NextBillion - A WDI Publication

While global media coverage of the social enterprise sector often focuses on countries like India and Kenya, Malaysia remains relatively underrepresented in these conversations. However, in my research across this sector, I’ve observed that the country has developed rich models of social innovation deeply embedded in community, culture and land.

Late last year, I joined a group of around 40 social entrepreneurs, researchers and ecosystem support organizations for the Social Enterprise World Forum’s Rural Social Enterprise Gathering in Malaysia. The event involved a multi-day immersion into the lives and work of community-led ventures in rural Malaysia, offering a rare opportunity to learn from ventures rooted in indigenous knowledge systems, ecological stewardship and local resilience.

My participatory engagement with these ventures involved conversations with founders, walks through farms and once-forested areas, and deliberations over how tradition intertwines with modernity. Each of these ventures offers lessons on how practitioners and policymakers can best support rural social enterprises — not only in Malaysia, but globally. In the article below I’ll share lessons learned from five ventures: Tonibung, LJD Corporation, DumoWongi, Kokoriu and Pace ‘A Voi.

Tonibung: Engineering Appropriate Technology for Rural Communities

Tonibung began as a youth mobilization effort in the aftermath of the 1998 East Asian financial crisis, and quickly transitioned into a nonprofit focused on electrification efforts in the Malaysian state of Sabah. In the words of its founder, Adrian Lasimbang, Tonibung aims to “leave no one behind” when it comes to energy access. The organization is deeply rooted in the indigenous Dusun community’s “Tagal” principles of sustainable resource management — a term that refers to prohibitions on the extraction of natural resources.

During my immersion with Tonibung, I saw a number of energy innovations, such as micro-hydro and biogas systems. But what stood out was the organization’s ingenuity in making these technologies appropriate for the local reality. Although Tonibung’s technology solutions were inspired by innovations developed in other Global South locations — micro-hydro from Nepal and biogas from Sri Lanka — they were contextualized to meet the unique challenges of operating in Sabah. As a result, they featured several practical design choices: For instance, due to the region’s hilly topography, the organization deployed repeater stations and communication protocols into its micro-hydro units, to overcome communication challenges between turbines and village-level control stations.

Tonibung’s work has also shaped a transition in Sabah towards community-led micro-manufacturing as a pathway for development. Its pioneering role in inspiring technological experimentation in this area has spurred other ventures in Sabah to follow suit. This has extended beyond inspiration to practical support, as the company has leveraged its facility to provide a shared tinkering space for other innovators, and its founder has contributed technical expertise to support the development of other micro-manufacturing units. For example, Tonibung facilitated LJD Corporation’s efforts to develop a machine that turns plastic waste into jewelry.

LJD Corporation: Turning plastic waste into tourism products

Founded in 2022, LJD Corporation is a rural social enterprise that transforms plastic waste into souvenirs, such as jewelry, inspired by Sabah’s local colors, flora and fauna. It is based in a village near the Kayu Madang landfill, which receives nearly 1,000 tonnes of waste every day, making the need for sustainable waste management visible and urgent.

During my visit, I got to engage with LJD’s founder, Saila Saidie, and young women trained to produce magnets, keychains, jewelry and other products from plastic waste. What stood out most was Saidie’s ingenuity, as she had iterated the company’s production process through countless experiments with moulds and machines, developing a novel micro-manufacturing unit with silicone moulds that can be remodelled for newer designs. This approach, which LJD is currently in the process of patenting, allows for creative flexibility and material efficiency.

Since these manufacturing units can be used in individuals’ homes, LJD’s model fosters a decentralized, technology-enabled circular economy. By reimagining waste as a resource, the enterprise creates livelihood opportunities for young women in its community.

DumoWongi: Commercializing indigenous herbs and edible flowers

Started in 2019, DumoWongi fosters the home-based cultivation of native herbs and edible flowers. By focusing on backyard and indoor farming, it allows women to generate income from home, making entrepreneurship accessible within the everyday routine of life.

DumoWongi commercializes its products through two channels: supplying herbs and edible flowers to hotels and retail stores, and upcycling textiles like tablecloths with natural dyes derived from its plants. I got to create a handkerchief myself with natural dyes during the visit. What stood out most was founder Irene Mositol’s structured approach to community organizing and aggregation: DumoWongi starts by training participants on plant identification and gardening, then provides them with starter kits that include farm tools and seeds. The women then cultivate the plants in their own backyard, with DumoWongi providing ongoing support with organic farming practices and quality assurance. Once harvested, the company aggregates the produce for processing and sale.

DumoWongi continues to innovate, developing unique new colors and scents which are infused into soaps and oils, demonstrating how indigenous botanical knowledge can be converted into high-value product offerings. By decentralizing production and centralizing processing and marketing, it achieves flexibility and scale while preserving ecological sustainability in the supply chain.

