Poor teacher accountability leads to poor education quality, especially in remotely-located schools that are costly to supervise. This paper reports the impacts of three interventions that linked community-based monitoring to a government allowance for teachers working in remote areas in Indonesia. In all treatments, the project helped communities to formulate a joint commitment between schools and community members to improve education. Teacher-specific scorecards were developed based on this commitment and performance was evaluated and disseminated by a newly-formed user committee. Treatments 2 and 3 added to this a pay for performance scheme that relied on the community reports. In Treatment 2 (SAM+Cam), the remote area allowance was made dependent on teacher presence, which was monitored with a camera with a time stamp. In Treatment 3 (SAM+Score), the overall score on the scorecard determined the allowance. We find improvements in learning outcomes across all treatments; however, the strongest impacts of between 0.17-0.20 standard deviation (s.d.) were observed for SAM+Cam. In this treatment, teachers increased teaching hours and parents increased investments in their children's education. We show evidence that bargaining and the community's propensity to punish free-riders may have a role in affecting treatment effectiveness.

The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has raised concerns as to its impact on other health programs. One program that appears particularly vulnerable is HIV and AIDS. We undertook an assessment of COVID-19 impact on HIV control efforts in Indonesia for a sub-population that has received little attention in the global literature—female sex workers (FSW). Methods The study was undertaken in 23 National AIDS program priority districts. Four sources of monthly data during January–July 2020 were considered. COVID-19 infection data were extracted from national and district surveillance systems. Combination prevention program outputs were reported by civil society organizations (CSOs) providing community support services to FSW. These organizations also undertook monthly scans of levels of commercial sex activity and HIV testing availability. We also considered data from an ongoing HIV community screening trial. The primary mode of analysis entailed comparisons of levels and trends of indicators from the four data series. Results Commercial sex activity was severely curtailed in April–May in many districts. While recovering to pre-COVID-19 levels in “Localization” areas, the number of active FSW in July was one-third below that in February. HIV testing service availability declined by 50% at health facilities before recovering slowly, while mobile clinic services largely ceased during April–June. Numbers of FSW reached, condoms distributed, FSW tested for HIV, HIV cases detected, and FSW starting treatment all declined precipitously in April/May but had largely recovered to pre-COVID-19 levels by July. We found only a temporary dip in treatment initiation rates among HIV positive FSW and no discernible impact on treatment retention. The HIV community screening trial data revealed significant demand for HIV testing among FSW that was not being met even before the onset of COVID-19. Conclusions COVID-19 has had at least short-run economic effects on FSW and the national response to HIV and AIDS targeting FSW. However, the effects appear to have been cushioned by community-based services and support in study districts. The findings make a compelling case for the expansion of community-based services irrespective of the future trajectory of COVID-19. As COVID-19 has not yet been contained, the trajectory of economic activity and service delivery is uncertain.

Divorce rates in Indonesia in the last five years show a significant number where Indonesia ranks fifth with 276,791 cases. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of premarital health education on the knowledge and attitudes of brides in Lubuk Begalung Subdistrict, Padang City in 2017. The type of research was quasy experiment with pretest-posttest design. The study was conducted in KUA Lubuk Begalung District in April-June2017. Population in this research bride and groom who came to KUA Lubuk Begalung District during the research period were 19 couples taken by purposive sampling. Data collection used questionnaires given before and after health education. Data analysis was done by univariate and bivariate using Wilcoxon statistical test with computer. Results Research on 38 prospective brides showed that 31.6% of respondents were low knowledge before premarital education and 97.4% were highly knowledgeable after premarital education, 76.3% were negative before premarital education. There is the influence of premarital education on the knowledge and attitudes of the bride and groom (p value 0.001 and 0.013) Conclusion there is the effect of premarital health education on the knowledge and attitudes of brides in the District of Lubuk Begalung Padang in 2017

Although mobile banking is one of the online banking services that makes it easy for consumers to conduct financial transactions, research on Islamic mobile banking in developing countries with a Muslim majority is still relatively insignificant. Not all Muslim consumers are interested in or intend to use conventional mobile banking services. Therefore, the aim of this study is to integrate the TAM theory and the construct of religiosity to examine consumer intentions to use Islamic mobile banking services. Data were collected through a survey questionnaire of 482 Muslim consumers in Indonesia using convenience sampling techniques. The collected data were then analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM-AMOS). The results of this study showed that perceived ease of use cannot influence the perceived usefulness and attitudes of variables towards Islamic mobile banking. While perceived usefulness has been proven to influence attitudes toward Islamic mobile banking and may be the largest contributor to increased intentions to use Islamic mobile banking. On the other hand, this study reveals that the influence of religiosity can positively and significantly foster consumer sensibility and intention to use Islamic mobile banking.