Wa Ode Asmawati

Wa Ode Asmawati was elected as a Commissioner with the Information Commission of Jakarta in 2016. Her duties include resolving and deciding information disputes, evaluating the compliance of public bodies, making standard information services more accessible, and advocating for citizens’ awareness of and freedom for information.

Wa Ode is also on the Central Board of Aisyiyah, the largest Muslim women’s organization in Indonesia, which has branches in 34 provinces. In this role, she works on disaster management, providing women, children, the elderly and the disabled greater access to disaster management and emergency response resources, in addition to assisting with reconstruction after natural disasters occur. Wa Ode also works to ensure that women who have been trafficked have access to information and resources. For the past ten years, she has overseen 250 orphanages, providing crucial support for children’s health and nutrition.

She was previously on the Anti-Trafficking and Violence Task Force for the Ministry of Social Affairs. She was instrumental in the founding of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Indonesia, which now operates in 18 provinces. Wa Ode has a background election monitoring and gender in development.

She was selected as a Fellow for the 2019-2020 VV Engage Cohort.