Ghafur Akbar Dharmaputra

Ghafur was born in Bandung on 16 February 1964^[1] to Garnawan Dharmaputra, a career diplomat who served as ambassador to Syria from 1981 to 1984, and Erna Farida. Ghafur has four siblings.^[2] He studied economics at the Sebelas Maret University from 1982 until graduating in 1986, with the distinction as the best and fastest student to graduate from his cohort. He was also active in Lingkar Studi Pembangunan (LSP) FE UNS, his major's academic forum; Nurul Huda, the college's mosque; as well as within the Muslim Students' Association.^[3][4] He later received a master's degree in commerce, with a honours distinction, from the University of Wollongong in 1993.^[1]

Ghafur began his career within the foreign ministry in 1988 as a staff at the directorate for multilateral economic cooperation. In 1993, he received his first overseas assignment at the economic section of the embassy in Mexico. He began his tenure with a diplomatic rank of third secretary before promoted to second secretary. He then returned to the foreign ministry in 1996 for a three-year stint as the chief of World Trade Organization section within the directorate for multilateral economic cooperation.^[1]

Ghafur returned for another round of foreign posting at the economic section of the embassy in Washington, D.C. in 1999 with the diplomatic rank of first secretary. He was then promoted to counsellor before returning in 2003. He was subsequently appointed as the deputy director within the ASEAN economic cooperation directorate, serving until 2006. Afterwards, he was stationed at the embassy in Cairo for economic affairs with the initial diplomatic rank of counsellor, earning a promotion to minister-counsellor sometime during his duty there.^[1]

Ghafur became the foreign ministry's director for economic and environment development on 24 April 2008.^[5] Early in his term, Ghafur represented Indonesia as a delegate to the 2008 United Nations Climate Change Conference.^[6] He the became Indonesia's consul general in New York on 21 December 2011,^[7] officially beginning his duties with exequatur on 13 February 2012.^[8] Ghafur's term in office ended on 12 January 2016.^[9]

On 22 December 2016, coordinating minister for human and cultural development Puan Maharani appointed Ghafur as her advisor (expert staff) for post-2015 implementation of Sustainable Development Goals in Indonesia.^[10] Ghafur was then entrusted to run the day-to-day duties of the coordinating ministry's deputy for women and children protection on 23 April 2018, before being appointed as the acting officeholder on 2 May.^[11] Upon passing an assesment process, he was permanently appointed for the position on 6 May 2019.^[12] As deputy, Ghafur announced the launching of a website for pre-marriage counseling by the government^[13] and encouraged companies to receive Economic Dividends for Gender Equality (EDGE) certification to ensure gender equality within their workplace.^[14] Ghafur also played a role in coordinating different government agencies in formulating a system to prevent and handle violence against children.^[15]

Ghafur returned to his prior advisory role as the minister's advisor for sustainable development on 6 August 2020.^[16] In this role, Ghafur played a role in introducing economic education from the government to pre-married couples.^[17] Businessman Jaya Suprana in 2021 recommended president Joko Widodo to appoint Ghafur for a national level role responsible in supervising the implementation of SDGs in government agencies.^[18]