Windu Adi Prastowo

Windu Adi Prastowo at Niagara Falls
MPS '22, Global Development
  • Hometown: Magelang, Indonesia
  • Colleges attended and degree earned: University of Indonesia, Bachelor in Economics (Sarjana Ekonomi) in Accounting
What are the big challenges you want to tackle in the world?

I want to improve anti-corruption efforts particularly in Indonesia. Corruption is one of the main issues that causes other problems such as poverty, inequality in education, and lack of healthcare, especially in developing and underdeveloped countries.

What were you doing before the MPS program?

I graduated from the University of Indonesia in 2013 with a degree in Bachelor of Economics (Sarjana Ekonomi) in Accounting. After having a brief experience working in Deloitte, I joined The Audit Board of The Republic of Indonesia as a Government Auditor in 2015.

What does global development mean to you?

For me, Global Development is an effort to make the world a better place to live. Cornell provides us a place to study about it for the people from around the world, which is great!

What has been the most memorable or impactful experience of your career so far?

The most memorable moment is when I conducted an examination on the significant percentage of malnourished children in Kalimantan. At first, I thought that the problem was just poverty but it turned out that there were some other significant and complex causes. For example, the local government was having difficulties in reaching some minority groups because many of them were still reluctant to go to the local clinics, there was unsynchronized malnutrition alleviation program between the central and local government, there was a presences of children neglect, etc. This examination also made me realize that eradicating malnutrition among children and pregnant mothers is complicated. It needs much more attention from the government and societies because healthy children are one of the great assets for development.

How do you envision your MPS degree contributing to your career?

The MPS in Global Development will enable me to broaden my perspective of the development effort around the globe. Later when I come back to my country, I will share and use the knowledge and experience that I got at Cornell to strengthen the government development audit planning and methodology. I hope with stronger audit planning and methodology, our institution will be able to produce more comprehensive audit findings and recommendations for better development processes in Indonesia.

Tell us a fun fact about you.

I don’t like most of the fruits, but I do love to eat almost all kinds of vegetables.

Connect with Windu: 
  • wp224 [at] cornell.edu