Poverty program revision advised

An activist called on Tuesday for the revision of the planned National Poverty Reduction Strategy (SPKN) to make it more feasible by formulating specific priorities and targets based on the specific conditions prevailing in the country.

"The current strategy fails to reflect the real situation regarding poverty around the country as it is not based on participatory poverty assessments (PPA)," said Andik Hardiyanto of KIKIS, a non-governmental organization (NGO) concerned with poverty reduction.

Andik argued that the failure to conduct PPAs had forced the team that drafted the strategy to focus on statistical data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) and the National Family Planning Board (BKKBN).

"It's impossible for the team to have formulated specific strategies and targets based on such limited data sources and weak analyses," said Andik.

The Office of the Coordinating Ministry for People's Welfare submitted a poverty strategy paper to the Commission on Poverty Eradication (KPK) on May 20. The commission is the body responsible for coordinating the country's drive against poverty.

The commission has to evaluate the paper before submitting it to a Cabinet meeting.

The strategy was drafted to meet the requirements imposed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund on 80 heavily indebted countries, including Indonesia, in order to obtain more loans or credits from international financial institutions.

Meanwhile, Fakhrulsyah Mega from the JARI Indonesia NGO said that any poverty eradication program should be capable of alleviating the poverty problems confronting local administrations. --JP