JEDI Knight Farhan Helmy and a Story of Innovative Financing for the Disability and Elderly

About a year ago I wrote an article that came from a long-standing concern. In Indonesia, we often hear the term sustainable finance bandied about in seminar rooms and in government and bank publications. However, a number of fundamental problems still exist, even though we have been hearing and using the term for more than a decade.

The implementation issues are, of course, myriad. But what I wrote in that article was not about the gap between concept and reality, but the fundamental shortcomings of the concept of sustainable finance in this country, especially on the social side. Under the pretext of wanting to start from the most urgent first, sustainable finance becomes very heavy on environmental issues, or green finance.

Is there no social aspect? There is. But it is too small and simplified. Social finance is equated with financing for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). And this makes banks that have MSME financing portfolios can claim to have social finance products. Obviously, this raises issues that are not simple, and unfortunately not many people are willing to discuss them openly.

Can financing for MSMEs be declared sustainable right away? I don’t think so. While providing financing to micro and small enterprises does show a strong equity dimension, it cannot be declared sustainable. Moreover, financing for medium-sized enterprises is actually much easier to access financing and investment if the business is economically viable.

To be categorized as sustainable, all economic, social and environmental dimensions need to be carefully examined. And this should not only apply to corporations, but also MSMEs. While the impact of each business in an MSME is smaller, that does not mean it can be ignored in financing and investment decisions.

Equating social financing with MSME financing is also very problematic. If corporate financing is differentiated by industry and even sub-industry, how can we accept that social financing is only related to the size of the business?

Furthermore, many people in Indonesia then become alien to the idea that social finance needs to be linked to business objectives to eliminate poverty, inequality, hunger, as well as promote health and education, gender equality, etc. While green finance is already sophisticated in its categorization, green finance is already sophisticated in its categorization. While green finance has advanced its categorization in the Sustainable Finance Roadmap since the first phase, social finance is far behind.

Therefore, when a few months ago I met with my admired friend, Farhan Helmy, founder and president of the DILANS (disability and elderly) movement, I continued my “nagging” by sharing facts about many countries that clearly include financing for people with disabilities as a very prominent part of social financing and sustainable financing.

Mas Farhan, or Mr. Kepsek, as I call him, painstakingly asked and commented. The conversation went north-south (ngalor-ngidul), east-west (ngetan-ngulon) to all spectrums of financing, from the purely commercial (but guarded by ESG considerations) to impact investing and cutting-edge philanthropic strategies. After almost 3 hours, Mas Farhan said he was ready to face bankers and investment company executives.

And it’s not Mas Farhan if his movements aren’t lightning fast. He was like Flash in a wheelchair. Not just in terms of places, but also in terms of connections. A few weeks later, he met me again and told me that he had used his new knowledge to create the DILANS Mutual Fund plan. I was truly amazed.

We still meet a few more times, and every time we meet there are progresses that Mas Farhan shares with his smile and laughter. And yesterday, I witnessed the biggest progress without him having to say it himself. He just said that in the afternoon he could be met in the Haji Nawi area, South Jakarta, without saying what was on the agenda.

The clouds were so dark when I arrived in front of the address he shared loc. After making the call, I was welcomed into a room that was already crowded. There are four ladies who look professional, there is a young bule, beside Mas Farhan himself. The friendly, neat, and fragrant ladies were financial professionals from a leading securities company plus an asset management company. The foreigner was a chef from France.

Following later were two other DILANS supporters, plus another friend of mine, the intellectual pastor and disaster hero, Victor Rembeth. What we heard was the amazing work of Farhan. By May 14, the DILANS Mutual Fund will have completed its administration. On July 12, the launch will be held. The target is that the mutual fund, whose proceeds will also finance programs to empower people with disabilities and the elderly, can raise Rp300 billion by the end of the year. And Mas Farhan has managed to persuade a philanthropic institution to put in Rp100 billion at the beginning of the launch!

This is an extremely encouraging development. The Financial Services Authority (OJK) has not yet included financing to help people with disabilities, but by the middle of this year, God willing, we will see mutual funds for that purpose. Mas Farhan and I are already planning to advocate that in the third roadmap (2026-2030) financing for disability issues be explicitly included in social finance as part of sustainable finance.

The plan needs serious work. But it’s not Mas Farhan if he’s not keen to see other opportunities. In the Thamrin School WAG this morning, he poked me, asking if there was any chance of Danantara being JEDI-ized. Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion is the acronym we’ve always preferred over the now highly political Trump term, DEI. If then Mas Farhan immediately asked about it when there was a flurry of news about Danantara, well, that’s the way it is with a real JEDI Knight. He never stops thinking about how to help make life easier for people with disabilities and the elderly.

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