Jakarta – Indonesia, May 22 – 23, 2001
Dr. Dedi Riyadi, Deputy Chairman of BAPPENAS,, Dr. Azmi Mat Akhir, Director, Bureau of Economic & Functional Cooperation, Mr. Cho Kah Sin, Assistant Director. Bureau of Economic and Function, Cooperation, Honourable Representatives of ASEAN Member Countries,, Ladies and Gentlemen.
My name is Mayling Oey-Gardiner. I am the person in charge of managing this Workshop and representing the Australian Management Committee which consists of Insan Hitawasana Sejahtera a social science research and consulting firm based in Jakarta, and The Australian National University of Canberra Australia.
I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you all here today and to thank you for taking the time out from your busy lives and the work in your home countries to make the effort to attend this workshop, the first of four to be delivered over the next 12 months.
As you may know, these workshops are the realization of a request made by ASEAN representatives to the Australian Agency for International Development. This is the first of a series of 4 regional workshops to be hosted in four ASEAN Member Countries, namely Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Malaysia. The focus of these workshops is on sharing of experiences and best practices in social safety net programs and measures among Member Countries while taking into account the strengths and weaknesses of Member Countries.
The schedule over the next 2 days will be intensive yet productive. We have four sessions over two days, with each session comprising 3 parts, an Introductory Presentation and Discussion, a series of Break-out sessions, and a plenary/panel discussion on Lessons Learned, collating the information and reports from the break out groups. The focus is on gathering our collective experiences, and as such requires the active participation of each member. While we have been involved in the background organization for the workshops, it is your input that will determine its success, and its relevance and benefits to you in your own workplaces.
We have three members of our team who will stay at the hotel and who can assist you whenever you may need help. They are Sulastri, Kurniyati Indahsari better known as Iin, and Kirsty. We would, however, request that any assistance required is sought prior to 10pm or after 7am.
Outside of these hours, we would expect any contact only to be made in bona fide cases of emergency.
Tomorrow's session will begin at 8.30 with registration, so please ensure you have taken your breakfast earlier so we can start on time. Further information will be given at the first session regarding the workshops.
We hope that this conference will be an enjoyable and productive opportunity for you to meet and discuss various issues with your counterparts from other nations. Please do not hesitate to contact us if there is anything we may be able to do to help you.
Again welcome to Indonesia and Jakarta in particular,, and enjoy your time here.
Welcome Remarks By
Dr Azmi Mat Akhir
at the ASEAN-Australia Social Safety Nets Project
Workshop on "Targeting and Assessment for Social Programs"
22-23 May 2001, Jakarta
Dr. Dedi Riyadi, Deputy Chairman of BAPPENAS
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen.
A Very Good Evening.
I should like at the very outset, to thank BAPPENAS, Indonesia's national planning agency, for hosting this workshop. I should also like to express our appreciation to Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) for its timely and generous assistance to help ASEAN in implementing its Action Plan on Social Safety Nets. Sincere thanks are also due to the managing contractor team of Australian National University and lnsan Hitawasana Sejahtera for the very efficient preparations made for the workshop.
2. It is indeed a great pleasure for me to welcome all of you distinguished delegates to the first of four workshops under the ASEAN-Australia Social Safety Nets Project. The project has had a fairly long gestation since it was conceived in response to the call of the 6th ASEAN Summit Meeting held in 1998 in Hanoi to mitigate the social impact of the financial and economic crisis. During the 6th Summit, the ASEAN Heads of Government recognised that the poor and vulnerable were most affected by the crisis and urged Member Countries to take measures to protect them and to mitigate the impact of the crisis on their lives. In this regard the leaders agreed to implement the framework of regional activities as spelled out under the ASEAN Action Plan on Social Safety Nets which was adopted by the ASEAN Ministers on Rural Development and Poverty Eradication, also in 1998.
3. In order to operationalize the Action Plan on Social Safety Nets, the ASEAN Secretariat sought funding assistance from international donor agencies and ASEAN Dialogue Partners in May 1999. I want to reiterate our thanks to Australia for responding to our call made during the ASEAN Development Cooperation Forum (ADCF) held in May 1999 in Jakarta, to solicit support for ASEAN priority activities on economic and social recovery under the ASEAN Hanoi Plan of Action.
4. In August 1999, the AusAID informed the ASEAN Secretariat that it would provide A$500,000 to support a project on social safety nets under the Asia Recovery Fund. A feasibility study was then undertaken in early 2000 and recommended two basic thrusts for the project, which are. (i) to address the need to build capacity in the region for designing and implementing emergency social services in response to short-term crisis situations., and (ii) to use the project as a vehicle for documenting, gathering and disseminating successful regional experience/approaches in responding to the crisis, drawing on lessons learned from within the region.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
5. This Workshop on "Targeting and Assessment for Social Programs", is the first in a series of four to be implemented within the year. Focusing on targeting and a variety of rapid assessment methodologies, the workshop will highlight "best practice" in identifying and monitoring vulnerable sub-populations most affected by economic downturns, with a view to facilitating the design of targeted social assistance programs.
6. The project will also address three other priority areas, namely: the role of national and local agencies in the implementation of core social protection programs, partnerships in social policy; and social service delivery and related operational issues.
7. Some may ask whether we still need a capacity building program for dealing with the impact of a crisis that happened three years ago. Perhaps we should ask instead whether crises and downturns can be a thing of the past in a world where there is greater trade liberalization and economic integration? The imminent threat of another global economic slowdown should serve as a reminder that the region cannot be immune to the crises and downturns of a globally integrated economy and hence must be prepared accordingly.
