Swietenia Puspa Lestari, the founder and Executive Director of DIG program grantee Divers Clean Action, was featured on the prominent Forbes 30 under 30 Social Entrepreneurs of 2020 list and was also named as one of BBC’s 100 most inspiring and influential women of 2019.
Divers Clean Action was awarded a grant by the USAID-funded, DIG-implemented, Municipal Waste Recycling Program to increase plastic recycling and improve livelihoods in Thousand Islands, Indonesia. Swietenia, as the organization’s leader, has been instrumental in expanding the number of local participants engaged in the Thousand Islands community-based solid waste management system and in improving the solid waste collection services provided by the government. She has helped secure the support of international corporations (such as H&M and Danone) to connect recycling efforts on the islands with the recycling value chain in Jakarta and has introduced bulk stores that avoid plastic packaging. In addition to her recent Forbes and BBC honors, Swietenia was chosen to represent Indonesia at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2017.