Agus Diono

Profil

Agus Diono serves as the Special Advisor for the Enhancement of Business Roles and Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities at the Ministry of Investment and Downstream Industry/Indonesia Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM). Previously, he had a thirty-year career as a bureaucrat at the Ministry of Social Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia.

Born in Cepu on August 28, 1961, Agus completed his secondary education at SMAN 2 Bandung in 1984 and obtained his Bachelor’s degree from the Indonesia Teachers’ Training College (IKIP Bandung), now known as Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia (UPI), in 1989. He earned a Master’s degree in Sociology from Widuri University, Jakarta in 2006, and a Diploma in Social Welfare Policy from Flinders University, Australia in 2017.

Agus began his civil service career in 1990 at the Directorate General of Social Rehabilitation, Ministry of Social Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia. Throughout his service until 2019, he held various key positions, culminating as Head of Social Rehabilitation Outside Institutions.

Beyond his government service, Agus has been actively engaged in social, humanitarian, and disability rights initiatives both nationally and internationally. His international involvement began as an Indonesian delegate for the English Student Exchange Program in Florida, USA (1985).

He subsequently represented Indonesia at various international conferences, including the International Council for Education of Visually Impaired (ICEVI) Conference in Thailand (1989), the Malaysian Association for the Blind (MAB) Conference in Malaysia (1996), and the Training Course for Leaders of Persons with Disabilities in Japan (1997). He also took part in the Asian Conference on Visual Handicap in Singapore (1997), the Leadership Training of the Asia Blind Union in Thailand (1999), and the Training Course in Technical Aid for Visually Disabled Persons in Asia and Oceania in Japan (2000).

In 2002, Agus represented Indonesia at the Osaka Forum for the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons in Japan and later at the Intensive Course on Disability and Development in Jakarta (2011). He also served as a delegate to the Asian and Pacific Decade of Persons with Disabilities in South Korea (2012), the International Conference on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (APEC) in Vietnam (2016), and the IASSIDD World Congress (International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities) in Australia (2016).

Internationally, Agus served as Chairman of the Group of Friends on Disabilities for the ASEAN-APEC Region from 2015 to 2020.

At the national level, he has been involved in various organizations, including as Head of the Education Division of the Indonesian Association of Blind Students (HIPMATINDO) from 1978 to 1984, and as Vice Chairman for International Relations of the Indonesian Blind Union (PERTUNI) from 1984 to 2000. He currently serves as Director of the Louis Braille Indonesia Foundation (since 2020) and as Founder and Chairman of the Indonesian Disability Alliance (Aliansi Disabilitas Nusantara, since 2023).

For his dedication and contributions, Agus has received numerous awards, including the National Award for Outstanding Disabled Scholar (1993) from the Bhakti Nurani Indonesia Foundation, the Award for Pancasila Ideology Training Implementation (1998) from the Ministry of Social Affairs, and Runner-Up in the Japan Nationwide Turtle Marathon (2009) organized by Minzoku Forum Japan. He was also invited as a speaker at the National Seminar on Psychosocial Rehabilitation (2014) organized by WHO and the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia.