Addressing Poverty: MoSA and BP Taskin to Take Direct Action in the Field

JAKARTA (November 11, 2024) – Minister of Social Affairs Saifullah Yusuf stressed the need for partnership between the Ministry of Social Affairs (MoSA) and the Poverty Alleviation Acceleration Agency (BP Taskin) in addressing extreme and vulnerable poverty in today's context. Moving forward, MoSA and BP Taskin intend to engage directly with these community groups.

"We'll pilot this in several areas and refine the results in 2025," Saifullah stated following a meeting with BP Taskin at the MoSA office in Jakarta on Monday (November 11, 2024).

Saifullah explained that people who live in poverty are categorized as extremely poor, poor, and vulnerable. He hopes to uplift the extremely poor to the poor category, move the poor to the vulnerable, and elevate the vulnerable to a stable economic class.

"This is being discussed through various simulations and frameworks. Of course, we’ll collaborate with other ministries, and they’ll follow up with their respective programs," he added.

At the same event, Budiman Sudjatmiko, the head of BP Taskin, outlined two significant approaches reached with MoSA. The first is to create jobs, and the second is to construct new business ecosystems that will help towns prosper.

"If we want to re-employ them or just provide funding for small enterprises as we did previously, we must address a new challenge: ensuring that these new business ecosystems align with the realities of digitalization and automation. That’s something we’ll discuss with the Ministry of Industry, Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy, and the Ministry of Manpower," said Budiman.

Budiman noted that job losses and company closures are not just due to economic disruptions but also stem from the impact of digitalization and automation. Thus, poverty alleviation efforts must focus on creating ecosystems resilient to these challenges.

"For instance, there are constant shortages in sectors like caregiving, healthcare, and education. These are areas perpetually lacking a workforce, so we’ll prioritize them," Budiman explained.