Between her endless research and tight deadlines, Syifa Mufiedatussalam, a PhD candidate from the Faculty of Education, still chooses to spend her free time giving back to the community and working on a social program.

She has joined forces with Avocain, an empowering youth startup, through the Youth Accelerator Fund (YAF) program, in collaboration with PLAN Indonesia, to address agricultural waste and carbon emissions in Riau.

The initiative focuses on equipping the younger generation with the tools to research, innovate, and draft actionable policy briefs. Their primary target? Finding sustainable solutions for the massive amounts of oil palm tree trunk waste (limbah batang sawit) plaguing the region.

Throughout the program, Syifa supported them by helping develop ideas, conduct research, and develop solutions grounded in local potential, providing global insight and inspiration, and encouraging the creation of high-quality, applicable program outputs.

Her mentorship focused heavily on ensuring the final outputs were not just theoretical exercises, but high-quality, applicable programs that local governments and stakeholders could readily implement.

The collaborative efforts bore major fruit. Under Syifa’s guidance, the youth cohort successfully produced a comprehensive policy brief titled “Strategi Kolaboratif Pengelolaan Limbah Batang Sawit untuk Menekan Emisi Karbon di Riau” (Collaborative Strategies for Palm tree trunk Waste Management to Suppress Carbon Emissions in Riau).

The Policy brief aims to encourage attention and concrete action from various parties, from the government, business actors, and farmer communities, to work together to address the gaps in palm tree waste management in Riau. 

Specifically, this policy brief aims to identify the root causes hindering palm tree biomass waste management and to formulate policy recommendations that can be implemented immediately by relevant stakeholders. 

“I felt incredibly honored to be part of this program and to meet such high-potential Indonesian youth,” Syifa shared, reflecting on her mentoring journey. “They are hard workers and think outside the box; I learned a lot from them,” she said.

She hopes that there are many start-ups and NGOs that have this kind of initiative. “I hope the young people who attend this event can share their knowledge with other friends and make an impact,” she closed.