Keywords

Empowering Women, Combatting Terrorism, Entrepreneurship Sector and Seaweed.

Introduction

One of the activities that can be carried out by women is to involve them in agriculture and fisheries/aquaculture sector. The involvement of women in these sectors has an important role because they do not only act as members of the family but also play a dual role in helping families to improve the family's economy and also improve the quality of life of female farmers (Pogoy et al., 2016). Activity that can be performed by women in the coastal region of five provinces include aquaculture such as processing locally available seaweed into snacks.

Seaweed cultivation can be carried out in local households. This study found that household activities such as seaweed farming can make a large contribution to household income. Seaweed female farmers are involved in the seaweed cultivation. Women continue to work at their home when their husbands go to the sea to fish. This situation sometimes makes women the breadwinner in their household even though the incomes are not in large amount. Seaweed cultivation enables women to participate in raising the income of their households. Women do childcare, the house chores and seaweed cultivation without demanding income remuneration. When husbands go to work in the sea, their wives and daughters do almost all cultivation activities starting from buying seedlings in nearby locations, preparing the propagules, planning appropriate activities, maintaining all equipment, harvesting to the post-harvesting phases of production such as cleaning dried seaweed on their land. The important role of women in seaweed cultivation can be seen from their need to master aquaculture and managerial skills and education and to be in good physical health. This study aims to analyse the strategy carried out in countering terrorism through entrepreneurship sector.

Concept

This research applies a concept of empowerment. Empowerment is a social process which has a multi-dimensional nature and aims to help people to control their own lives without expecting help from others (Bayeh, 2016). Empowerment always be related to gender equality. Women require education and skills to achieve gender equality (Sell & Minot, 2018). Women will have an awareness to increase their capacity and have a sense of empathy for gender issues with their education and skills (Sales de Oliveira, 2014). For some sectors, there are still gender gaps, especially in the agricultural sector. This gender gap causes female farmers to become less productive in their jobs. Gender disparities can be inequality in education, lack of opportunity to complete extension services training, lack of access to asset ownership, and access to banking and wider services (Doss, 2008; IFPRI, 2014; Quisumbing, 1996; Mason & King, 2001). Severe disparities have a large negative effect on the household, especially affecting family income and harmony in the household. This condition has an impact on other aspects of personal and family life such as the health which will be poorer, standards and length of education sector will not increase and nutritional and dietary status will also be poor (Sraboni et al., 2014). To reduce gender disparities, both women and men must have the skills, tools and information to improve their lives (Manfre et al., 2013).

A woman can also fight for women’s right and feminist activists with their education and skills. The rights of women constitute one component of Sustainable Development Goals that have been adopted by member states of the United Nations on September 25, 2015. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) include gender equality and women’s rights (Esquivel & Sweetman, 2016). The SDGs program fosters women to fight for their rights and social justice. The SDGs program also calls on women to engage in various formal and non-formal sectors and to fight against economic inequality and fight for themselves and their families to escape poverty. Nevertheless, gender inequality is one of important issues in Indonesia. Therefore, the Indonesian government must support activities toward equality so that women’s rights can be fulfilled, and they can contribute to economic progress.

Some studies have found that gender gaps occur generally related to empowerment and women’s participation (Chiristina et al., 2015). One way to eliminate gender inequality is through Women’s Empowerment. Social processes reform will make people become strong in fighting for life in a community. Women’s empowerment will support the economic growth of a country. Therefore, women need to have a good education and health so that they can increase productivity and welfare and promote prosperity of the country. A condition of a prosperous country will alienate society from acts of terrorism actions.

List of Questions

1. What is the contribution of seaweed farming to prevent a family to join a terrorist organization?

2. What is the relationship between entrepreneurship and combat terrorism?

Dee Jupp and Sohel Ibn Ali in their book explain how to measure the empowerment of a group by using indicators that they set themselves and are based on an empowerment experience that they have experienced (Jupp et al., 2010). These authors document several of their findings including their engagement with a group of people who have low incomes but must work to support their families. They form a group called the Social Movement. Then the authors ask for an explanation to family members about the changes they experienced after following or being active in this social movement. Based on this approach, women’s empowerment in this paper was identified through deep interviews with parties who were directly involved in empowerment or family members who felt the benefits of empowerment. In this study, author proposed two core points of empowerment, namely: first, how their condition is currently at the time of the empowerment program; and two, what are their aspirations for the future (Jupp et al., 2010).

