Stakeholders told to fight poverty<\/p>\n
P.C. Naommy, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Lack of seriousness, coordination and integrated cooperation
\namong stakeholders has hindered efforts to eradicate poverty in
\nthe country.<\/p>\n
\"The government should involve more private sector companies
\nand non-governmental organizations to take part in poverty
\neradication efforts,\" said M. Rizal Ismail, deputy of the task
\nforce responsible for extending working and entrepreneurial
\nopportunities.<\/p>\n
Rizal cited the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), a
\nproject funded by several international financial institutions,
\nas a source of guidelines for battling poverty in the country.<\/p>\n
The paper was drafted to meet requirements set by the World
\nBank and the International Monetary Fund on 80 indebted
\ncountries, including Indonesia, in order to obtain more loans
\nfrom the international financial institutions.<\/p>\n
According to Rizal, the heart of the program is to involve
\nmore people from the private sector and non-governmental
\norganizations (NGOs) by taking their recommendations into
\naccount.<\/p>\n
\"The program should be run by multi-stakeholders, but common
\npractice has shown that the government has dominated all meetings
\nand ignored or bypassed the opinions or suggestions from the
\nprivate sector or NGOs,\" said Rizal on the sidelines of a seminar
\non poverty eradication held by the Indonesian Antipoverty
\nMovement (GAPRI) on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Rizal said that the government's domination had forced up to
\n70 percent of the private sector companies and NGOs involved to
\nleave the project.<\/p>\n
Rizal further said that government domination was reflected in
\nthe PRSP, with its technical and bureaucratic language that was
\nhard for most community stakeholders to understand.<\/p>\n
He also sharply criticized the technical advisers who were
\nsupposed to assist with the PRSP for failing to provide an
\naccurate portrayal of poverty in the country.<\/p>\n
\"Most of the technical advisers would only take old secondary
\ndata and plug in old analysis in their reports, which don't
\ndescribe the actual condition of poverty in the country,\" said
\nRizal.<\/p>\n
Rizal said that with a salary of up to US$1,500 for two
\ntechnical advisers in each task force, they should be able to
\nprovide primary data from the field and up-to-date analysis.<\/p>\n
Further criticism came from Soedjarwo, the first secretary of
\nthe task force responsible for human resources development.
\nSoedjarwo said that poverty eradication should come in an
\nintegrated package, not a spatial design.<\/p>\n
\"All departments have developed their own programs, and they
\ndon't come in an integrated package, which won't yield an overall
\nsolution for the needy,\" said Soedjarwo.<\/p>\n
According to the committee, the PRSP draft will be submitted
\nto the Commission of Poverty Eradication on May 28, before the
\npaper is taken to a Cabinet meeting in June.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/stakeholders-told-to-fight-poverty-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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