Social safety net seen 'as charity, burden'

Social safety net seen 'as charity, burden'

JAKARTA (JP): Many recipients of the social safety net funds
see the aid program as charity, which is creating a new sense of
dependency, a social researcher said.

Henny Warsilah of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI)
said the funds could also pose another problem for recipients, as
others not receiving the funds may become jealous, Antara
reported Thursday from a seminar on the social safety net funds.

"People perceive the government aid only as charity, where
they have no responsibility," she told the seminar.

Similar to the presidential funds for poor villages, the
safety net program was designed without proper preparation and
knowledge of communities, Henny said.

She was on a team of researchers evaluating the government's
social safety net program.

Several non-governmental organizations have demanded that the
World Bank delay further disbursement of the funds because of a
lack of adequate supervision.

The government has requested Rp 20 trillion for the safety net
program of the next fiscal year, while promising to introduce
independent monitoring of the funds distribution, among other
checks.

Henny said that further research needed to be conducted before
the funds were distributed. She said more had to be known about
the recipient communities' attitudes toward outside aid, locals'
perceptions of their economic situations, and how capable
potential recipients would be in managing donated funds.

In a number of communities, such as those in Tangerang and
Kulonprogo in Yogyakarta, several residents said they felt the
program was forced upon them by the government.

Henny said there were recipients who felt that their condition
was not as bad as the government understood it to be.

Rushed preparations based on the assumptions of planners
led to the targeted communities also feeling unprepared as they
were not involved in the planning stages at all.

The team of researchers from the science institute cited a
number of problems in the implementation of the safety net
program.

First, the well intended aid led to jealousy among people
because of a lack of clear criteria in distribution of the funds.

New social divisions were seen in villages between those who
received funds and those who did not.

The safety net program has also put a new burden on residents,
as only vague instructions were given for the use of the funds.

Antara quoted the researchers as saying this was because the
authorities handing out the money wanted diversification in the
use of the funds, but gave no details or guidelines as to how
this was to be done. As a result the funds were underused, the
team said.

Furthermore, the safety net program has led to feelings of
inferiority among recipients when dealing with administrative
officials relating to the funds, the team said.

Meanwhile, the Antara news agency reported on Wednesday from
Canberra, Australia, that the safety net program would be one of
the topics discussed in a meeting in Sydney on Friday on
Development Cooperation for the Crisis in Asia.

Antara quoted the assistant to the director general of the
Australian Development Cooperation Institute, Laurie Engel, as
saying the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund were to
be participants at the talks. (anr)