What is the annual budget for social assistance for the poor?

According to the Minister of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform (Menpan-RB), Abdullah Azwar Anas, the government has a budget of almost Rp 500 trillion to address poverty.

However, the utilization of these funds has not been entirely on target.

"For example, there are comparative studies on poverty, repeated dissemination of poverty programs in hotels. This factually occurs. But, it's not that roughly Rp 500 trillion is spent on comparative studies and meetings," said Azwar in his press release on Sunday (29/1/2023).

According to the Central Government Financial Report (LKPP), during the 2012-2021 period, the realization of social assistance (bansos) spending for the poor was far from the Rp 500 trillion figure mentioned by Azwar.

Minister of Finance Regulation Number 81/PMK.05/2012 defines "social assistance spending for poverty alleviation" as policies, programs, and activities carried out for individuals, families, groups, and/or communities who do not have or have insufficient livelihoods and cannot meet basic human needs.

During the 2012-2014 period, the realization of social assistance spending for poverty alleviation ranged around Rp 11 trillion per year. The figure then decreased significantly in 2015-2016, and increased again to reach its highest point during the 2020-2021 pandemic, as shown in the graph.

Along with this social assistance, the number of poor people in Indonesia has decreased from 28.7 million (September 2012) to 26.5 million (September 2021). Then in September 2022, the number decreased slightly to approximately 2.64 million, with a poverty rate of 9.57%.

However, this reduction in poverty is still far from the target.

"The poverty target in 2024 is 7%. This means, referring to the data from September 2022, in the next two years we must reduce poverty by at least 1.2% per year to reach 7% in 2024. This is a challenging task," said Azwar.

Azwar stated that the Kemenpan-RB will support poverty reduction through thematic bureaucratic reform, including improving business processes, data improvement, regulatory/policy improvements, reformulation of programs/activities to be more targeted, provision of technological support through the Electronic-Based Government System (SPBE), and others.

"President Jokowi's directive states that all poverty-related programs must be aligned, from central to regional levels. The budget related to poverty, with all its available ecosystems, which totals around Rp 500 trillion, is expected to produce a more significant impact on poverty reduction," said Azwar.