Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning
The first half of this year has flown by. We have experienced a host of social, economic, legal and political problems that have left us all feeling exhausted. Yet, as a nation we still have to solve another equally crucial problem, the question of poverty. This edition deliberately sets out to highlight poverty as an important issue which must not be allowed to become a secondary priority on our national agenda.
In this era where employees are free to organize their own labor unions, industrial relations issues have become a topic of heated debate, especially as new bills on “The Development and Protection of the Workforce” (RUU PPK) and “Industrial Relations Dispute Resolutions” (RUU PPHI) are soon to be ratified. We would like to raise the issue of industrial relations as the main topic for this edition.
It is no secret that registering land in Indonesia can be a very difficult process, as it is both time consuming and costly. This is evident in that until 1992 only 12 million land parcels had been registered (22% of the total number of land parcels in Indonesia at that time).
Investment in human capital is very crucial for the development of the country. One way to achieve this is through providing our children with sufficient education and welfare. This is not easy and not cheap! Much has been done to prevent our children from falling by the wayside, but there are still many obstacles and weaknesses to overcome. There is still much homework to be done.
Targeting beneficiaries is one of the most crucial and difficult problems in the implementation of poverty reduction programs. Indonesia is a vast and populous country and currently reliable poverty statistics are only disaggregated down to the provincial level. It is not surprising that geographic targeting of the poor has been difficult.
