INDONESIA PLAYS SIGNIFICANT ROLE IN WORLD OF SCOUTING by Fardah

Jakarta, April 27, 2017 (Antara) - Indonesia, with a population of over 250 million, is the world's fourth most populous country in the world after China, India, and the US.

          However, in terms of scouting, Indonesia has the largest number of scout members in the world. According to data, Indonesia had 17,200,595 scout members in 2013, and the figure increased to 21,842,404 based on the World Organization of Scout Movement (WOSM) data this year.  
     "You have half of the world's scout members. Hence, we highly respect and laud Indonesia's scouts," Paul Parkinson, chairman of the Scout Committee for Asia and the Pacific, stated on the sidelines of the Ninth Asia-Pacific Regional (APR) Scout Leaders' Summit 2017 held in Bali on April 22-25, 2017.

          Parkinson views Indonesia's scouts as having played a significant role in scout development globally.     
     During the opening of the summit, he expressed pride and happiness on Bali hosting the four-day event.

          "It is an honor and a matter of pride for the Indonesian scout movement to host the Asia-Pacific Scout Leaders' Summit," he said.

          Parkinson expressed hope that the Indonesian scout movement would always be able to play an important role in the field of scouting globally.

          Indonesia has the highest number of scouts in the world. Of the total 109 million young people in Indonesia, 21.8 million are scout members. The ratio is 1:5, which means that one in every five Indonesians is a scout member, according to Brata T. Hardjosubroto, chairman of the organizing committee of the APR Scout Leaders' Summit 2017.

          The Indonesian Scout Movement having large number of members is highly reckoned internationally, especially with regard to educating the youth, he said.

          The number of Indonesian scout members is expected to increase by one million to reach 22.7 million by 2023.

          The Asia-Pacific chapter of the WOSM has set a membership target of 100 million by 2020, which represents a growth rate of 150 percent. Indonesia, with an estimated 20 million active scout members, will obviously lead in this expansion campaign.

         At least 25 scout leaders and 152 delegations from 30 countries in Asia and the Pacific participated in the Bali summit.

          The participating countries were Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Fiji, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Cambodia, Kiribati, South Korea, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and Thailand.

          Representatives of scout movements from Poland, Spain, Ghana, Egypt, Timor Leste, and Macau were also present as guests.   
     Taking into account the importance of the Ninth APR Scout Leaders' Summit 2017, new Secretary General of the WOSM Ahmad El-Hendawi was also expected to be present in Bali.    
     The WOSM is an independent, worldwide, non-profit and non-partisan organization that serves the Scout Movement. Its aims to promote unity and an understanding of the purpose and principles of scouting.

          Being the largest international scout organization, the WOSM, established in 1922, has 164 members.

          The WOSM has its operational headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and its legal seat is in Geneva, Switzerland. It is a counterpart of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts.

          The WOSM's current stated mission is "to contribute to the education of young people, through a value system based on the Scout Promise and Scout Law, to help build a better world where people are self-fulfilled as individuals and play a constructive role in society."
      Meanwhile, the Bali summit was aimed at analyzing the regional scout movement and development of scout leaders while understanding the challenges being faced in the region.

           It also sought to offer a platform to share suggestions and information in preparation for the 41st World Scout Conference to be held in Azerbaijan from August 14 to 18, 2017, and the 26th Asia-Pacific Regional Scout Conference in the Philippines next year.

           Held every three years, the participants shared best practices in the management of scout organizations during the summit.

          Scouting is a grassroots educational youth movement that is truly bottom-up in its structure and approach in engaging young people from all over the world.

           World Scouting today is a confederation of 162 National Scout Organizations forming a network of over 40 million members in more than one million local community Scout Groups.

          Some seven million are adult volunteers who support local activities, resulting in a large multiplier effect.

           Through peer-to-peer leadership, supported by adults, every local scout group embraces the same set of values illustrated in the Scout Promise and Law. Each of the one million local scout groups follows a similar system of non-formal education in line with the unique aspects of their local community.

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(f001/INE)
EDITED BY INE/H-YH


(T.F001/A/BESSR/A/Yosep) 27-04-2017