Work experience at UN agency to empowering communities through CSR
Treading a career path that revolves around efforts to empower the community is a destiny chosen by Ali Aliyuddin himself. The alumni of International Relations (HI) Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR) has explored careers in various UN international agencies to multinational companies, all of which are focused on community empowerment activities.
A student of class l994, Ali said that the studies and knowledge he gained at HI UNAIR had led him to this career journey. The man born in Mojokerto, December 15, 1975 spent his college years active in the HI Student Association and Senate.
Ali recalled how at that time, he was also a witness and perpetrator of the reform movement carried out by students. Entering the reform period, Ali also joined the University Network For Free and Fair Election (UNFREL) which was tasked with overseeing and monitoring the general elections after the collapse of the New Order.
While studying at FISIP UNAIR, Ali remembers the value of egalitarianism and substantial discussions that are always built in the campus ecosystem. In addition, HI assignments that always revolve around the framework of analysis are a meaningful provision for his career path. "That is what built my skills, mindset and attitude when I finally entered the field," he explained.
The Aceh Tsunami and the Risks of Working in Conflict Areas
"I used to feel jealous of my friends who managed to become diplomats. But over time, my work turned out to be in line with my study experience," he recalled. After graduating from UNAIR, Ali did not immediately succeed in climbing his career ladder. He told me how he had to try to find a job network that matched his dreams and studies in HI. Ali started his career in 2001 as a researcher at the Jawa Pos Institute of Pro-Outonomy. One year later, Ali managed to level up by working as a project planning officer at the World Bank. After the 2004 Aceh tsunami, Ali was inspired to apply for a job at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) as a national program assistant.
"There, my job was to ensure that humanitarian aid was distributed. In addition, we at UNFPA also designed post-disaster recovery programs, especially in the field of reproductive health and rights," said the former program coordinator of the NGO IDEP Foundation. The moment of the Aceh tsunami introduced Ali to community empowerment activities. Ali finally began to step into various other international organizations such as the Environmental - Service - Program (ESP-USAID), United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and United Nations World Food Programme (UN-WFP).
One of Ali's most memorable experiences throughout his journey in various international agencies occurred when he worked at the UNFPA Tsunami Aceh 2004 and UNDP in Papua 2012. When in Papua itself, Ali carried out - a community empowerment mission - to increase the human development index in the easternmost region of Indonesia.
"Representing an international organization as big as the UN, our team is often targeted by anti-government groups - who usually seek international attention. In Aceh, we had to be escorted because the military operation area was still in effect due to sporadic shootings by GAM. The same goes for Papua where there is an OPM," Ali said.
However, the various risks of the work did not dampen Ali's enthusiasm to continue spreading good impact to the community. One can see the legacy he left behind when he worked with UNICEF in South Sulawesi from 2008 to 2010.
Ali and the UNICEF team at that time ran programs and socialization related to Clean and Healthy Lifestyle (PHBS), especially the habit of washing hands. "At that time, we were ignored because the importance of handwashing was not understood by the community. But we did not give up and continued to communicate with the local government. Eventually our program was adopted by them," he said.
From his various experiences, Ali is now anchoring his career as a specialist relations for Husky-CNOOC Madura Limited (HCML), which is a Special Task Force for Upstream Oil and Gas Business Activities (SKK Migas). HCML itself is a branch of a company from Canada and china.
Serving since 2019, Ali is responsible for public relations and the preparation of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) at HCML. Unlike his work at INGOs that only deal with the community, at HCML Ali is required to improve his skills to deal with the government, stakeholders, and the media.
Not only that, Ali is now also entrusted with the position of Chair of the East Java Province Social Welfare CSR Forum since 2020. There, he tries to coordinate CSR from various business entities in East Java in order to form a synergy with the needs of the target assisted by the Social Service.
"This forum tries to direct the company's CSR program to be right on target. The big hope is that East Java's human development index can skyrocket. Our province has a fairly good industrial level, so the CSR program must be directed to community empowerment," said the former individual consultant at Bappeda Surabaya City.
Through these achievements, Ali believes that there are three important principles that must be adhered to in order to achieve career success. These principles are open mindset, open networking, and open prayer. "Finally, we must also have special skills that help and facilitate ourselves in achieving our careers," he concluded.
