http://www.irinnews.org/report/99074/analysis-indonesia-s-social-targeting-challenge
Analysis: Indonesia’s social targeting challenge
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Photo: Natalie Bailey/IRIN
Who is accounting for her needs?
HIGHLIGHTS
a.. Millions of vulnerable, poor receive inadequate assistance
b.. Perceptions of favouritism spark protests
c.. Communities’ help with data collection vital
d.. Almost one billion near-poor vulnerable to shocks
BANGKOK, 7 November 2013 (IRIN) - Indonesia’s economy grew by roughly 6
percent in 2013, but its poverty reduction has nearly stalled with almost
half the population living in poverty - and experts struggling to identify
and serve the neediest among them.
“It’s true that [social] targeting is not easy and it’s complicated,” Nina
Sardjunani, the Indonesian government’s deputy development planning
minister, told IRIN.
The decrease in the official poverty rate from 2011-2012 (half a
percentage point) was the smallest since 2003, according to the World Bank
as cited by Australian National University.
Social targeting - the process used to identify people most in need of
social assistance - in Indonesia has improved in recent years, say
analysts.
But with some 11.4 percent of the population living in poverty (and
another 40 percent hovering near it), the cyclical nature of poverty, time
lags between identifying the poor and getting them assistance, and
different ways of implementing national welfare programmes at the
community level, have all made it difficult to keep Indonesian families
from falling into poverty, despite the government's goal to cut poverty to
8 percent of the nearly 247 million populationby 2014.
With some 3 percent (nearly eight million people) still to go and only two
months until 2014, it is imperative not only to expand poverty alleviation
initiatives, but also ensure their efficiency, say experts.
With fuel prices that have risen three times in the past decade and
ongoing increases in rice prices (in a heavily rice-dependent country),
the government has responded with several social safety nets this past
decade.
Safety nets
The government first introduced the Bantuan Langsung Tunai (BLT), an
unconditional cash transfer now known as the Bantuan Langsung Semetara
Masyarakat (BLSM), to 19 million households every three months from
2005-2006, and from 2008- 2009, to smooth over fuel price shocks.
In June 2013 the government allocated nearly US$829 million to the BLSM,
distributing $13.35 to each of 15.5 million households twice between June
and October.
The National Team for Accelerating Poverty Reduction (TNP2K), established
by the government in 2010, oversees implementation of all public poverty
reduction programmes.
The excluded fight back
A number of these initiatives, particularly cash transfers, have
instigated protests throughout the past decade, while failing to lift
significant numbers of households out of poverty, causing analysts to
question the anti-poverty schemes’ scope and efficacy.
Eligibility lists for unconditional cash transfers previously known as BLT
were largely decided by sub-village heads; national programme staff then
reviewed the lists.
Major social assistance programmes
In addition to BLSM, the government implements eight programmes to
provide assistance to the poor, including four main ones:
Raskin, or Rice for the Poor, a subsidized rice programme
Jamkesmas (JMK), a health fee-waiver programme
Bantuan Siswa Miskin (BSM) that provides student scholarships
Program Keluarga Harapan (PKH) or the Family Hope Programme, which
provides cash assistance for maternal and child health check-ups and
school attendance for youths up to age 18.
“If a poor household was not nominated, they were not assessed, and many
of them missed out on the programme,” reported the World Bank in 2012.
Until recently families had no official recourse to challenge BLT
classification, resorting instead to protest.
There were protests in 56 percent of communities where BLT was implemented
between 2005 and 2008 linked to perceptions of favouritism.
In a West Papuan community, villagers jailed a village chief and his
treasurer in 2005; in Central Java in the same year, the community
verbally insulted a village leader responsible for eligibility until he
offered to resign, according to the 2012 study co-commissioned by TNP2K.
To maintain social peace, “local leaders often redistributed in order to
decrease social jealousy,” said Anna Winoto, the social policy specialist
for the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Indonesia.
