"The Vice President has reminded that the provision of targeted social assistance is very important, but it needs to be supported by empowerment programs," spokesperson for the Vice President, Masduki Baidlowi, said in a press statement issued in Jakarta on Thursday.
In 2021, the extreme poverty reduction program targeted 35 districts in 7 priority provinces, he noted.
For 2022, at a limited meeting (Ratas) on February 15, 2022, President Joko Widodo agreed to continue the program in 212 districts in 25 provinces, which constitute 75 percent of the nation's extreme poverty pockets, he said.
The Vice President, who is also the head of the National Team for the Acceleration of Poverty Reduction (TNP2K), has asserted that the empowerment program would encourage sustainable poverty alleviation, Baidlowi said.
"This empowerment program includes an access to jobs, a skill improvement program, capacity building program for MSMEs, and a basic infrastructure fulfillment program," he explained.
The empowerment programs, Baidlowi said, are spread across various ministries and agencies and have a total budget of more than Rp170 trillion.
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According to data from the Ministry of Finance, around Rp282 trillion of the state budget has been allocated for overcoming poverty and alleviating extreme poverty in 2022, especially through the social assistance program, he noted.
Considering the large budget, the Vice President has also asked the Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs to coordinate the implementation of the empowerment program for the target group, he informed.
"According to the Vice President, these various programs should be coordinated so that they are right on target," he said.
Apart from being right on target, Baidlowi noted, the Vice President has also highlighted the problem of data in the distribution of social assistance.
According to the Vice President, data collection on households that fall in the category of extreme poverty should be carried out accurately so that the distribution is right on target, he informed.
As a result, the provision of social assistance is expected to drive local economic activities and encourage poverty reduction, he explained.
Regarding the technical data collection, the Vice President supports the reassigning of the task of data collection on poor and vulnerable households to Statistics Indonesia (BPS), Baidlowi said.
According to the Vice President, BPS is the most competent institution for collecting the data, he added.
"Data collection on poor and vulnerable households that will be used as the basis for distributing social assistance must be carried out one by one (door to door) for all poor and vulnerable households, so it cannot be done in a short time," he added.
Regarding the issue of distributing social assistance, Baidlowi explained that the President and the Vice President have assigned PT Pos Indonesia to distribute social assistance in areas that are difficult or unreachable by banks.
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Translator: Rangga P, Azis Kurmala
Editor: Suharto
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