More funds earmarked for poverty alleviation
More funds earmarked for poverty alleviation
JAKARTA (JP): The government has allocated Rp 330 billion ($150 million) for the development of basic infrastructure during the next 1995-1996 fiscal year in 7,800 of the 22,097 villages classified as poverty areas, Director General for Rural Community Development H.H. Siagian said yesterday.
The infrastructure development budget will be provided on top of the Rp 473.73 billion in financial grants to be extended to the 22,097 poverty pockets in the same year, Siagian told a press discussion on poverty alleviation.
"Experiences from the first year of implementation of the poverty alleviation program show that infrastructure such as transportation and communications are crucial for supporting the program," he added.
Siagian said access to a local market, for example, is crucial for supporting the agribusiness ventures already developed by the poor people who have received the financial grant.
The one-day meeting was organized by the Pena Kencana Nusadwipa discussion forum headed by Ahmad Adirsyah.
Under the concerted poverty alleviation program launched last April, each of the villages classified as impoverished is provided with Rp 20 million in annual aid to be used by the people as seed capital for economic activities.
Gunawan Sumodiningrat, chief of the District and Rural Development Bureau at the National Development Planning Agency said the use of the grant is based on a grass-roots decision making process.
"The government does not intervene in the way the grant is used. It is the target of poor people themselves who decide on how to use the fund according to the basic guidelines set by the government," Gunawan added.
Latest estimates based on the 1993 National Social and Economic Survey by the Central Bureau of Statistics put the total number of people living below the poverty line at about 26 million, or 13.6 percent of the total population in that year.
The poverty line is drawn on the basis of a minimum daily calorie intake of 2,100 and a certain quantity of non-food consumer goods and services.
"We include 52 food commodities and 42 non-food consumer goods and services to determine the poverty line," Soegito, chief of the Central Bureau of Statistics said.
Based on the prices of the quantities of food and non-food commodities and services in 1993, the poverty line for the urban areas was set at a monthly expenditure of Rp 27,905 ($12.6) and Rp 18,244 for the rural areas.
Revision
"We will revise the monthly expenditures based on the commodities every year to adjust for inflation," Soegito added.
In 1990, for example, the poverty line was set at a monthly expenditure of Rp 20,600 in urban areas and Rp 13,295 in rural areas.
Siagian, who together with Gunawan supervise the poverty alleviation program, said that during the first eight months of the program implementation, 81 percent of the Rp 389.27 billion total grant allocation had been disbursed in 19,081 poverty areas or villages.
"A great portion of the fund was used by the people as capital for dairy development, retail trade and other farming activities," Siagian said.
He added that despite some shortcomings, which are normal in view of the novelty of the program, the injection of Rp 20 million for every poor village has greatly assisted the aim of people to raise their incomes through various farming or non- farming activities.
The government hopes that by the completion of the three year concerted poverty alleviation program in 1997, the poor people would have developed sustainable means of earnings by using the accumulated grant as revolving capital.
However, Gunawan reiterated the importance of cooperation on the part of other government agencies, notably local service agencies and non-governmental organizations, to make the program a complete success.
"Our main concern is how to make the businesses developed by the poor people with the grant sustainable even after the annual grant is stopped," Siagian said.(vin)