JP\/ \/POOR<\/p>\n
Accountability key to poverty eradication programs<\/p>\n
A. Junaidi
\nThe Jakarta Post
\nJakarta<\/p>\n
Indonesia has had a series of poverty eradication programs over
\nthe past 20 years. Soeharto's New Order regime was hailed for the
\ndecline in the number of poor, particularly from 1970 to 1995,
\nfrom 70 percent to 10 percent in 1995.<\/p>\n
However, people living just above the poverty line, analysts
\nsaid, were highly vulnerable as long as they were without steady
\njobs. This has become more evident since the monetary crisis
\nbegan in 1997.<\/p>\n
As part of urgent programs carried out with international
\nfinancial institutions such as the World Bank, the Social Safety
\nNet program began.<\/p>\n
But reports of leakage and that the funds were not reaching
\nthe most needy eventually led to the halting of the program. In
\nits place programs like the disbursement of free rice to the poor
\nwere introduced. Yet again, 74 percent of recipients are those
\nwho are not poor, as noted by the World Bank's brief this month
\nto the donor group, the Consultative Group for Indonesia.<\/p>\n
Despite such programs, the report said "households in
\nIndonesia are extremely vulnerable to falling into poverty" with
\nmost people earning less than US$2 a day. It added that 53
\npercent of Indonesians lack access to at least one basic service
\nsuch as clean water.<\/p>\n
Further, poor targeting of such programs led to the fact that
\n"of the Rp 4.83 trillion allocated to Bulog in 2003, over half
\nwent as subsidy to the non-poor, almost a third was absorbed by
\nBulog (National Logistics Agency) in operating costs and profits,
\nand only 18 percent went to the poor."<\/p>\n
A lack of accountability has been blamed for the failure of
\nsuch programs.<\/p>\n
"All the programs have 100 percent failed. After the funds
\nwere disbursed, nobody reported it," Poverty Eradication
\nCommittee (KPK) secretary Gunawan Sumodisastro told The Jakarta
\nPost recently.<\/p>\n
While the government had failed, people could not help
\nthemselves out of poverty either: Coordinating Minister for
\nEconomic Affairs Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-Jakti has said the 7 percent
\nof economic growth needed to create jobs for an average annual
\nworkforce of 2.5 million was not feasible in the next few years.<\/p>\n
Poverty is simply the inability to meet certain standards of
\nbasic needs, such as food, clothing and housing. BPS revealed
\nthat the number of people living in poverty reached 37.1 million
\nin 2001 and increased to 38.5 million last year.<\/p>\n
This year's poor people are predicted to increase due to
\ncontinued low economic growth, natural disasters and the
\npercentage of population growth approaching 2 percent. Major
\nincidents such as the Bali bombing affected the economy of
\nvirtually an entire province, at the very least.<\/p>\n
Since last year, programs related to poverty eradication were
\ncoordinated by the KPK. Accountability is supposed to be more
\nclear; it is led by Coordinating Minister for Peoples' Welfare
\nJusuf Kalla himself. The program now also involves universities
\nand business associations apart from non-government organizations
\n-- many of whose track records were questionable regarding
\ndisbursement of funds to the poor in the Safety Net program.<\/p>\n
Last year, the government allocated a total of Rp 2.96
\ntrillion for poverty eradication programs, which were managed by
\n10 ministries and other government institutions.<\/p>\n
The government allocated an additional Rp 4.4 trillion for the
\npoor in all provinces affected by fuel price hikes this year.<\/p>\n
But according to a recent survey conducted by researchers from
\nseveral universities, most of the funds did not reach the poor.
\nSome ministries and institutions overlapped one another in work
\nrelated to similar targets. Abuse was reported in the form of the
\ninclusion of regular programs in proposals of poverty eradication
\nprograms, in order to secure more funds.<\/p>\n
Free health cards, financed by the fuel price increase subsidy
\nfund, were reportedly sold to wealthier people.<\/p>\n
In Jakarta, subdistricts' officers could not identify the
\npoor, merely defined as people with Jakarta identity cards.<\/p>\n
Officials with Bappenas said that regional administrators,
\nfeeling empowered by regional autonomy, also arranged their own
\nprograms while results could not be easily monitored.<\/p>\n
The regional administrations often claimed they knew their
\nareas best and rejected government supervision.<\/p>\n
Worse, no institution in the provinces submitted reports on
\nthe disbursement of the funds. KPK so far has no data on how much
\nmoney has been used.<\/p>\n
Now the government has announced new policies in its "White
\nPaper" including in poverty reduction. Things will be just the
\nsame again if the main factors -- such as corruption -- which led
\nto the failure of earlier programs are allowed to be repeated.<\/p>\n
Until problems related to, among other things, the absence of
\na credible and clean body that can manage funds for the poor are
\novercome, any poverty eradication program would only be a waste
\nof money without reducing the number of the poor in the country.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/jp-poor-1447899208",
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