Finding the funds for RI's human development<\/p>\n
UNSFIR, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Indonesia's 2004 Human Development report has estimated what
\nit would cost to provide good basic health and education services
\n-- and also to offer both food security and better physical
\nsecurity for the whole population. Fulfilling these rights turns
\nout to be much more affordable than might have been expected.<\/p>\n
Most people assume that fulfilling rights to health, to
\neducation, to food and to physical security is impractical in
\nIndonesia.<\/p>\n
As a developing country, occupying 112th position in the
\nglobal human development rankings, surely Indonesia does not have
\nsufficient resources to fulfill the basic rights for all its
\npeople -- especially when it is still recovering from the effects
\nof a severe economic crisis.<\/p>\n
This may be the instinctive reaction, but is it correct?<\/p>\n
Indonesia's 2004 Human Development Report, The economics of
\ndemocracy, provides the first overall estimates -- and concludes
\nthat guaranteeing these rights should in fact be quite feasible.<\/p>\n
The report looks first at health. It points out that good
\nhealth is the outcome of many different factors, including
\npoverty, environmental circumstances and matters of personal
\nbehavior. Nevertheless public health provision can make an
\nimportant contribution.<\/p>\n
Of total health expenditure in Indonesia around 80 percent is
\npaid for by private individuals or institutions and the rest by
\nthe state -- a higher private share than in most other countries
\nin the region.<\/p>\n
What would it cost to guarantee effective services for all?
\nThe report cites a World Bank study which estimates that it would
\ncost Rp 51,000 per person to deliver a basic package of health
\nservices -- including immunization, family planning, mother and
\nchild health care and curative care for diseases such as TB,
\nmalaria, and dengue fever. However this does not include hospital
\nor in-patient care which represents a high proportion of current
\nprivate health expenditure.<\/p>\n
The Ministry of Health has therefore made a proposal for extra
\nfunds to cover this in the form of a \"poverty health grant\" which
\nwould be distributed to districts.<\/p>\n
This indicates that the additional requirement per poor person
\n-- around 20 percent of the population -- would be Rp 78,412.
\nThe total cost of this on an annual basis would be Rp 13.6
\ntrillion -- compared with the existing expenditure on basic
\nhealth of Rp8.4 trillion: An increase of Rp 5.2 trillion.<\/p>\n
In the case of education the report estimates what it would
\ncost to ensure that almost all children completed primary and
\njunior secondary education in schools that were adequately funded
\nand staffed.<\/p>\n
The best estimates of what it would cost to fulfill the rights
\nto basic education have been produced by the Ministry of National
\nEducation in its National Plan of Action: Indonesia's Education
\nfor All.<\/p>\n
The result at the primary level is an annual \"ideal\" cost of
\nRp 1.17 million per pupil at primary level and Rp 2.28 million
\nper pupil at junior secondary level.<\/p>\n
The report then looks at food security. It says that the
\nsimplest approach is to consider that all those who fall below
\nthe poverty line -- 18 percent of the population -- are \"food
\ninsecure\".<\/p>\n
In Indonesia in 2002 the basic minimum food requirement was
\nestimated to cost Rp 82,328 per month while the non-food items
\nwere priced at Rp 28,957, so the total poverty line was fixed at
\nRp 111,285 per month.<\/p>\n
If the approach were simply to hand over the funds to the poor
\nto lift them all above the poverty line and thus able to buy the
\nminimum food requirements the cost would be Rp. 8.4 trillion.
\nHowever, many people are below the poverty line at least partly
\nbecause of health and education expenditures.<\/p>\n
The final issue the report looks at is physical security. In
\nIndonesia, as elsewhere, violence takes many forms. In some cases
\nit has been linked to ethnic and other struggles, claiming the
\nlives of many people and displacing thousands of others.<\/p>\n
One of the most important ways of providing physical security
\nwould be to have a well-trained and uncorrupted police force --
\nwhose officers were seen as integral parts of the community and
\nwho worked in partnership with the local people.<\/p>\n
Dealing with corruption and improving the quality of the
\npolice force will demand wide ranging reforms, including better
\ntraining, along with effective systems of monitoring and
\nappropriate disciplinary procedures.<\/p>\n
But probably one of the most effective, and expensive elements
\nof reform would be to improve the salaries of police such that
\nthey are less tempted by bribery and corruption.<\/p>\n
At present police wages are only around 20 percent of those of
\nbank employees while in other countries the wages for the two
\nprofessions are more or less equivalent.<\/p>\n
How much would it cost to offer more reasonable salaries to
\nthe police force?<\/p>\n
Currently the annual budget for the police is Rp 6.74 trillion
\nfor routine expenditure and Rp 0.78 trillion for development
\nexpenditure.<\/p>\n
Setting the wages according to the standard of Malaysia or
\nSingapore would mean that current wages would have to be roughly
\nquadrupled.<\/p>\n
In addition it would also be necessary to increase the numbers
\nof police. Taking this into account the report estimates that the
\ntotal cost would Rp 28.4 trillion -- an increase of Rp 20.9
\ntrillion.<\/p>\n
The total cost for fulfilling rights to food security, to
\nhealth, to education and physical security, are indicated in the
\ntable below.<\/p>\n
Of course these are only broad estimates and they refer
\nprimarily to routine costs rather than development or capital
\ncosts.<\/p>\n
But they do indicate a general order of magnitude, suggesting
\nthat government expenditure on these rights as a proportion of
\nGDP would need to rise from 3 percent to 6 percent -- a
\nrelatively modest increase which would bring Indonesia roughly
\ninto line with neighboring countries.<\/p>\n
The central message, however, is that rights that most
\nIndonesians consider remote possibilities are actually well
\nwithin the country's reach.<\/p>\n
Annual costs for financing basic rights<\/p>\n
Current annual cost Required increase Full annual cost<\/p>\n
Food security Rp 4.8 trillion 0.27% Rp -1.1 trillion Rp 3.7 trillion 0.2%<\/p>\n
Basic health Rp 8.4 trillion 0.47% Rp 5.2 trillion Rp 13.6 trillion 0.77%<\/p>\n
Basic education Rp 33.0 trillion 1.84% Rp 25.0 trillion Rp 58.0 trillion 3.24%<\/p>\n
Physical security Rp 7.5 trillion 0.42% Rp 20.9 trillion Rp 28.4 trillion 1.59%<\/p>\n
Total 53.7 trillion 3.00% Rp 50.0 trillion Rp 103.7 trillion 5.80%<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/finding-the-funds-for-ris-human-development-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }