Across the Asia-Pacific region, millions of small producers, workers, and local enterprises are still disconnected from the opportunities emerging within sustainable value chains. Closing this gap requires practical solutions that connect stakeholders and strengthen local capacity to ensure sustainability delivers shared value for everyone involved. This is where Swisscontact positions itself, as a bridge that connects businesses and development, for inclusion to be a practical part of business fundamentals.
Karen Alexandria, the country director of Swisscontact Indonesia, is one of the panelists, exploring how sustainability is redefining resilience and long-term value across industries. Joining the session on Social Impact and Inclusion for Sustainable Growth, she shares field-based insights on how expanding access to skills can unlock participation in emerging countries.
At a glance, for communities that have historically been left out, skills open doors to employment and economic opportunity. But what makes efforts truly work is aligning closely with real market demand and actively addressing the barriers that keep people disconnected from opportunity. Too often, training programs are designed in isolation with a focus on building skills first in the hopes that jobs will follow. In reality, the most effective approaches start with businesses. When companies are involved from the outset, helping design curricula and offering hands-on learning experiences, training becomes linked to real jobs.
Swisscontact works closely with vocational schools, companies, the government, and local service providers to align skills with industry needs. Promoting a dual approach can take the form of industry-based curricula and structured internships that go beyond short-term placements to provide clear learning outcomes. Done well, these partnerships benefit both sides.
At the same time, reaching communities requires tackling the very real barriers that prevent people from accessing these opportunities in the first place. Many are not excluded because they lack potential, but because of barriers to access. Bridging this gap depends on stronger local partnerships and delivery models that are closer to where people live. One of Swisscontact’s works through the Swiss Skills for Competitiveness (SS4C), as mandated by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), facilitates an early engagement between petrochemical industry players in Banten, in developing an Industry-Based curriculum with Politeknik Industri Petrokimia Banten. “As a result, 85% students were hired before graduation, proving that accommodating industry needs and aligning local context can significantly improve employability.”
Karen proceeds by reflecting on how underrepresented actors like women and youth can grow alongside the market through more intentional participation. In sustainable agriculture, for example, influence is not always held by formal leaders. It may sit with those socially connected within communities, such as wives and young people. Identifying these voices of influence, the barriers they face, and their entry points is essential to designing approaches that are both inclusive and effective.
On the topic of measurement, Karen notes that social impact is significantly more complex because it centers on changes in people’s lives. It is critical to move beyond surface-level indicators and focus on whether interventions are truly improving economic conditions. In practice, this means using the Theory of Change to focus on outcomes over activities. Rather than simply counting how many individuals are trained, the emphasis is on whether those individuals secure jobs, increase their income, or whether companies improve their competitiveness through their skilled workers. “In our global results, for example, women are not just 51.2% of participants, but they move into jobs and experience additional income. 10.1% from the total belonged to particularly marginalized groups.”
In the end, measurement must serve as a tool for decision-making, not just reporting. An iterative process designed to continuously test initial hypotheses and allow for adjustments when inclusion efforts are not delivering the intended outcomes. With both agility and a willingness to refine strategies in real time, inclusion efforts remain effective and impactful.
Agriculture serves as the economic backbone of Southeast Asia, but it is also where some of the toughest issues about sustainability are raised. Demand for food and commodities keeps rising, but so does the pressure on land and forests. The challenge is no longer just about producing more, but about understanding how productions are implemented and ensuring that supply chains are responsible and resilient. This is the context in which Ross Jaax, the technical advisor for sustainable agriculture in Swisscontact, enters the discussion on Natural Resources, Food Commodities, and Sustainable Production.
Over the years, there has been a clear transition in how sustainable agriculture is approached. From a focus on increasing productivity, it has since evolved into efforts around sustainability and, more recently, regenerative practices. In Indonesia, early work in commodities like cocoa revealed how disconnected supply chains once were, with exporters often unaware of the farmers behind their products. Today, the picture has changed significantly in the journey to improve traceability. Digitization helps companies gain visibility into who their farmers are, where the land is located, and what their livelihoods look like. Furthermore, it helps build trust and reduce risk for agriculture financing, which makes lending less of a guessing game.
Looking ahead, the conversation turned to what is needed to make sustainable agriculture truly work in the long term.
Stronger, more inclusive land-use planning involving local communities balances production with environmental protection. It is an effort that requires closer collaboration between governments, companies, and communities. Whether to connect farmers to markets or create systems that support both livelihoods and the environment, the future moves toward supply chains that are productive and inclusive, grounded in local realities.
With climate risks becoming more visible and natural resources being stretched, tourism destinations face mounting challenges, and travelers are demanding to know how and where their experiences are created. For many experts, the biggest shift in sustainable destination tourism is how to adapt the sector to these demands. Drawing experiences from Swisscontact’s work in Sustainable Tourism Education Development (STED), building a skilled local workforce drives this crucial transformation, where communities adapt to potential disruptions.
Preparing workers who can adjust to changing realities, whether shifting roles during low seasons or responding to new standards, is what makes sustainability practical and resilient. While alternative pathways build a workforce that is capable but flexible for what the future holds, ensuring these efforts last beyond short-term projects remains key. This is mainly done by bridging and strengthening the wider system, connecting businesses, training providers, and workers with skills that match real market needs. More than simply protecting destinations, sustainable tourism builds an economy where people have the skills and opportunities to adapt and grow their livelihoods over time.
The reality of operating in emerging markets is the presence of opportunity, but one that sits within systems that are still evolving. On paper, the system looks complete, and the building blocks are present. However, in reality, these actors often remain disconnected, limiting the flow of information and opportunity.
Skilled workers are not available at the level required.
Suppliers struggle to meet quality standards.
Distribution channels are fragmented.
Each constraint appears manageable on its own.
Together, they hold back growth.
This is a common pattern in market systems where the issue is not the absence of effort, but the absence of connection. Building connections acts as a bridge that allows local actors to interact, while strengthening capability ensures that once connected, people and institutions can continue to adapt and scale their activity over time. In her closing statement, Karen reiterates what lasting impact means beyond project cycles, “Bridging the local actors and being capable.”