MULTIDIMENSIONAL POVERTY IN INDONESIA DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
Wednesday, 9th December 2020, 08:00 AM (GMT)
Post event summary (by Putu Natih):
The Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI)’s most recent report on the global Multidimensional Poverty Index (global MPI) in Indonesia confirms the importance of considering the multifaceted aspects of life within the measurement of poverty and offers a message of hope regarding the progress Indonesia has achieved in reducing deprivation within these various aspects of well-being. Building on the findings of the report, this event further explored the role of multidimensional poverty measurement globally and offered an opportunity to discuss how measurement may inform policy approaches to help those most severely impacted by the pandemic in Indonesia.
The webinar included vibrant discussion between Professor Sabina Alkire (Director, OPHI), key academics in Indonesia (Professor Ari Kuncoro, Rector Universitas Indonesia and Dr Teguh Dartanto, Vice Dean Faculty of Economics and Business UI) and policy makers (Dr Vivi Yulaswati, Expert Staff of the Ministry of National Development Planning in Social Issues and Poverty Alleviation and Dr Chatib Basri, former Finance Minister and Senior Lecturer at FEB UI). More than 350 participants registered to attend and sent in questions for the Q&A session led by Putu Natih (OPHI, alumna FEB UI). A recording of the webinar can be accessed on the Faculty of Economics and Business Universitas Indonesia (FEB UI) YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6oq71gDxAc&t=9s
The webinar started with an opening address from Professor Kuncoro (Rector of Universitas Indonesia), which highlighted the importance of defining and measuring poverty in a multidimensional way. Professor Kuncoro stated that COVID-19 has led to increased deprivation in myriad aspects of life, pushing more and more into poverty and vulnerability; given this fact, multidimensional poverty measurement can provide robust and rapid assessments to support policy makers, particularly in the midst of this pandemic. To close his speech, Professor Kuncoro welcomed the possibility of continuous collaboration between OPHI and FEB UI, as a crucial way of discovering effective methods to help the government mitigate the impact of COVID-19. Working together is truly a key way to emerge strong from this pandemic, a global challenge that every nation is facing.
Professor Kuncoro’s opening remarks were then followed by Professor Sabina Alkire’s briefing on Multidimensional Poverty in Indonesia and the impact of COVID-19. Professor Alkire’s report highlighted Indonesia’s progress on reducing multidimensional poverty as defined and measured by the global MPI. Bringing another message of hope, in an analysis of trends of the Global MPI for Indonesia, Professor Alkire highlighted findings, which point to the pro-poorness of policies that have been implemented to reduce poverty in Indonesia. The ability to disaggregate multidimensional poverty by region, demographic characteristics and indicators which contribute the most to poverty, may further support the government’s efforts to leave no-one behind with its policies. The global MPI is however too acute a measure for Indonesia; it is thus vital for Indonesia to define a national multidimensional measure to support policy makers in identifying and alleviating poverty.
Professor Alkire’s clear and insightful overview was then followed by Dr Teguh Dartanto’s (Vice Dean of FEB UI), presentation of key findings from preliminary work that he has conducted on creating a national multidimensional measure for Indonesia. Dr Dartanto underlined that single monetary-based measures cannot capture the experience of deprivation and poverty, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic and that a multidimensional measure enables us to look at real human deprivation. Dr Dartanto’s findings and microsimulations confirmed that COVID-19 significantly impacted the experience of deprivation within multiple aspects of life. It is thus very important to take this into account when designing policy.
Dr Dartanto’s discussion was then followed by the policy segment of the webinar. This segment started with a session presented by Dr Vivi Yulaswati, who gave us an overview of the impact of COVID-19 on poverty and vulnerability in Indonesia, and how the government has responded to help mitigate these adverse effects. Dr Yulaswati stated that COVID-19 has led to the emergence of the ‘new’ poor and more and more people being categorised as vulnerable to poverty, particularly within urban areas of Indonesia. Dr Yulaswati highlighted key social security programmes the government has These programmes include social security and health access programmes, cash transfers, unemployment benefit programmes and increased access to digital infrastructure, particularly to support access to education. Dr Yulaswati ended her discussion with a message of collaboration by stating that “the future is now!” Research and discussion with academia, such as that offered in this webinar, is a way to further build and enhance the capacity of the Indonesian government. Working together will hopefully enable us to use COVID-19 as a momentum to build back better, together. Dr Yulaswati’s insightful overview of current government policies was then followed by a discussion of the macroeconomic condition of Indonesia, presented so clearly and eloquently by Dr Chatib Basri (Senior Lecturer FEB UI, former Finance Minister Indonesia). Dr Basri employed consumer spending and savings data to pinpoint which groups of society were hit the worst by the pandemic. His clear analysis found that the informal sector and those who are in the lower middle-income groups were and are still continuing to be hurt most severely by the pandemic. Dr Basri also highlighted that policies which are aimed to reduce the spread of the pandemic may have significantly contributed to the adverse economic impacts of the pandemic. Particularly in Indonesia, the poor cannot afford not to work. Introducing social distancing measures exacerbates the precarious condition of the most vulnerable; thus social security, cash transfers and access to digital infrastructure are crucial to balance the impact of these policies and to ensure survival in the midst of this crisis. Dr Basri also closed his discussion with a message of working together – collaboration between the government, the private sector and academia is crucial to map policies that can best tackle the challenges our people are facing.
The webinar ended with a lively Q&A session led by Putu Natih. Participants were interested in discovering from Professor Alkire whether multidimensional poverty measurement allows one to examine gradients of poverty, i.e. those who are in severe poverty, in poverty and those who are vulnerable to poverty. Participants also wanted to know more about how multidimensional measurement, particularly the axiomatic approach provided by the Alkire-Foster method, may account for inequality and the severity of multidimensional poverty. Professor Alkire gave a very clear response to these questions, explaining how multidimensional measurement may indeed enable governments to examine gradients of poverty and how the global MPI, by employing the Alkire-Foster method, allows one to not only account for headcount poverty, but also for the severity of poverty experienced by one’s people. Participants then asked for Dr Basri’s response on whether poverty or inequality is more of an issue in Indonesia and how the government can ensure the effectivity of its cash transfer policies. Dr Basri stated that both poverty and inequality are important issues in Indonesia and very helpfully referred participants to a number of peer- reviewed research papers published on cash transfers in Indonesia. The issue of gender and gender inequalities was also raised in the discussion, particularly as a potential indicator to be included within a possible national measure of multidimensional poverty for Indonesia. Dr Dartanto agreed, but acknowledged that the current data available for Indonesia, provides limited capacity when attempting to include this aspect within measurement, and called for the need to collect more data on gender issues. Dr Yulaswati also deeply recognised the importance of gender equality and noted that the government has detailed key policies for women’s rights. She is also hopeful that Indonesia may develop better data to measure and improve our understanding on the issues of gender inequality in Indonesia.
This webinar generated an extensive amount of interest on multidimensional poverty in Indonesia. We hope that this webinar is the start of many collaborative events and research projects to come, to help Indonesia overcome the effects of the pandemic.
Putu Geniki Lavinia Natih graduated from the Faculty of Economics, University of Indonesia in 2011. As a former Jardine-Oxford Scholar, Putu completed her MPhil and DPhil at the University of Oxford and is now working as a research consultant at the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), Department of International Development, University of Oxford. Putu also currently teaches Statistics and Quantitative Research