Misguided poverty eradication drive blamed for malnutrition

Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The current outbreak of malnutrition that is affecting thousands of children in some provinces might be considered a slap in the face for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, not only because such reports have been concealed from him, but also because the reports have dealt a major blow to his government's poverty eradication programs.

In the early weeks of his administration, Susilo decided to continue the urban poverty eradication project that was partly funded by the World Bank. His controversial fuel price hike policy early this year also aimed to provide more funds for the poor in the form of free education and health services.

The President has now ordered a revival of community health service posts, known by their Indonesian acronym Posyandu, to tackle malnutrition that has left 41 children dead in West Nusa Tenggara and East Nusa Tenggara over the last six months.

Poverty eradication programs shifted into top gear following the economic crisis that started battering the country starting in 1997. Acronyms flew thick and fast, such as JPS (the Social Security Net), JPK-Gakin (poor families health insurance) and Raskin (cheap rice program), among others, all of them programs ostensibly set up to help the poor.

In its 2006 action plan draft, the government set a priority to focus on reducing poverty and unemployment.

The number of poor people has reached a staggering 16.4 percent of the country's population of 220 million, or roughly 36 million people. Some suggest the actual figure is nearer to 50 million.

Data from the Institute for the Development of the Economy and Finance (Indef) revealed that last year only about 26 percent of subsidized rice for the poor reached its target, 26.5 percent for health services, 35 percent for school fee support and nearly 10 percent for soft loans for small and medium enterprises.

"The programs are run with heavy bureaucratic structures. The amount of funds embezzled is crazy," said Wardah Hafiz of the Urban Poor Consortium (UPC), a winner of the Yap Thiam Hien human rights award.

Azas Tigor Nainggolan of the Jakarta Residents Forum (FAKTA) said the government's programs only worked on the surface and were not sustainable.

"The programs pursue short term objectives. Here, have the rice, and that's it. Instead of charity, the programs should focus on people empowerment that will set them free from poverty," Azas said.

Unclear vision due to lack of field research is another reason why poverty programs remain far from successful.

"Reviving old programs? That's ridiculous. That shows how the President doesn't know anything about the situation in the field," Azas said of the government's plan to revive old programs like Posyandu.

Activities in Posyandu have been limited to measuring babies' weight and weekly snack distribution. Free contraceptives, for instance, have stopped due to lack of funds, which has resulted in more births in poor families.

Sandyawan Sumardi, a priest who works with poor communities, said that every poverty eradication program should involve poor people themselves from the initial stage to the evaluation phase, while the government should only serve as a facilitator.

In the area of Bukit Duri, near a river bank in South Jakarta, poor people demonstrated their initiative to improve their own welfare by operating a cooperative unit. But lack of funds has made it difficult to develop.

"The stigma that poor people are lazy is not true. They have worked hard, doing different informal jobs at the same time. Unfortunately, they still earn very little. These people should have be assisted with small- and middle-scale enterprise programs," said Sandyawan.

The activists agreed that poverty was a complicated issue that was not only related to economy, but also to matters of education, health services and the judicial system.

"Poverty is also a problem where people's participation is neglected, such as the city planning program, which always evicts urban poor. Poverty means not having security, like a place to live or even an ID card," Wardah said.

Sandyawan added that is was urgent that poor people be given opportunities, access, infrastructure, and capital, without depending on the government.