Bappenas emphasises integration of social assistance with community empowerment
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Minister of National Development Planning/Head of the National Development Planning Agency (PPN/Bappenas) Rachmat Pambudy has emphasised the urgency of transforming social assistance (bansos), integrated with community empowerment, and supported by accurate and integrated data.
“I believe we must emphasise two main things, namely empowerment and data quality. We cannot work alone in empowerment. At the same time, our experience shows that the social data we have still has various functions that are not yet optimal. Without accurate data, various interventions risk being off-target,” he stated during a meeting with Social Affairs Minister Saifullah Yusuf, Deputy Finance Minister Suahasil Nazara, and a delegation from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), as per a statement quoted in Jakarta on Thursday.
The Head of Bappenas also emphasised the need to sharpen social assistance policies so that they are not merely temporary, but capable of driving community independence.
The momentum of the economic census can be utilised to strengthen the national data base.
Efforts to ensure that social assistance programmes run more efficiently and on target include reducing inclusion errors and improving exclusion errors.
“The President has conveyed a new model of social development and community empowerment. This is our collective test to ensure that no one is left behind, whether in terms of food, housing, health, or other basic needs,” said the Minister of National Development Planning.
Social Affairs Minister Saifullah expressed the Ministry of Social Affairs’ commitment to accelerating data transformation and strengthening empowerment programmes through skills enhancement and community asset strengthening.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Finance Minister emphasised the importance of improving accuracy in the distribution of social protection programmes, as well as the importance of an empowerment approach as the foundation in poverty alleviation, thereby creating income and jobs.
For Bappenas, continued Rachmat, this meeting reaffirms the government’s commitment to strengthening cross-ministerial and institutional synergy to realise an adaptive, targeted, and sustainable social protection system.