Our Expertise
Before the onset of the Asian financial crisis in 1997, the Indonesian economy was growing quickly; as a result, poverty fell significantly. Other welfare indicators, such as the infant mortality rate, the school enrolment rate and life expectancy at birth, were also showing improvements. The economic crisis that engulfed Indonesia in 1997–98 reversed these trends, resulting in a large increase in poverty in 1999.
Considerable media criticism has been directed recently at parliamentarians’ enthusiasm for costly overseas ‘working visits’ with little obvious benefit to the nation, and at their plans for a new parliamentary building. The criticism may not be fully justified, especially in relation to the latter, but is symptomatic of a high level of cynicism towards the parliament.
The article compares and contrasts the scale and composition of workers` outflow and remittance flow from 1994 to 2012 at the national level and in East Java and West Nusa Tenggara--two big migrant-sending provinces. Analysis over the longer period gives a better understanding of contemporary characteristics of volatility in labor deployment.
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.
This special edition is different from our regular newsletter. This edition, entitled "NGOs' Perspectives on National Problems in Reform and Democratization Era", is unique as our contributors are all NGO activists. Indonesian NGOs have been playing significant role in community development and empowerment, environmental protection, women's and children's rights, legal advocacy, etc.
