Our Expertise
As an important part of monitoring the social safety net program being launched in response to Indonesia's ongoing crisis, SMERU fielded teams of Crisis Impact Field Researchers to observe and investigate the implementation and status of the National Logistics Agency (BULOG) program Operasi Pasar Khusus (OPK), from late October to mid of November 1998.
The study involved a repeat survey of 455 households that were interviewed in 1997 prior to the beginning of the krismon in the context of a major highway project. A structured interview was conducted with a household member (in most cases the husband or wife). Of the 1999 respondents, 58.2 per cent were women, compared with 58.9 per cent in 1997.
With the establishment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the issue of child poverty has re-emerged. Like other vulnerable groups, children is one of the groups that is most affected by poverty and will be affected for a long term. Because children experience various forms of deprivation, a holistic intervention is required in order to improve their welfare status.
Since the late 1980s, minimum wages have become an important plank of the Indonesian government's labor market policy. During much of the 1990s, minimum wages have increased faster than both average wages and gross domestic product. Furthermore, during the last two years, in 2000 and 2001, the government has vigorously pursued the minimum wage policy, evident from the large increases in the levels of real minimum wages.
Decentralization is marked by the issuing of various policies on service standards. Consequently, the quality of public services can be measured. For example, the central government has issued regulations on minimum service standards which the regional governments have to comply with.
