Indonesian Government Targets 1 Percent Reduction In Extreme Poverty By 2024

Residents wash on the banks of the Ciliwung River, Kampung Melayu, Jakarta, September 2019. (Antara)

JAKARTA - The Indonesian government is targeting a reduction of the extreme poverty rate by 1 percent every year until 2024.

This was conveyed by Vice President (Wapres) Ma'ruf Amin while chairing a plenary meeting to accelerate the elimination of extreme poverty as Chairman of the National Team for the Acceleration of Poverty Reduction (TNP2K) at the Vice Presidential Palace, Jakarta, Wednesday, August 3.

"I ask that we focus on reducing the extreme poverty rate by at least 1 percentage point every year, starting in 2022," said the Vice President.

The Vice President as the coordinator of the implementation of Presidential Instruction (Inpres) No. 4 of 2022 concerning the Acceleration of the Elimination of Extreme Poverty said the elimination of extreme poverty in 2024 is a very difficult challenge.

"Global experience teaches that there are two main keys to effectively reducing extreme poverty, namely program convergence and improvement of targeting accuracy," said the Vice President.

The government, said the Vice President, also already has three policy instruments. First, the determination of priority areas for eliminating extreme poverty for the period 2022, 2023 and 2024, namely in 212 priority districts/cities in 2022 and continued for all districts/cities for 2023 and 2024.

"Second, the Targeted Data for the Acceleration of the Elimination of Extreme Poverty (P3KE) sourced from the family data collection of the BKBBN (National Population and Family Planning Agency) with information 'by name', 'by address', and by NIK, the socio-economic family is relatively new. and also the ranking of family welfare," added the Vice President.

According to the Vice President, the use of the P3KE data is to complement the Integrated Social Welfare Data (DTKS) and improve the accuracy of program targets to reach extreme poor families who have not received the program or an "exclusion error".

"This group should as much as possible get additional allocations from the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Ministry of Religion," he said, according to Antara.

The third policy is the implementation of the program to accelerate the elimination of extreme poverty which will soon be established.

Down a little

Meanwhile, Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto said that the poverty rate in Indonesia had decreased, although only slightly.

"Our data at the beginning of COVID-19, our poverty was 9.7 percent, it was at the beginning of COVID but now it has dropped to 9.54 percent so there has been improvement. Then extreme poverty in 2021 is 2.14 percent and in March 2022 down to 2.04 percent so the number of people is around 5.59 million people. With the programs carried out and social protection (social protection) there have been such improvements, "said Airlangga.

Presidential Instruction No. 4 of 2022 concerning the Acceleration of the Elimination of Extreme Poverty was stipulated on 8 June 2022. The Presidential Instruction mandates 22 ministries, 6 institutions, and local governments (governors/regents/mayors) to take the necessary steps according to their respective duties, functions and authorities. -respectively to accelerate the elimination of extreme poverty.

The measure of the extreme poverty level used refers to the definition of the World Bank and the United Nations, which is USD 1.9 PPP (purchasing power parity) per capita per day, below the general poverty rate used by BPS, which is USD 2.5. PPP per capita per day.

Present at the plenary meeting were Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture Muhadjir Effendy, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto, Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Minister of Home Affairs Tito Karnavian, Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin, Minister of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/Head of the Land Agency. National (ATR/BPN) Hadi Tjahjanto, Minister of Manpower Ida Fauziyah, Minister of Agriculture Syahrul Yasin Limpo.

Furthermore, Minister of Environment and Forestry Siti Nurbaya Bakar, Minister of Villages, Development of Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration Abdul Halim Iskandar, Minister of Industry Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita, Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs Teten Masduki, Minister of Communication and Information Johnny G Plate, Minister of Social Affairs Tri Rismaharini.

Then, Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Sakti Wahyu Trenggono, Deputy Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Angela Tanoesoedibjo, Head of the Central Statistics Agency Margo Yuwono, Head of the Financial and Development Supervisory Agency (BPKP) Muhammad Yusuf Ateh and other relevant officials.