, due to their nature, concentration and/or amount, both directly and indirectly, can pollute, damage the environment, and/or can endanger the environment, health, human and other living creatures (Law number 32 of 2009).

The training was attended by 30 participants from the representatives of central government, Banten Provincial Government and the Cilegon City Government. The activity began with a field visit to see the community area near the industrial area through waste observation area located in a small river. Then participants visited, dialogue, and interacted with the community of West Kalentemu in Citangkil District to listen and feel firsthand the impact of factory slag waste felt by the community. The training ended with a material gathering session with experts from IPB University of IPB and participants’ reflection on the conditions they encountered and what they could do to improve these conditions according to their capacity.

Empathetic Leadership Training is a mini-training designed to explore the community’s emic perspective. This program is the first program to provide a no-boundary and no-distance platform between the public officials and community with focus on people who are left behind from public policy or those who receive negative impacts of public policy.

Read more of the report here.