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Rural poverty in Indonesia More than half of Indonesia's 235 million people are poor. Most struggle to survive on less than US$2 a day, and are at risk of even more severe poverty. About 18 per cent live on US$1 or less. Approximately 60 per cent of the population live in rural areas where agriculture is the main source of livelihood. Poverty has always been a concern in Indonesia. In the 1970s the country entered a period of steady economic growth, accompanied by progressive social development. Then in 1997 and 1998 the Indonesian economy came close to collapse, when a financial crisis swept through South-Eastern Asia. Before the crisis, 16.8 per cent of the country's families were officially classified as poor. At the height of the financial upheaval, the proportion of poor households in the country doubled. Although the crisis hit harder in urban areas, recovery was also more rapid in the cities and towns. Instead, in rural areas, poverty is greater than it was before the financial crisis. Millions of small farmers, farm workers and fishers are materially and financially unable to tap into the opportunities offered by years of economic growth. The financial crisis also took a heavy toll on the government's budget. At a time when government spending was needed to help reduce economic hardships weighing on poor people, social expenditures such as spending for health and education had to be cut. Even today, the government's heavy debt burden means that there are few resources to help finance poverty reduction programmes. Where are Indonesia's rural poor people? The poorest areas of Indonesia are the remote eastern islands, where 95 per cent of people in rural communities are poor. In the most densely populated islands of Java and Bali, poverty exists but there are opportunities to make it more transient. Here, unsustainable livelihood systems and isolation make people vulnerable to external shocks and are the principal causes of poverty, mainly in the upland areas. On average, poverty rates in Bali and Java range between 14 and 31 per cent. In many provinces in Eastern Indonesia farmers make their living by harvesting a single crop on dry land. They live in a subsistence economy and are not able to achieve food self-sufficiency through their farming activities. Many live in coastal areas that are environmentally degraded. Upland villages are the most disadvantaged and require development programmes adapted to the many constraints they face. Many of these remote areas are accessible only by boat, on foot or by small plane. The road network is in poor condition and requires major investment. These provinces are also home to many adat, or indigenous communities, which have often been on the margins of development processes and programmes. A significant part of the rural labour force has migrated to urban areas in search of employment. Many migrants would be willing to resettle in rural areas, but they no longer have land. In some provinces, migration to foreign countries is a way to overcome unemployment and poverty caused by lack of access to land and other productive resources. Source: IFAD |
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