Toward green economic growth in South Sumatra: collaborative platform through a knowledge management approach

In the world where natural resources are already limited, balancing the environmental aspect with economic growth has become necessary. Otherwise the consequences will be severe. The Green Growth Masterplan of South Sumatra has outline the strategies and action toward achieving sustainability. The masterplan consist of seven strategies aimed at achieving 5 sustainable development goals: (1) sustainable economic growth; (2) inclusive and equitable growth; (3) socio, economic and environmental resilience; (4) healthy and productive ecosystem, and (5) greenhouse gas emission reduction. The masterplan also implied that the only way South Sumatra will be able to achieve the green economic growth is through collaboration and cooperation among all stakeholders in the province. All of the enabling condition in green growth strategy were pointed toward the importance to build a strong partnership with all stakeholders. They need to work together and combine their knowledge and resources to achieve the green growth vision. One of the enabling condition is a strengthened capacity to conduct and implement green growth action. At this point, the issues of knowledge management became important. In order to collaborate effectively in managing the South Sumatra Landscape, a strong basis of knowledge is required. A knowledge society need to be formed in South Sumatra for this purpose. This knowledges need to be manage in such a way that any stakeholders in South Sumatra will be able access, utilize and improve. The SECI (Socialize-Externalize-Combine-Internalize) framework of Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995), fit nicely into the context of South Sumatra green growth implementation. Tacit knowledge from local wisdom of community needs to be combined with explicit knowledge that has been produced by so many research project in South Sumatra. The only problem with SECI framework is in institutionalization of the framework itself. Knowledge sharing on sustainable development needs to be facilitated by a body who can work with multiple stakeholders and at the same time implement the knowledge management system. In South Sumatra, this was addressed through the Green Growth Partnership Institution. KOLEGA SUMSEL is a form knowledge society which strive to achieve green growth vision through cooperation and collaboration. The cooperation models itself is an important contribution from South Sumatra to the development practitioners in other places.