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Stories and Perspectives

Looking Forward in Indonesia

The Foundation’s Indonesia leadership in 2021. Hana Satriyo is second from the right. (Photo: The Asia Foundation)

Today we welcome to our studios The Asia Foundation’s Country Representative in Indonesia, Hana Satriyo.

Indonesian born and raised, with degrees from Padjaran University and the University of London, Satriyo joined the Foundation as a program officer in 1998 and later served as director of Gender and Women’s Participation and director of Environmental Governance programs. An expert in local governance, decentralization, legislative development, and human rights, she also expanded the Foundation’s interethnic and interfaith dialogue programs in Indonesia. She’s proud of the Foundation’s efforts to improve the public’s digital literacy, and she predicts that the 2024 elections will be a test of Indonesia’s democratic resilience.

In addition to her 25 years as a development practitioner, Satriyo notched some diplomatic experience when her husband served as ambassador to the UK. In this week’s conversation with John and Tracie, she discusses diversity, democracy, and development on the vast and heterogeneous Indonesian archipelago, and she shares a few bemused reflections on her adventure as an ambassador’s “trailing spouse.”

Provincial Map of Indonesia. (Graphic: Bennylin, own work, derived from Indonesia blank map colored.svg / CC BY-SA 4.0)