Method of Research

This research was conducted in the South Sulawesi Province of Indonesia from May to August 2019. The study applied a semi-structured interview method and Focus Group Discussion. Interviews were conducted with women directly involved in seaweed cultivation to marketing seaweed. Interviews were also conducted with stakeholders as policy makers.

Discussion

Terrorism causes people die, damaged property and infrastructure, slow growth economic, increased unemployment, declined foreign investment, hampered foreign trade, entrepreneurs suffer losses, and tourists’ numbers decline due to security factors (Akça & Mehmet, 2017). Therefore, terrorism must be fought. Indonesian government must work to prevent any more acts of terrorism in Indonesia. Increasing the role of women through women’s empowerment is one of the ways of combatting terrorism.

Several female seaweed farmers said that the role of women is very important in the process of cultivating seaweed such as from drying the seaweed to the final stage of the marketing process. They said the involvement of women in the economic sector is one of strategies of countering terrorism. They further said that the seaweed cultivation process is not only conducted by men, but women also participate in the cultivation process. Women must participate in the process of seeding, harvesting and post-harvesting seaweed, even so, women’s working areas are different from men's working areas. Men go to the sea in the process of cultivating seaweed, but women working in a yard. The female seaweed farmers in the sub-district said that empowerment of women is indeed needed but there is also a need to pay attention to the working areas and workloads of women and men. The work of women in general covers seeding, tying seaweed, releasing seaweed when harvesting and drying seaweed around their homes. Women are also involved in processing seaweed because seaweed is a commodity that is economically important and can be used for medicine, food, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and materials in the food industry (Sukiman et al., 2014). Therefore, the empowerment of women in this sector is very necessary to support the government strategy in combating terrorism.

Conflict conditions force women to participate in peace efforts. One of the stakeholders said the need to empower women not only in peaceful conditions but in conflict atmosphere women empowerment is also needed to achieve peace. This stakeholder further emphasizes the effort to maximize natural yields in their processing. One of these natural products is seaweed cultivation into a snack. In general, women undertake several stages in seaweed cultivation such as tying, releasing and drying, then the next step is for men to sell it to traders. In the regular labour force shows that many female employees receive no payment compared to men in Indonesia (Datu Eranza et al., 2015). This condition also occurs in the seaweed cultivation process. Women involved in the cultivation process are generally without pay because they work on a household scale according some informants in during FGD. This situation also makes women uninterested to develop their skills in processing and marketing seaweed into snacks. This situation is certainly a challenge for stakeholders in persuading women participation in their region. Women’s involvement in business management may support the family's economy. This method is one among other methods for maintaining post-conflict peace. Michielsen in his research found that collaboration between women and men is very important in achieving sustainable peace (Michielsen, 2017). A peaceful atmosphere can prevent someone from supporting the extremist movement.

To support this empowerment activity, the government must collaborate with other countries. Women's empowerment activities are one of the capacity building activities. In responding to this by increasing capacity to fight terrorism, the Indonesian government actively responded in the Global Counter-Terrorism Forum (GCTF) especially Indonesia as the co-chair of the program "Southeast Asia Capacity Development Working Group (SEAWG) with Australia from 2011 to 2013. Another activity that collaborated with Australia was that Indonesia was the co-chair of the "Detention and Reintegration Working Group (DRWG)" program. One of the objectives obtained by Indonesia in this program is to increase the capacity building of stakeholders who manage the management of extremist violence in prisons in Indonesia. In addition, it also discussed sharing information about activities to combat terrorism.

To support this collaboration activity, Indonesia hosted the GCTF DRWG annual meeting held in Bali on 12 to 13 August 2014 which has adopted several designs from the DRWG for the implementation of 2014 to 2016. Other activities relating to the DRWG are Indonesia being the host for the workshop with the theme "Capacity Building and Training for the Appropriate Management of Violent Extremist Offenders" held at Medan on April 8 to 9, 2015. Then, the Global Centre on Cooperative Security (GCCS) worked with DRWG to hold a workshop with the theme Education, The Life Skills Courses and Vocational Training for Incarcerated Violent Extremist Offenders held in Nairobi, Kenya, from 7 to 8 October 2015. Other activities held by the DRWG are Australia and Indonesia on 2 to 3 November 2015 in Sydney Australia, both countries hold a meeting to discuss business efforts to strengthen prison security, rehabilitation, prison management, and reintegration programs. This activity in Sydney also discussed capacity building programs specifically aimed at prison officers.

