Maluku

As the economic crisis continues, the capacity of many Indonesians to provide for the basic necessities of life - food, clothing, and shelter - has been thrown even further into doubt. A prominent theme of several of the articles in this issue of our newsletter is the daily struggle many people face to provide sufficient food for themselves and their families and the grave impact this situation is having on the welfare of certain sections of Indonesian society.

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.