East Java

Welcome to the first edition of SMERU's regular monthly newsletter. Why a newsletter? Because we believe that having information spread and discussed as widely as possible is a central part of creating the social conditions for addressing the social crisis. This newsletter hopes to not only distribute as widely as possible our qualitative and quantitative findings but also the views and findings of other individuals and groups, including some we may not agree with in the spirit of open discussion.

If we take time to leaf through the previous five editions of the SMERU Newsletter, it will become apparent how little we have revealed of one of the most important aspects of the crisis, its gender dimension. We are all aware of how important this aspect really is and frequently discuss it. In fact we live with it; yet, we frequently forget to include it in our agenda. Gender is not just a matter of women, or even a matter of men and women. It is far more than that, for gender is a matter of human rights; gender is a development issue.

The community group in Desa Arjowilangun most affected by the impact of the 2008/09 global financial crisis (GFC) is the families of male migrant workers (TKI) employed in the export-oriented manufacturing industry in South Korea. Although none of these workers has returned home because of the crisis, the money that they send has gone down by 25%–50% due to the reduction in their official working hours, and the reduction or even removal of overtime.

During the first visit in September 2009, there were indications that the people most affected by the 2008/09 global financial crisis (GFC) were the Indonesian migrant workers working in the Republic of Korea (South Korea). This second visit was undertaken to confirm the findings of the first visit. The research was, therefore, focused on the migrant workers who had just returned from Korea as well as their families.

This report presents the field verification results for poverty maps of Jakarta, East Java, and East Kalimantan. The results show that the poverty maps created in this pilot study have been successful in ranking regions according to their poverty conditions, particularly at the district and subdistrict levels. At the village level, however, the presence of relatively large standard errors of the poverty rate point estimates in a significant number of villages makes it more difficult to determine with certainty the ordering of villages by poverty incidence.

This report presents the results of a pilot study to apply a recently developed technique for obtaining high-resolution poverty maps, using data from three provinces in Indonesia: Jakarta, East Java, and East Kalimantan. The purpose of this pilot study is to try out the applicability of the poverty mapping method given the available data in Indonesia and, furthermore, to test the feasibility of developing a poverty map for the whole country at various administrative levels (province, district, subdistrict, and village). The report is consisted of two parts.

Research Team

Coordinator:
Widjajanti I. Suharyo

Advisor:
Sudarno Sumarto

Researchers:
Hastuti, Syaikhu Usman, Nina Toyamah, Bambang Sulaksono, Sri Budiyati, Wenefrida Dwi Widyanti, Meuthia Rosfadhila, R. Justin Sodo, Sami Bazzi

RESEARCH TEAM

Advisor:
Asep Suryahadi

Coordinator:
Nina Toyamah

Core Researchers and Field Coordinators:
Nina Toyamah, Bambang Sulaksono, Meuthia Rosfadhila, Silvia Devina, Sirojuddin Arif, Stella Aleida Hutagalung, Lisna Sulinar Sari, Andriani, Upik Sabainingrum, Nur Aini

Local Researchers:

ABSTRACT