Another programme that put a strain on community relations that has
“abated but not disappeared” according to a 2012 World Bank report is
Raskin, which provides 17.5 million households with 14kg of subsidized
rice monthly.
Rice typically costs 40 US cents per kilogram; the subsidized price is
almost half, and covers 30-40 percent of a household's average total rice
consumption, according to the Asian Development Bank.
Village officials manage the subsidy, and often redistribute rice to the
whole village to share equally. As a result, an estimated 71 percent of
the lowest three socioeconomic groups - the targeted beneficiaries -
receive subsidized rice, but it may be less than what is intended for
them, says the World Bank.
However, in a report released one year after Raskin’s implementation, the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development noted the
“flexibility in local level implementation may have even improved
targeting with pressure for fairer distribution at the local level and
allowing newly poor families to access the subsidized rice”.
Efforts to improve
The country’s current social targeting methodology, introduced in 2011, is
a database of households’ socioeconomic indicators (excluding income due
to lack of data) gathered every three years by the Central Bureau of
Statistics.
“Before the government adopted a unified database in 2011, each programme
had [its] own list and target of people. It was all very confusing because
of leakage [when resources intended for the poor flow to affluent groups]
and overlap,” said Winoto from UNICEF.
TNP2K identifies households falling into the lowest 40 percent according
to BPS surveys, which are entered into the database. Each national poverty
alleviation programme can then filter its target population. (PKH targets
the poorest 10 percent, BSM the poorest 25 percent with school-age
children, and Raskin the poorest 25 percent, with or without children.)
In addition, the government introduced Kartu Perlingdungan Sosial (KPS)
social security cards in June 2013 for the country’s poorest 25 percent
that were eligible for Raskin, BLSM, and BSM; without these cards,
families will not be considered for enrolment.
Families that think they were unfairly excluded in the past from any
social assistance programme can now apply to their village head to be
re-assessed. Card holders can also file complaints on a newly-established
government website for citizen reporting which includes reporting
applications for smartphones for download.
“Coverage has improved. However, we have to recognize a few challenges,”
said Winoto from UNICEF, who explained that household data is only
collected by the Central Bureau for Statistics every three years, and the
rapid rate at which people can fall into poverty means “a lot of people
are still being missed in safety net scheme[s].”
Photo: Jefri Aries/IRIN
Papua region is one of the country’s poorestData gathering as community
exercise
Involving the community is “key” to finding residents who may qualify for
social assistance, but are falling through safety nets, said Winoto.
Community participation in data gathering has expanded in recent years
after local government officials in Polewali Mandar community in West
Sulawesi Province first piloted efforts in 2004.
Village chiefs there recruited data collectors from the community to
identify households with children who had dropped out of school and were
eligible for cash aid. Since then, more than 3,000 children have been
identified and returned to school with social assistance to support them,
according to local media.
In 2010 the same concept was tested in East Nusa Tenggara Province in 132
villages.
Methodology - but also money
Analysts say it is no surprise that a country with such a large population
(fourth largest in the world) that was classified a low-income country
only a decade ago would still struggle with poverty - and by extension -
targeting assistance.
However, the World Bank has noted that the challenge of helping Indonesia’s
poorest is not only an issue of targeting, but also of inadequate
resources invested in social assistance.
“While targeting is not perfect in Indonesia, most of the poor will be
receiving at least one of these [social assistance] programmes... [but]
there is a question as to whether they receive enough assistance for their
needs,” said an economist with the World Bank in Jakarta, Matthew Wai-Poi.
Indonesia invests 0.5 percent of its annual $878.2 billion GDP in social
assistance, as compared to a 2.6 percent regional average for Southeast
Asia.
“We are yet to have established [sufficient] social safety nets,” said
Arianto Patunru, a local economics researcher for the University of
Indonesia and Australian National University.
dm/pt/cb
Theme (s): Aid Policy, Children, Economy,
[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
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