Government Prepares Poverty Data Integration

Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto, Vice President Ma'ruf Amin, and Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture Muhadjir Effendy delivered a press statement at the Vice Presidential Palace, Jakarta (ANTARA/Desca Lidya Natalia)

JAKARTA - Vice President Ma'ruf Amin said that the government is preparing to integrate poverty data to support the acceleration of extreme poverty reduction.

The vice president said the government would integrate data on the poor from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), the Social Welfare Integrated Data (DTKS) of the Ministry of Social Affairs, the National Population and Family Planning Agency (BKKBN), as well as the Ministry of Villages, Development of Disadvantaged Regions, and Transmigration.

"So that everything is combined into one unified data," said Vice President Ma'ruf after chairing a plenary meeting on the implementation of Presidential Instruction Number 4 of 2022 concerning the Acceleration of the Elimination of Extreme Poverty.

He said the government during 2022 conducted a survey in 212 districts and cities.

"It is hoped that it can fulfill it. Whether the data that will be there is left behind, there will still be validation again, following up again, therefore we involve the local government," he said.

Meanwhile, the Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture Muhadjir Effendy said that the government is seeking accuracy in supporting data for poverty alleviation efforts.

"Therefore, for handling extreme poverty, we use specific data, called P3KE (Targeting the Acceleration of the Elimination of Extreme Poverty). This P3KE is final data from triangulation, updating through sorting existing data," said Muhadjir.

P3KE data, among others, comes from survey results from BPS, Ministry of Social Affairs DTKS, BKKBN family data, and village data from the Ministry of Villages, Development of Disadvantaged Regions, and Transmigration.

"Later there will be additions from the Ministry of Health, from the ministry under the Coordinating Minister for Economics, we will compile it later," he said.

According to him, the government will cross-check data from data sources used to ensure that the target groups for poverty alleviation programs are based on names and addresses.

"If later there is no NIK (population identification number), this is actually an opportunity for those (citizens in the category of) extreme poverty to have their NIK. So (who) have not received social assistance so far, we will make sure (will) get social assistance," said Muhadjir .

According to the Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto, the poverty rate in Indonesia in March 2022 reached 9.54 percent of the total population, which is 270.20 million people according to the results of the 2020 population census.

Meanwhile, the extreme poverty rate, according to him, has fallen to 2.04 percent or around 5.59 million people in March 2022.

Presidential Instruction No. 4 of 2022 concerning the Acceleration of the Elimination of Extreme Poverty was stipulated on 8 June 2022 to accelerate efforts to reduce extreme poverty.

The Presidential Instruction mandates 22 ministries, six institutions, and local governments to carry out the necessary steps according to their respective duties, functions and authorities in order to accelerate the elimination of extreme poverty.

The measure of the extreme poverty level used by the government 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 poverty rate used by BPS of 2, 5 US dollars PPP per capita per day.