West Java Deputy Governor Appreciates Central Commitment To Tackling Extreme Poverty

BANDUNG - Deputy Governor of West Java, Uu Ruzhanul Ulum appreciated the central government's commitment to tackling extreme poverty in the West Java region. In this way, central and regional policies can be aligned so that response efforts can be faster.

"Our wishes in the regions can be in line with the Central Government in its policies," said Uu Ruzhanul Ulum during the Coordination Meeting for the Acceleration of Extreme Poverty Reduction in 2021 in West Java, at the Sate Bandung building, quoted by Antara, Wednesday, September 29.

Deputy Governor Uu specifically discussed poverty reduction strategies with the regents of the five regions attended by Minister of Home Affairs Tito Karnavian, led by Vice President Ma'ruf Amin.

The central government and local governments have agreed to eradicate extreme poverty quickly in five districts that are priorities for national response. The five areas are Bandung, Cianjur, Kuningan, Indramayu, and Karawang districts.

The Deputy Governor of West Java also appreciated the program of five districts in poverty alleviation.

"They have great programs in dealing with poverty," said Uu.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Home Affairs, Tito Karnavian, invited local governments both in the provinces and districts/cities to collaborate in bringing about 480,000 people in West Java out of extreme poverty.

"It means approximately 25 percent of the national figure of 25 million," he said.

The collaboration in question is that various poverty programs from the center to regencies/cities are synergized so that their movements are in the same direction and do not overlap.

“The principle is synergy, collaboration, and intervention. In the regional government there is an OPD, there is a head of the service, then we collaborate with inviting the private sector,” said Tito.

The central government, said Tito, will provide rewards for districts/cities whose local governments look serious and have succeeded in reducing extreme poverty.

For example, by proposing to provide more regional incentive funds to well-performing local governments. Performance evaluation will be carried out on a periodic basis.

Meanwhile, Vice President Ma'ruf Amin said that in the remaining three months of 2021, the Central Government will focus first on seven provinces.

The three provinces on the island of Java are West Java, East Java, Central Java. While outside Java, namely NTT, Maluku, Papua, and West Papua.

According to the Vice President, there are a number of solutions that can be taken to alleviate extreme poverty, namely social protection and community empowerment.

Ma'ruf emphasized that every poverty alleviation program in the regions must be based "by name by address" so that it is right on target.

"This is perhaps what we will do today by trying a coordination meeting with West Java and five districts to harmonize, synchronize things that must be resolved," said the vice president.

Extreme poverty refers to the condition of a person or family lacking basic human needs such as food, sanitation, health, shelter, education, and information.

The reference is that the person's income is below USD 1.25 (2005 value) or the current exchange rate is IDR 14,647 per day or around IDR 439,000 per month. The United Nations targets extreme poverty to be wiped off the face of the earth by 2030.

The poverty rate in Indonesia is now at 10.19 percent with extreme poverty at 3.8 percent. The Indonesian government targets a poverty rate of 6-7 percent in 2024 with an extreme poverty rate of 0-1 percent in 2024.