The local government as a stake holder needs to have a strategy to explore the potential in the region such as making food or snacks from environmentally friendly proteins (Boer et al., 2013). Seaweed snack consists of proteins known as new foods (Huotilainen et al., 2006). Based on data obtained from informants, the processing of seaweed into snack is still very limited. Even though Minapolitan seaweed cultivation in some district is going well, but the processing of seaweed into snack is still limited to household consumption and is not marketed outside of the district. Based on these conditions, the local government through the sub-district head and the village head recruit trainers to train the community which is aimed at improving the skills of female seaweed farmers.

Participation in the processing of seaweed cultivation is one form of women’s empowerment (Datu Eranza, 2015). Data from informants in some district stated that there were several groups of people who had cultivated seaweed into snacks. They said that the involvement of women in the economic sector can be one of the strategies to combat terrorism. Several districts are the areas that become the centre of Eucheuma cottonii seaweed production. Based on data with stakeholders in some district, the involvement of women in cultivating and marketing these products is very useful because they can conduct homework such as caring for children and also can help the family economy. The participation of women in seaweed cultivation also influenced seaweed production in the form of increased production of seaweed.

Women have increasing skills by participating in the process of marketing seaweed. In the case of seaweed processing, according to informants in some district, women generally carry out several stages such as cleaning and drying seaweed. Some of the drying products that have been pressed are sold directly to traders at a price of around Rp.5.000-Rp.7.500 in accordance to market prices. Then, the merchant sells seaweed products to factories in regions in Indonesia to be used as gelatine. The dependence of farmers on traders is so large that sometimes farmers get a low price compared to the prices on the market. Therefore, the role of the local government in establishing partnerships between farmers, stakeholders, and seaweed users is very necessary. At this stage, the opinion of women in discussing with their husbands as the head of the household regarding the prices that should be given to traders is very necessary. Women’s participation in decision-making is needed at all levels not only in the sectors of social, religious, political and cultural life but also needed for the economic sector (Porter, 2013).

Based on data in some district, the government has provided training to the community especially training for seaweed farmers regarding the use of seaweed into snacks so that it can be consumed directly. Several groups of female seaweed farmers process seaweed into snacks on a household scale. Based on interview data with informants, researchers found obstacles in processing seaweed into a snack such as the production of home-made seaweed have a low product durability and products will get easily covered with mold. This condition is a problem in seaweed marketing activity. Some groups of women use preservatives so that the seaweed products can last longer. This method gets a lot of opposition from other people because it has a big risk to health. Based on this fact, the local government provides training in the form of diversification of processed seaweed products. The purpose of this training is seaweed products last longer and do not contain preservatives that can disrupt consumer health.

Furthermore, women’s groups were also taught how to package and its impact for marketing. Good packaging will have an impact on consumer health so consumers prefer seaweed snacks with good packaging (Wansink, 2003). This packaging method was also carried out in the collaboration involving researchers from the university. Female seaweed farmers were taught first how to make healthy seaweed snacks. Afterward, the local government provides training on how to register so that seaweed snack products are registered with the health department. Registration to the health department is very important to get a certificate for the Household Industry Food (PIRT). PIRT is expected to increase marketing, which in turn can support the income of seaweed farmer families.

Another benefit gained through online sales is that female farmer do not need a large place or space to sell seaweed snack products physically. Seaweed farmers also do not need employees in the sales process because they can do it themselves except employees in the field of shipping goods and ordering online. Thus, female farmer groups do not need space because the site management system has provided warehousing as a place to accommodate various types of seaweed snacks and also an item management system is also available. This condition makes it easy for users, especially for women farmers who have to work and to take care of their children or families.

Conclusion

Women have an important and strategic position in the family. The woman involved in the family decision making process can influence children, husbands and other family members to avoid terrorist network. Terrorism actions have killed many people and damaged a lot of infrastructures. This condition makes Indonesia as one of the countries vulnerable to being targeted by terrorist attacks. This will certainly disrupt the economic condition because foreign investment will decrease. Investor countries will choose a place to invest and do business in safe countries. This situation encourages the Indonesian government to involve women as part of combat terrorism strategy. Therefore, women’s participation in processing and marketing seaweed into snacks needs to be improved. The creation of gender equality and women’s empowerment will shape gender integration.

Acknowledgement

The author would like to thank the community, especially women and the government at the research location for providing complete data. This research received funding from the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education of the Republic of Indonesia with the 2019 Higher Education Basic Research program and contract number is 1740/UN4.21/PL.00.00/2019.

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