Money alone is not enough in poverty alleviation

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)