Initiation of OVOC, Dr Handian Purwawangsa Wins the 2025 Diktisaintek Award

Director of Agromaritime Community Development (DPMA) at IPB University, Dr Handian Purwawangsa, won the Bronze Winner award at the 2025 Diktisaintek Research and Development Award in the category of Best Senior Scientist in the Field of Social Humanities Innovation. This award was received on (12/9)  after he proposed his flagship innovation, One Village One CEO (OVOC). 

OVOC is a business ecosystem innovation in rural areas that he initiated together with Prof Arif Satria and Dr Alim Setiawan Slamet.

“I am grateful that the social innovations implemented over the past 10 years through OVOC have been recognized. However, the most important thing is that OVOC’s activities to build a business ecosystem in rural areas from upstream to downstream have raised national awareness that if we want to develop villages, we must pay attention to the entire process from start to finish,” said Dr Handian.

He explained that OVOC was first implemented in early 2019 in 53 villages. The program received positive responses from the community and investors. In fact, the OVOC concept has been applied to assist PT Astra International Tbk facilitators throughout Indonesia.

“Now, more than a thousand villages have been impacted by the OVOC program. OVOC has begun to be applied by companies outside Astra, such as Adaro, Indomaret, Bank Syariah Indonesia (BSI), Mandiri, and others, to develop the communities in the villages they support,” said Dr Handian.

“OVOC has also made its mark on government priority programs such as Kampung Nelayan Merah Putih (KNMP) and Transmigrasi Patriot, and will soon be applied to Koperasi Merah Putih,” added the Director of PMA IPB University.

Dr Handian outlined several impacts of the OVOC program. The first and most significant impact is a shift in mindset. CEOs, who are alumni and final-year students, are deployed to the field and spend most of their time living among the community, facilitating a knowledge and technology transfer process that can transform the community’s mindset.

“Second, there is certainly a change in capacity. Starting from cultivation, processing, and then market information. There are several OVOC villages that have exported their superior products. Before exporting, there is certainly a long process that makes the products of one village or several villages attractive to the global market. Of course, this will have an impact on income and job absorption,” he said.

In 2026, Dr Handian revealed that OVOC will be applied overseas. The implementation of OVOC International will collaborate with IPB University students abroad as partners. This program will also collaborate with the Indonesian Student Association (PPI), which can promote OVOC.

According to Dr Handian, the development of OVOC is important to support the sustainability of the business ecosystem from upstream to downstream. This shows that as a social researcher, he never stops innovating.

“We still really need research that has an impact on society. In its implementation, there must be multidisciplinarity if we want this research to have a big impact,” he said. (MHT)(IAAS/RWA)