Building Partnership for Social Innovation in Rural Development: Case Studies in Coastal Villages in Indonesia

As an archipelagic country, Indonesia has the potential for marine resources that can guarantee the welfare of the community. Coastal villages face infrastructure limitations that hinder the development of marine resource-based potential businesses. This paper elaborates on the importance of partnership to increase the coastal community’s participation in creating social innovation. It is argued that a solid and collaborative action can boost the acceleration of coastal development among community members. This paper was developed from a qualitative study in several West Java and Gorontalo province’s coastal villages. Data collected from interviews and discussions with coastal village community groups were collected in 2021. The result shows that community partnerships can be proposed to create more social innovation in optimizing marine resources. The result implies that social innovation can be developed by a close partnership between community members and the village government in development planning and its implementation. Community partnerships with the government and private businesses designed in village development programs can encourage social innovation so that marine resources can be managed economically. Furthermore, social innovation can become capital for developing local businesses to increase community marine economic activities’ capacity.