Our Expertise
The term “inequality” is not new to the majority of readers. Although it has been the subject of public attention for a long time, in the context of Indonesia’s current economic development, inequality is a topical issue and is, in fact, increasingly worthy of examination. The present-day relevance of inequality has encouraged SMERU to present this issue as the focus of discussion in this issue of our newsletter.
To reduce the impact of the increased price of fuel on the poor and vulnerable, the Government of Indonesia introduced the Direct Cash Transfer Program (SLT) via Presidential Instruction (Inpres) No. 12 of 2005 on the Implementation of Cash Transfer Assistance for Poor Households. In the same manner as previous funding assistance programs, several problems emerged in the implementation of the SLT program in the field.
The urgent need for micro data to identify poverty conditions initially emerged from the high rate of program undercoverage and leakage that occurred in several poverty reduction programs in Indonesia. In additon, the decentralization era in Indonesia requires that local officials own disaggregated data for policy intervention.
This edition of the SMERU Newsletter presents summaries, analysis, and opinion on the implementation of the BOS Program based on the results of the rapid appraisal of The SMERU Research Institute on the implementation of the BOS Program during the first semester of the 2005/2006 academic year. This edition is also enriched with the contributions of guest writers.
Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) is one of the poorest provinces in Indonesia. The poverty rate in this province is higher than that of the national average. Statistics Indonesia (2004) indicates that the proportion of the poor population in Indonesia is 17%, while the proportion of the poor in NTT is 28%.
