Strengthening the Collective Economy of the Mawongi Women's Group Consequences of the Expansion of the Poso Hydroelectric Power Plant

Before the construction of the hydroelectric power plant (PLTA), the community and the Mawongi Women's Group in Kuku Village, North Pamona District, Poso, had depended on their livelihoods as farmers on 250 hectares of land. The land was mostly planted with pagata bananas, sticky corn, durian, cocoa, and dryland rice. However, since 2003, when a renewable energy development company built a large-scale power plant to produce 600 megawatts of electricity, the community and women's group began to feel the impacts of the development such as changes in the landscape of forest areas, pollution of river basins, disruption to women's reproductive health, flooding that inundated community rice fields, damage to prehistoric sites to the point of destroying the community's economy and some people were forced to lose their cultivated land.

To encourage collective economic improvements in the community resulting from the hydroelectric power plant construction, the Mawongi women's group is promoting a women's group economic development program initiative by improving the quality of banana chips and durian dodol production and encouraging women's capacity building in production management, marketing, and financial management. The goal is to develop women's collective economic independence in Kuku Village. In the long term, this program aims to strengthen women's collective awareness to encourage village-level development policies that better contribute to women's interests and serve as a forum to strengthen women's struggle to defend their land.

As a result, 63 group members gained increased knowledge of production management, marketing, and finance, resulting in increased sales of the products they developed. Furthermore, this also strengthened the solidarity and critical awareness of the Women's Group members, which then led to the formation of a management structure and standard operating procedures (SOPs). In terms of production, the women's group successfully produced banana chips and durian dodol, which have been marketed in surrounding villages and at provincial and national exhibitions.