UNDP praises RI success in poverty alleviation

JAKARTA (JP): The 1997 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report released yesterday praises Indonesia for successfully reducing poverty and developing human resources.

The report says the country reduced income poverty from about 60 percent of the population in 1970 to 11.2 percent in 1996.

The UNDP's Human Development Index ranks Indonesia at 99 in the world, up from 102 last year, keeping it in the medium category.

UNDP Resident Representative Ravi Rajan presented the report yesterday to State Minister of Population Haryono Suyono.

Tremendous improvements in nutrition and health, life expectancy, basic schooling and reduction of population growth play an important role in poverty reduction in Indonesia, the report says.

"The Government of Indonesia, while undertaking a strategy of broad-based economic growth, has emphasized expanding coverage and quality of these basic services thus making an investment in human capital, leading to future yields in increased productivity among the poor," Rajan said.

In recognition of this success, the UNDP plans to give an award to President Soeharto on Sept. 8.

The award will be given by UNDP Administrator James Gustave Speth. The award ceremony will prelude a world conference on poverty alleviation in Jakarta.

The annual report, prepared by Richard Jolly, a special advisor to the UNDP administrator, and a team of experts, focuses on poverty alleviation.

Besides the Human Development Index -- which measures deprivation in terms of real gross domestic product per capita, education and a composite index of life expectancy -- this year's report introduces a new measurement of poverty, the Human Poverty Index (HPI). This index uses more humanistic variables instead of mere income variables.

According to the HPI, Indonesia ranks 23 out of 78 developing countries from which data was compiled.

The HPI calculates denial of opportunities and the most basic choices for human development; such as the choice to lead a long, healthy life, to participate in the economic, social, and political life of a community, and to enjoy a decent standard of living. Traditionally, poverty was measured solely on the basis of material well-being, thereby excluding other aspects of human life.

The variables used to measure HPI are shortness of life (by calculating the percentage of people not likely to survive the age of 40); lack of knowledge (by calculating the percentage of illiterate adults); and lack of economic provisions (by calculating the percentage of people with no access to safe water and health care and by calculating the percentage of underweight children under five).

The authors of the report estimated that providing universal access to basic social services and alleviating income poverty would cost $80 billion a year, slightly more than 0.3 percent of the world's annual income of $25 trillion.

The report reveals that income poverty has fallen faster in the past 50 years than in the previous 50 decades, with considerable gains in human development.

Minister Haryono was enthusiastic about the report. "The report's emphasis on population ties in well with the Indonesian government's emphasis on people-centered development," he said. (40)