South Sulawesi

Few of the price-distorting mechanisms were recorded centrally and can only be identified on-site, within the locality, making monitoring difficult. Moreover, because local governments have had inadequate local revenue bases, they are easily tempted to restore tariffs and toll barriers, despite the damaging effects on growth and welfare.

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.

In early December SMERU will be hosting two important events. On December 6, the Persepsi Daerah team will be reporting on the major findings arising from its numerous provincial surveys on the impact of the regional deregulation process. The following day a conference on "Monitoring the Social Impact of the Crisis: Lessons Learned in 1999" will draw on the experience of a range of individuals and organisation who have been involved in tracking the crisis over the past twelve months. We hope to report on both these events shortly.

In 2011, SMERU staff was fully settled in at the new office in Cikini. This was marked by the resumption of our annual strategic meeting, which was held during a SMERU staff retreat in September in Bandung. In 2010, this activity was suspended due to our focus on moving and adjusting to the new office. In this year’s meeting, we focused on reviewing SMERU’s existing standard operating procedures (SOP) document. After more than ten years, it was considered necessary to have a complete review of the entire document.

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.

ABSTRACT

With the growing intensity of urban problems, most notably poverty, it is imperative to identify the range of related aspects that help or hinder urban poverty reduction efforts. One emerging aspect is the role of city spatial planning in urban poverty reduction efforts.