Jakarta (ANTARA) - The government is shifting the paradigm of social assistance to ensure that social protection programs are effectively targeted by 2025, according to Coordinating Minister for Community Empowerment Muhaimin Iskandar.
After attending a meeting with President Prabowo Subianto in Jakarta on Tuesday, he said that the new paradigm aims to shift the economic capabilities of social assistance beneficiaries toward empowerment.
"It is like elevating their status from poverty to empowerment and independence," Iskandar pointed out.
He said that in his report to the president, he emphasized the importance of shifting the focus from merely providing social assistance to empowering social assistance beneficiaries toward independence.
According to Iskandar, the goal of this new paradigm is to empower and eventually achieve independence for all beneficiaries, including the poor, the extremely poor, and those at risk of poverty.
The number of extremely poor in Indonesia is currently recorded at around 2.3 million people, while the overall poverty rate has reached 8.3 percent, or equivalent to 23–24 million people, he said.
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To address these challenges, the government will review types of social assistance and their distribution, including providing better training and access to capital for the community, he explained.
The training provided will be more standardized to provide skills that can boost the community's economic potential, such as MSME development and the provision of raw materials for production at affordable prices with adequate quality, he revealed.
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"We will evaluate the mechanisms and launch empowerment programs, starting with training on access to capital, market creation, developing MSMEs and community economic actors, particularly ensuring the availability of raw materials for production," he elaborated.
According to Iskandar, the provision of capital will be consolidated to support more effective empowerment programs and broaden market opportunities for local economic actors. He also said that the government is allocating a budget for the 2025-2029 period to support this paradigm shift.
Government targets efficient social assistance by 2025 shift
Staf Ahli Menteri Keuangan Bidang Ekonomi Makro dan Keuangan Internasional Kemenkeu Parjiono dalam seminar yang bertajuk ‘Disaster Risk Financing & Insurance and Adaptive Social Protection Implementation in Indonesia' yang dipantau secara daring di Jakarta, Senin (10/7/2023) (ANTARA/Bayu Saputra)
