The year 2013 was a busy time for SMERU. In addition to completing 11 studies, SMERU also organized 16 seminars and workshops during the year, including three international conferences. The first one was the Child Poverty and Social Protection conference, which SMERU hosted in cooperation with the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) and UNICEF in Jakarta on 10–11 September. It was attended by 238 participants on the first day and 179 participants on the second day. Overall, the conference featured 44 presentations; half of them were delivered by Indonesians, while the other half were given by presenters coming from various countries. These presentations were selected from the 89 abstracts submitted in response to our call for papers. H.E. Salim Segaf Al Jufri, minister for social affairs, and H.E. Linda Amalia Sari Gumelar, minister for women empowerment and child protection, gave the opening remarks, highlighting the importance of this conference.

The second conference was the Symposium on Health Equity and Financial Protection in Asia (HEFPA) that was hosted in cooperation with Erasmus University Rotterdam in Yogyakarta on 2–4 October. This symposium was the final workshop that was held to present and discuss the final results of HEFPA, which was a four-year research project involving researchers from six Asian and four European countries, coordinated by Erasmus University Rotterdam, and funded by the European Union’s 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7). SMERU was a member of the HEFPA consortium. The three-day symposium was attended by around 50 participants, consisting of HEFPA researchers, policymakers, and non-HEFPA experts representing the 10 countries participating in HEFPA, as well as officials from several international organizations.

Third, on 29 October–1 November, SMERU cooperated with the World Bank and The Asia Foundation to organize the East Asia and Pacific Regional Conference on Community-Driven Development (CDD) in Bali. The main purpose of the conference was to facilitate a dialogue among various stakeholders who are working on CDD programs, including government officials, practitioners, and implementers from seven ASEAN countries, plus Afghanistan, Timor Leste, Papua New Guinea, and Solomon Islands. The emphasis was placed on discussing the challenges of sustaining, mainstreaming, and scaling up CDD programs. There were around 82 participants attending the three-day meeting and making a one-day visit to CDD project sites in Bali.

The international conferences highlight the recognition of SMERU’s role as an established research institution at the international level. Although SMERU’s research is focused on Indonesia, as mandated by its vision and mission, many of the findings have relevant implications for development issues in other parts of the world. Supported by its information dissemination, in particular through publication on its website and international peer-reviewed journals, SMERU’s studies have received attention from and gained acceptance among the academic and policy audience internationally.

We are certainly proud of this achievement. We recognize that this has been made possible by the hard work and dedication of all SMERU staff. Furthermore, strong support from our main donor, the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID)—which was merged into the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) in September 2013, as well as our partners—UNICEF, the Ford Foundation, the World Bank, The Asia Foundation, Bappenas, and TNP2K—has contributed significantly to this achievement. Last but not least, we would also like to thank the members of our Board of Trustees and Board of Supervisors for their continuing support for us in our work and development.