Money alone is not enough in poverty alleviation

JAKARTA (JP): Money is crucial in efforts to help the poor. But money alone is not enough.

For Siti Oemijati Djajanegara, an urban community and population expert at the Demography Research Agency of the University of Indonesia, addressing poverty is not just a question of financial aid or setting up a foundation or agency to carry out a poverty alleviation program.

She believes that millions of rupiah would come to nothing if not professionally managed. Common sense and hard work could work wonders in helping the poor, she said.

"Poverty is a complicated problem. It affects the whole system of a group of impoverished people -- it has physical and mental consequences as well as economic, social, religious and cultural. Therefore, money alone is not a solution, it is just a tool to help these poor people achieve better welfare and happiness," said Oemijati, whose colleagues and students call Ibu kumis which stands for kumuh (slum) and miskin (poor). The word kumis literally means moustache.

She said the complexity of the problem stresses that specific programs have to be designed. "You cannot generalize and assume that all poor people need capital to run a small business, and then shower them with money and other facilities. What they badly need is a modest house to live in," Oemijati said.

A national program for poverty alleviation could prove ineffective if different social, cultural and economic conditions in the impoverished villages were not taken into account. "You have to identify them (the poor) before you can design a suitable program for each of them. Every program should attempt to address the roots of their problems and solutions must be local in nature," she said.

She also added that any policy to combat poverty should be people oriented and allow participation from each affected community for their advancement.

Educating the involved communities and monitoring progress are also needed to ensure that programs are properly executed, she noted.

"Of course, it could become a tiring and time-consuming program but we must work very hard if we really want to eliminate poverty," she said.

According to the National Development Planning Board, one in nine Indonesians lived below the poverty line in 1996.

Indonesia currently sets the poverty line at a maximum monthly income of Rp 38,246 (US$15.90) per person in urban areas and Rp 27,413 in rural areas.

The figures are based on a daily diet of 2,100 calories and basic monthly needs for housing, clothing, education, transport and others.

The number of Indonesians living in poverty in 1996 was estimated to reach 22.5 million people comprising 7.2 million who live in urban areas and 15.3 million in rural areas, or 11.3 percent of the whole population. Some 12.8 million of the poor, or 56.9 percent of the total, live on densely populated Java and Bali islands.

In the early 1970s, the poverty was more widespread. Sixty out of every 100 Indonesians were considered poor.

The census showed that by the end of 1996, Indonesia had a population of 199.1 million people. Indonesia's population reached 200 million early in February.

Criticism

Even though the number of poor people has sharply decreased, Oemijati, criticized the current government's antipoverty programs, such as gebyah uyah, as the schemes are unexceptionally applied to all of the poorest villages regardless of their dissimilar conditions.

The poorest villages in urban and rural areas need different kinds of assistance as not many poor people are able to manage money, she said.

She observed that some people see the programs as charity rather than effective antipoverty drives.

The government has launched several poverty eradication programs such as the presidential instructions on backward villages program (IDT) started in l994 and Kredit Usaha Kesejahteraan (Kukesra), or the People's Prosperity Business Credit.

Under the IDT scheme, each village is granted Rp 20 million (about US$8,400) a year in capital to launch economic activity to help boost welfare, while Kukesra involves loans to help poor families start their own businesses. Families receive an initial sum of Rp 20,000 (US$8.70), which is increased each time it is repaid within four months and a new loan given.

President Soeharto also issued a presidential decree in l995 to help alleviate poverty. The decree requires individuals and companies with an after-tax income or profit of more than Rp 100 million ($42,462) a year to donate 2 percent of their earnings to the program.

"The IDT program could be better if it was fully understood by people in the regions. Many cases in several villages show that regional government officials and related agencies still have different perceptions of the program. They also have different understandings of poverty problems," she said.

State Minister of National Development Planning Ginandjar Kartasasmita has acknowledged that efforts to alleviate poverty were hampered by inefficient use of development funds. He also said some failures were due to corrupt village heads who embezzled the funds.

Ginandjar, who is also chairman of the National Development Planning Board, identified the lack of congruity and synergy among the agencies involved, a lack of vision, low skills and halfhearted commitment as some of the obstacles in the implementation of IDT.

Oemijati recalled that before the IDT and Kukesra programs were launched, poverty alleviation programs were handled by various government agencies. Problems surfaced because each of them had different conceptions about and approaches toward poverty. "No wonder abundant funds went nowhere," said Oemijati, who is also vice president of the Paris-based Federation of the International Cooperation of Health Services and System Research Centers.

"It will be very difficult for us to deal with poverty if we don't share the same understandings of the problem.

"We should first accept the fact that many people do not equally share the benefits of development and that poverty exists in our country. We shouldn't be ashamed of it nor try to hide the fact," she said.

The government and other agencies involved in antipoverty drives must have the same concept about poverty to make the programs successful.

"When they adopt a corresponding concept, it will be easier for us to set priorities and design appropriate schemes for each of the country's poverty-stricken areas. Now, we have excellent programs, but we walk on different paths," Oemijati said. (raw)