COVID-19 pandemic has put healthcare systems of various countries, including Indonesia, to the test. Many problems that were previously unnoticed are now gaining attention. One of them is Indonesia’s lack of readiness to detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus—commonly known as COVID-19—in order to prevent its spread and speed up treatment for the infected individuals.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Bu Neni[i], who sells food and has a food stall opened in front of her house, now spends most of her time taking care of her grandchildren at home. Especially after her grandchildren's school activities were temporarily dismissed due to the pandemic, both Bu Neni dan her grandchildren have never stepped outside of their house
The government is providing direct cash transfer (BLT) to the community groups most affected by the pandemic: the poor, informal workers, and online transportation business actors. What are the mechanisms for data collection and assistance distribution? SMERU’s recommendations are as follows.
SMERU’s responses to free electricity and discounts (Regulation in Lieu of Law, or Perppu, No.1/2020): The policy has not reached the people who need the assistance and has the potential for wasteful consumption of electricity.
SMERU’s responses to the implementation of Pre-employment Card program (Perppu No. 1/2020): The program should be directed at strengthening the efforts to mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, such as training programs for health workers, volunteers, and micro- and small-scale enterprises (MSEs).
What can the government do to help micro- and small-scale enterprises (MSEs) affected by COVID-19 pandemic? Here are the recommendations from SMERU.
The government needs to provide assistance/incentive for MSEs. Consequently, there needs to be a single MSEs database which can be integrated with the Integrated Social Welfare Data (DTKS). With such data integration, the assistance/incentive will reach the target beneficiaries, namely MSEs run by the poor.
In some regions in Indonesia, efforts to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic have been followed by the distance learning policy. As a result, teachers and students are required to be able to adapt to changes in the teaching-learning process. In practice, however, the implementation of the policy varies greatly and is influenced by many different factors. One of the factors that influence the implementation of distance learning is access to communication devices.
The COVID-19 pandemic-induced economic crisis has affected the labor force in Indonesia. A number of workers have been furloughed and even laid off, as the crisis has caused disruption to companies’ operations. There are six economic sectors with the potential to be heavily impacted by the pandemic, namely accommodation and food service activities, trade, transportation and storage, construction, manufacturing, and other services activities.
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