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Poverty-reduction target in 2024 unlikely to be met, minister says
In previous yeas, Indonesia's poverty rate fell between 0.3 and 0.5 percent annually.
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Coordinating Human Development and Culture Minister Muhadjir Effendy waves to journalists as President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo (unseen) unveils his new cabinet on the steps of the State Palace in Jakarta on Oct. 23, 2019. (JP/Seto Wardhana)
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oordinating Human Development and Culture Minister Muhadjir Effendy said it would be unrealistic to expect Indonesia's poverty rate to fall to 7.5 percent this year to meet the target set in the 2020-2024 National Mid-Term Development Plan (RPJMN).
Muhadjir said the country's poverty rate in 2023 was 9.36 percent, meaning that it would take a 1.85 percent reduction to meet the mid-term development target. He pointed out that in previous years, poverty fell between 0.3 and 0.5 percent.
"It is unlikely to be achieved if the target is 7.5 percent, given the current position of 9.3 percent," Muhadjir said on Friday as quoted by CNBC Indonesia.
However, Muhadjir said that the government could significantly reduce the extreme poverty rate, even though the zero-percent target might not be attainable.
Read also: RI inequality increases slightly as poverty falls
Muhadjir said Indonesia's large population posed a challenge to reducing the rates of overall national extreme poverty.
"Reaching precisely zero-percent is unfeasible due to our sizable population of around 6 million extremely poor and 26 million poor individuals,” he said. “The magnitude of these absolute numbers is coupled with various factors causing poverty.”
Similar sentiments were shared by National Development Planning Minister Suharso Monoarfa last year. During a hearing with House of Representatives' Commission XI overseeing financial affairs, Suharso said that meeting the poverty-reduction target “requires total data improvement and program integration accompanied by massive economic empowerment.”
Additionally, the minister pointed out that achieving the target would become increasingly difficult due to changes in the World Bank’s definition of poverty. The World Bank has revised the extreme poverty line from US$1.90 to $2.15 per capita daily.
In adopting the $2.15 figure, he said the government could only reduce the extreme poverty rate to 2.5 percent at most. However, if the government used an indicator of $1.90 per capita daily, the extreme poverty level could be pushed down to 1.2 percent.
