Ministry of Social Affairs Focusing on Four Policies of Family Hope Program

JAKARTA (February 13, 2020) - The Indonesian Ministry of Social Affairs, in 2020, will focus the implementation of Family of Hope Program (PKH) on four policies, namely Stunting Prevention, KPM Graduation with Prosperity, Validation in Frontier, Least developed areas (3T) and Synergy with the Family Planning Program (KB).

"First, for the prevention of stunting and handling of malnutrition. The policy taken is to increase the index of assistance for pregnant women and early childhood categories," said Director of Family Social Security (JSK), Directorate General of Social Protection and Security, MO. Royani in a Media Briefing event in Jakarta, Thursday (13/2).

He said that the increase in the index of assistance for pregnant women and early childhood is expected to encourage the fulfillment of family nutritional needs.

"This is as outlined in the government's vision and mission in the 2019-2024 National Medium Term Development Plan (RPJMN), where prevention of stunting is one of the national programs," he said.

The index increase in the categories of pregnant women and early childhood, which initially received IDR 2.4 million, rose to IDR 3 million.

Furthermore, the aid index for other components was still constant, namely the Elementary School Children's Education Component / equivalent IDR. 900,000 per year; Junior High School Education Component / equivalent R IDR. 1.5 million per year; Education component for high school children / equivalent IDR. 2 million per year; Components of Persons with Severe Disabilities IDR. 2.4 million per year; and Elderly Components 70 years and over, worth IDR 2.4 million per year.

The second PKH policy is Graduasi Berdikari Sejahtera through empowering Beneficiary Families (KPM) through People's Business Credit (KUR) and Micro Credit.

"So, the PKH policy is directed so that KPMs get access to business financing so that they are more productive," said the Director.

Funding is provided through KUR and micro credit, the government hopes that this will encourage the strengthening of the people's economy towards an advanced Indonesia.

The Minister of Social Affairs, Juliari P. Batubara said that KUR for KPM PKH is a partnership program of the Ministry of Social Affairs with Himbara members and currently it has started with the distribution of KUR by BNI and BRI. On an ongoing basis, the KUR program was also implemented by Bank Mandiri and BTN.

The third policy, is the validation of the Frontier, Outermost, and Remote (3T) areas, the saturation of districts or the addition of sub-districts in the district to be the focus of this policy.

"Based on Integrated Social Welfare Data (DTKS), the PKH team will search the 3T area based on three components in PKH, namely health, education and social welfare," he explained.

The PKH team in question consists of the local City / Regency Social Service, PKH facilitators and PKH officials from the center.

The fourth is a synergy with the Family Planning (KB) program, meaning that PKH focuses on the health of pregnant women and early childhood.

"For the health component, assistance is limited only to mothers with a maximum of two pregnancies, a maximum of two early childhood children. This is where PKH synergizes with the Family Planning Program which supports every family having only two children," he explained.

Submission of PKH Phase I Worth 7 Trillion

Entering 2020, last January, the distribution of PKH social assistance to KPMs throughout Indonesia was valued at IDR. 7 trillion.

The realization in stage I reached 9,024,049 KPM in the family consisting of school children, early age children, pregnant women, severe disabilities and elderly over 70 years in PKH families.

President Joko Widodo also monitored the handover of PKH social assistance which took place at the Rajawali Field, Cimahi City, West Java Province, Wednesday (29/1). In the event which was attended by 2,500 KPM from Bandung Raya, the President took a close look at how PKH as a national priority program was implemented properly and had an impact, and had a direct dialogue with PKH recipient mothers.

The President also encouraged PKH recipient mothers to start home businesses to increase family income.

To mothers, the President explained that the government provides a financing program that can be accessed by KPM PKH to increase business. For example, through KUR, the Mekaar Program (Fostering a Prosperous Family Economy), and Ultra Micro Financing (UMi).

The director added that PKH is one of the Ministry's main portfolios which is President Joko Widodo (Jokowi's) national priority program in reducing the national poverty rate and inequality (Gini ratio), and achieving other Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets.

PKH aims to improve the standard of living of Beneficiary Families (KPM); reduce the expense burden and increase family income; creating changes in behavior and independence of KPM; reducing poverty and inequality; introduce the benefits of formal financial products and services to KPM.

To note, in January 2020, the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) released the Official Statistics News (BRS) regarding the poverty profile in Indonesia that the poverty rate in September 2019 reached 9.22 percent. This figure is down 0.44 percentage points from the September 2018 data. This means that the number of poor people in September 2019 was 24.79 million people, a decrease of 0.88 million people when compared to the record in September 2018.

The Ministry of Social Affairs is committed to encouraging poverty reduction through the PKH social assistance program, where since it was implemented in 2007, PKH has continued to grow bigger; both in terms of scale of coverage, quality of service and the resulting impact.