Infrastructure investment key to tackling poverty: ILO

Infrastructure investment key to tackling poverty: ILO

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The International Labor Organization (ILO) recommended on Tuesday
the Indonesian government invest in labor-intensive public
infrastructure projects and support small and medium enterprises
in order to tackle poverty.

The ILO said in a statement, released in conjunction with a
report titled Working Out of Poverty: An ILO Submission for
Indonesian PRSP, that the Indonesian government must increase
economic growth to between 5 percent and 6 percent to help create
more than two million jobs per year.

"These recommendations emphasize the need to place employment
issues at the center of the poverty reduction strategy based on
the conceptual framework of 'Decent Work for All,'" Alan Boulton,
country director of the ILO in Indonesia, said.

More than 42 million people in Indonesia were unemployed at
the end of 2003, and that number is expected to exceed 45 million
by the end of this year.

The head of the Center for Labor Development and Studies,
Bomer Pasaribu, warned that unemployment could pose a threat to
the upcoming legislative and presidential elections.

The ILO report said the Indonesian government should also
identify sectors with employment potential, incorporate
employment objectives into macro and sectoral policies, set clear
employment targets, empower the National Tripartite Council and
implement recent and proposed labor law reforms.

In addition, the government should improve the quality of
education, particularly vocational training and enhance training
for small and medium enterprises and informal sector operators.

The ILO also highlighted the need to implement the National
Action Plan on the Worst Forms of Child Labor at the local level,
and support young people in their transition from school to work.

According to the report, despite improved macroeconomic and
political stability in Indonesia, economic growth remains below 4
percent, governance concerns persist and poverty reduction
remains a tall mountain to climb.

It stated that 110 million of the 216 million people in
Indonesia spent less than US$2 per day and remained vulnerable to
falling back into severe poverty, despite the fact that poverty
had been reduced from 27 percent of the total population in 1999
to 16 percent in 2003.

Furthermore, the country continues to under-perform in
comparison to its neighbors in access to quality health,
education and other basic services, as reflected in the National
Millennium Development Goal indicators, the report said.

Weak governance is deterring investors and undermining
services, especially to the poor, according to the ILO.

Although the government has implemented reforms that could
lead to more effective and accountable government and an increase
in growth rates, the focus must now be on the implementation of
these reforms and putting in place an effective poverty reduction
strategy paper (PRSP), it added.

The PRSP is scheduled to be completed in June this year.

The ceremony to mark the release of the report was attended
by, among others, Joharis Loebis, chairman of the government's
PRSP team, and Azita Berar-Awad from the ILO's Policy Integration
Department.