About Us
Normafa Research Center is an independent organization based in Palembang, South Sumatera, Indonesia. We advance the UN SDGs by conducting high-quality research, gathering key development data, and supporting community-led initiatives. Guided by principles of equity and inclusion, we aim to inform decision-making, close knowledge gaps, and drive sustainable, locally grounded progress.
Advisors
Prof. Maria F. Farkas, Ph.D
Prof. Robert J. Nathan, Ph.D
Founder & Co-Founder
Budi Setiawan, Ph.D
Rifai Afin, Ph.D
Advisors
Prof. Maria Fekete-Farkas, Ph.D is an economist, and a full professor of Microeconomics at the Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Institute of Agricultural and Food Economics. Her research areas are sustainable development and corporate sustainability, digitalization, new market structures and pricing, economics of resources, behavior economics, social media, economic, social and environment aspects of climate change. She is a member of the organizing committees of several international conferences and serves certain international journals as a member of the editorial board, reviewer and author
Prof. Robert Jeyakumar Nathan, Ph.D is a Design Thinking Certified Trainer from Stanford and Head of Academic Innovation at Multimedia University, Malaysia. Formerly a Systems Analyst at Siemens Semiconductor AG in Germany, he specializes in Manufacturing Data Analytics. He conducts corporate training for clients like Telekom Malaysia, Telkom Indonesia, and Infineon Technologies. As an advocate for UN SDG #4, he is affiliated with Education International, Brussels, and is one of 50 EI Global Advocates. He also serves as Guest Professor at EIDV and Associate Editor of the European Science Journal.
Founder & Co-Founder
Budi Setiawan, Ph.D is a lecturer at Indo Global Mandiri University, Palembang. He has 9 years of experience across finance, investment, and marketing from national and multinational companies. He is passionate about financial inclusion, financial technology (fintech), SME finance, and Innovation economics. In 2019, he was selected as a participant in the research training in Banking and Finance program at the University of Limoges (France), and Economic research methodology workshop at SGH Warsaw School of Economics (Poland) in 2022, sponsored by the European Union. Together with his Indonesian and Hungarian colleagues, Budi has initiated in writing a book chapter entitled “Economic and Business Trajectory: Indonesia, Asia and Europe”, collaboration between the Indonesian Student Association and the Association of Hungarian PhD and DLA Students (DOSZ). Budi is an alumnus of the Doctoral School of Management and Business Administration Sciences at the Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences (former Szent Istvan University, Hungary) under Stipendium Hungaricum Programme. He has published and reviewed several papers in reputable journals indexed by Scopus, ABDC journal, and Web of Science.
Rifai Afin, Ph.D is an academic with over 20 years of experience as an economic researcher and consultant. After earning his Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Airlangga University, he began his career at leading economic research institutions, including the Regional Economic Development Institute, and served as a researcher and teaching assistant in the Department of Economics at Airlangga University. He later advanced his studies with a Master’s in Economics from the University of Essex, UK, supported by a Ford Foundation scholarship, and earned his PhD in Economics from Corvinus University of Budapest through a Stipendium Hungaricum scholarship. Rifai is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at Trunojoyo University, Madura. In addition to his academic role, he serves as an economic consultant for various institutions, both central and regional, such as the Ministry of National Development Planning (Bappenas), Bank Indonesia, and the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, as well as international organizations including the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, USAID, JPAL Southeast Asia, and the DALA Institute.