The Characteristics of Poverty and Its Alleviation in Indonesia

Abstract

<strong>Indonesian</strong><br />Makalah berjudul ini disusun berdasarkan telaahan (review) beberapa hasil penelitian, literatur dan data sekunder dari berbagai sumber. Selama lebih dari tiga dekade, berbagai upaya telah dilakukan untuk mengentaskan masyarakat dari kemiskinan. Sebelum krisis ekonomi, upaya keras tersebut telah berhasil menurunkan angka kemiskinan dari 40 persen tahun 1970-an menjadi 11 persen tahun 1996. Krisis ekonomi sejak 1997 telah melumpuhkan semua sector ekonomi. Akibatnya, angka kemiskinan meningkat menjadi 25 persen tahun 1998, meskipun turun lagi menjadi 16 persen tahun 2005. Peningkatan harga bahan bakar minyak tahun 2006 berakibat meningkatnya kembali proporsi penduduk miskin menjadi 18 persen. Sebagian besar penduduk miskin berdomisili di perdesaan dan sangat tergantung pada sektor pertanian. Oleh karena itu, sektor pertanian harus dibangun dalam bentuk pembangunan perdesaan terpadu. Strategi pengentasan kemiskinan melalui bantuan tunai, pangan, atau pinjaman dana bergulir terbukti tidak efektif dalam mengentaskan mereka dari kemiskinan. Penyediaan kredit lunak dengan prosedur yang sederhana, disertai dengan pembangunan infrastruktur mungkin lebih efektif. Pada saat yang sama, pemerintah pusat dan daerah hendaknya mendorong dan memfasilitasi swasta untuk berinvestasi dalam agroindustri di perdesaan. Selain itu juga membangun kemitraan usahatani yang saling mengun-tungkan antara petani dengan perusahaan agroindustri. Dengan strategi ini diharapkan keluarga miskin dapat meningkatkan kesejahteraannya melalui penjualan produk, serta dapat bekerja di pabrik pengolahan hasil pertanian, sehingga lebih banyak peluang memperoleh pendapatan, dan jumlah penduduk miskin berkurang. <br /> <br /><br /><strong>English</strong><br />This paper is written based on the review of some studies, literatures and secondary data from some sources. For more than three decades, some efforts have been done, and successfully reduced the number of poverty, from 40 percent in 1970s to 11 percent in 1996. However, the economic crisis started in mid 1997 has caused an increase in the percentage of people under poverty line to almost 25 percent in 1998, although decreased to 16 percent in 2005. An increase in gasoline price has resulted an increase in proportion of poverty to almost 18 percent of the population. Most of the poor are living in rural areas with marginal land, low quality of human resource, and poor infrastructures. On the other hands, they are strongly depending upon agricultural sector. Hence, agricultural sector should be developed in terms of integrated rural development. The strategy of poverty alleviation by giving the poor with granted-cash, food aid, or revolving fund is not the effective way to alleviate poverty. Instead, providing them with soft credit together with development of infrastructures might be more effective. At the same time, the central and local governments should encourage the investors to invest in agro-industry in rural areas. A fair partnership could be developed between farmers and companies. By these strategies, the poor families could help themselves to improve their welfare, through selling their products, as well as working in the agro-industrial sector. Thus, more income can be generated, so that the people living under poverty line will be reduced.

Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training to Empower Catfish Farmers

“…It is important to ensure the group has capacity to manage various activities of its members and able to provide more value for its members [1] [2]. Thus, the farmers are aware of the advantages of being member of the group and willing to join the group [3]. Working together in a group will escalate the scale of the business.…”

Correlation of Social Capital and Poverty Farmers in Aceh

“…The high rate of poverty of farmers in Aceh is due to the ineffectiveness of the empowerment system implemented. The assistance for empowering farmers is more focused on strengthening physical resources (Tewu, 2015). The current empowerment strategy still ignores aspects of community social capital as an important element in development (Lesser, 2000;Cook, 2017).…”

Special Autonomy Fund to Reduce Poverty: Does It Work?

“…Once the multidimensional problem of poverty makes the definition of poverty obscure and multifaced. Economically, the poor population does not have anything (having nothing) socially they are not anyone (being nothing) and politically they do not get rights except victims of development (having no rights and being wrong) (Kwadzo, 2010; Swastika, Dewa KS., Supriyatna, 2008).…”

“…; Dartanto, 2013; Firdaussy, CM dan Tisdell, 1992; Swastika, Dewa KS.,Supriyatna, 2008).Various development strategies that are oriented towards the interests of the poor (pro-poor policy) must be more nuanced and must pay attention to the heterogeneity of the causes of poverty in each region, not immediate and permanent and focused. On the other side, pro-poor budget policies in the center and regions converted into poverty alleviation initiatives must be pursued in order to provide transparency about the beneficiaries (who, where, as well as regular assessments of program success and effect indicators.…”