Kokoriu: Cultivating food sovereignty through indigenous land stewardship

Kokoriu was started by Angelen Daransun in response to her community’s need to travel two to three hours inside the forest to get a majority of their food. To change this, the company led local community members in an effort to convert three acres of forest land into a shared space for cultivating food and preserving indigenous seed varieties, with the goal of achieving local food sovereignty.

The enterprise began as a home cultivation project in 2020, and only grew into a community effort when local residents began seeing tangible results. Today, Kokoriu’s work is supported by Malaysian government grants and development sector funders, and the company has expanded to include a nursery for local plants and an aquaponics system. These facilities support the creation of herbal and wellness products like teas and natural deodorants, which are sold in cafes and retail outlets in peninsular Malaysia.

What stood out most for me was Kokoriu’s grounding in the indigenous resource management principle of Gompi-Guno, which means “use and protect.” This philosophy guides its regenerative agricultural practices — only using necessary forest area for cultivation, and rotating plots every few years to allow natural vegetation to regenerate. By integrating eco-wellness education, home stays and walking trails into its model, Kokoriu is opening new revenue streams while celebrating indigenous knowledge and ecological stewardship.

Pace ‘A Voi: Wellness through Stingless bee honey

Mariana Rampungan started Pace ‘A Voi in 2018 by turning a personal study of the benefits of honey into a community-based “kelulut” (stingless bee) enterprise. Pace ‘A Voi trains community groups to build and maintain hives, forming a decentralized network of stingless bee processors in rural Sabah. This has created multiple variants of honey, each reflecting the unique flora surrounding the individual hives. One of the most striking moments I experienced during my field visit was sampling these variants directly from the bee hives to compare the taste of honey from adjacent kelulut hives and notice the distinct flavor profiles.

Much like DumoWongi, Pace ‘A Voi blends decentralized production with centralized processing and marketing. Beyond honey, the company is unlocking the full potential of stingless bee cultivation. This includes creating food products around bee bread (a naturally fermented food made by bees), royal jelly and propolis, a coating produced by bees to seal and protect their hives, which can be used to extend the shelf life of food items. By developing a range of food and functional products from stingless bee cultivation, Pace ‘A Voi demonstrates an indigenous-informed approach to resource use that prioritizes stewardship and value maximization, similar to the practices seen in Kokoriu and Tonibung.

Key learnings for supporters of rural social enterprises

In observing these businesses, I identified three key learnings that are relevant to policymakers, practitioners and others who aim to support rural social enterprises.

1. Embed indigenous resource management principles in enterprise design: Across the cases of Tonibung and Kokoriu, indigenous principles such as Tagal and Gompi-Guno emerge as foundational to enterprise design. More than just being formally codified, they are woven into everyday practices, guiding decisions around resource use, regeneration and community stewardship. This illustrates the impact of embedding sustainability deeply within the venture’s ethos, rather than treating it merely as an add-on. With these values at the core of their work, these enterprises are able to deliver even more benefits to their community and environment.

2. Decentralize production, centralize innovation and create market linkages: A recurring pattern across multiple enterprises, such as DumoWongi, LJD Corporation and Pace ‘A Voi, was the use of decentralized, home-based production paired with centralized marketing, product testing and distribution. This approach allows for flexibility at the producer level, while enabling quality control and scale when going to market.

Centralization does not just occur at the level of individual enterprises, but also through ecosystem-support intermediaries. During my visit, I also interacted with Juddy Binti Lasius, the founder of Moyog Innovation House, which supports e-commerce startups, such as Koondos, that aggregate and market products produced by different social enterprises in Sabah. Such platforms are essential for creating market linkages between rural ventures and consumers, and there are opportunities to further support them. For example, they could be strengthened by drawing inspiration from global digital commons-based platforms like Good Market, which emphasizes community data ownership and control and a direct relationship between vendor and consumer — in contrast to multinational e-commerce platforms that concentrate power.

3. Foster seamless engagement between entrepreneurs, support organizations and government: One of the most refreshing observations from my field visit was the visible collaboration between the rural social entrepreneurs, the enterprise support organization SCENIC (which organized these visits), and local government. These stakeholders maintained responsive feedback loops: For example, when DumoWongi highlighted issues with marketing and visibility to SCENIC, they immediately contacted a deputy minister’s team and helped the business secure a booth at an exhibition with hotel chains. Meanwhile, local government agencies support rural social enterprises by procuring their products and services for official events. This coordination also extended to the co-creation of new market opportunities. For instance, SCENIC and government leaders collaborated with Pace ‘A Voi to develop experiential eco-tourism offerings, such as beekeeping visits and honey tasting.

Due to their remote location, rural social enterprises face unique structural constraints in areas such as logistics, networks and market access. An integrated ecosystem in which entrepreneurs, support organizations and local government actors collaborate to navigate these barriers and pool resources is absolutely critical for rural social entrepreneurs to thrive and scale.

Sreevas Sahasranamam is a Professor at the Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow.

Photo credit: faizzaki