8. But ASEAN is more prepared this time, especially with capacity building workshops such as this. Increased capacity to manage social risks will in fact assist ASEAN in working towards the Vision of a community of caring societies with the long-term goal of reducing poverty and socio-economic disparities, even as economic integration proceeds apace with the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), which will be realized in January 2002, about seven months from now, for the original six ASEAN Member Countries.
9 With that note, again, a very warm welcome to all of you and I hope that the Workshop will be fruitful and your next few days here will be productive and also enjoyable.
Thank you.
Welcome Remarks By
Ms. Kim Henderson
at the ASEAN-Australia Social Safety Nets Project
Workshop on "Targeting and Assessment for Social Programs"
22-23 May 2001, Jakarta
Thank you for the invitation to join you for dinner this evening to mark the opening of the first workshop under the ASEAN-Australia Social Safety Net Project.
The Australian government is very supportive of the work being undertaken through the ASEAN action plan on Social Safety Nets and is proud to be a partner with ASEAN in this project which support that work.
Through our AID Program Australia is providing broad support for Social Safety Net Programs which have been a priority for Australian Development Assistance in responding to the regional financial and economic crisis.
Support for this area has been provided through both regional and bilateral mechanism.
For example through the South-East Asia Regional Program we are providing assistance to help combat trafficking of women and children in the Mekong sub-region. We are doing this through funding the un inter-agency project on trafficking, and the international organization for migration return and reintegration of trafficked and other vulnerable women and children from Mekong Region countries.
There are also a number of ongoing HIV/AIDS activities operating through this program including, care and support, capacity building and harm reduction. A new program is being developed that will focus on harm associated with drug use as a means of reducing HIV vulnerability.
Through the A$5 million social protection facility AusAID is supporting the strengthening of social policy and social protection in Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam) through customized capacity-building initiatives designed to facilitate an exchange of experience and expertise across the region. The SPF will offer flexible and responsive programs designed to meet the needs of participants.
Here in Indonesia, through our bilateral program, we have supported a number of programs across different sectors designed to ameliorate the social impact of the economic crisis. For example:
- In the area of Food Security we provided support to world food program's (WFP) emergency operation program ($33 million/Oct 98 to June 2000) and their protracted relief and recovery program ($4M/April 2000 to September 2001). This involved food to urban poor, IDPS and blended food for malnourished children.
- In the area of Health, through the emergency medical supplies project, we provided $9.4 million worth of essential drugs and medical supplies and some contraceptives to NTT, NTB, South and South East Sulawesi, Maluku and Irian Jaya. (NB this activity finished in August 2000)
- In the area of Nutrition we provided $3.9M to support UNICEF's complimentary feeding initiative which delivers a nutrient fortified food to infants from poor families in East and West Nusa Tenggara, South Sulawesi and Maluku. (NB this activity finished in August 2000)
- For IDPS we have supported an extensive relief in Maluku, NTH Maluku, SE Sulawesi, Madura & West Timor. Most of emergency budget this fy ($13M) has provided support to IDPS for health, education, income-generation, shelter, water supply & sanitation, food.
- In the area of SSN Monitoring we have provided $250,000 to 18 local NGOS across Indonesia to monitor the impact of the GOI's SSN Program.
- In the area of Education we are providing $4.9 million to the World Bank and The Asian Development Bank for an independent monitoring unit for the Education Social Safety Net Program. The unit was created to ensure that SSN is implemented in a transparent and effective manner.
- We are also providing $4.6 million to the UNICEF Aku Anak Sekolah campaign which promotes the importance of education, advertises enrolment and discourages drop-outs. It also promotes transparency and accountability in the management of education.
Tomorrow's workshop is another avenue through which we aim to support ASEAN's commitment to poverty eradication. I hope you find the workshop on "Targeting and Rapid Assessment Methodologies" useful and informative and we look forward to receiving your feedback on the program.
DEPUTY CHAIRMAN OF BAPPENAS
FOR REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND
NATURAL RESOURCES
REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA
Opening Speech for the
ASEAN -Australia Workshop No. 1 on Social Safety Nets:
"Targeting and Rapid Assessment for Social Programs"
Distinguished Representative of Australian Embassy in Jakarta and AusAID,
Mr Cho Kah Sin, representing ASEAN Secretariat,
Distinguished participants of the Workshops,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Allow me in the first place on behalf of the Government of Indonesia to welcome all participants from neighbouring countries ASEAN as well as Australia to Jakarta for attending this Workshop on the Social Safety Net organized by the ASEAN Secretariat and AusAID.
As you may know, Indonesia is one of the countries in East-Asia gravely hit by economic crisis since end 1997. The economic crisis itself has created a tremendous negative impact to social-welfare condition and overall quality of life of many Indonesians, particularly the poor. In relatively short period, the regional financial crisis had devastated the country's economy and later led to social and political crisis that culminated in May 1998 when the leader of the country had to step-down.
The number of the poor increased significantly from 22.5 million (11.3% of total population) in 1996 to 49.5 million (or 24.2%) in 1998. A refinement of data in February 2000 revealed that the number of poor people is 33.2 million (17%) and this figure was still significantly higher than the pre-crisis data. Poor households consumed food of lower quality (and quantity); their children have a high risk of dropping out from school, and could not afford basic health services. In brief, the crisis had reduced access of the poor to receive reasonable income and, hence, deprived their capability to obtain basic services that are necessary to develop themselves.
In addition to that, the price increase has impacted to the quality of public services causing the local health centres and hospitals could not retain their services.
It is for the reason to salvage and help the poor out of the impact of the crisis the Government responded quickly and proactively through Social Safety Net programs. The programs consist of: provision of basic food at affordable price to the poor; create productive employment to increase purchasing power; provision of health and education services; and generate community-level economic activities.
At the initial stage, and at the national level, the SSN programs have been planned and implemented with limitations and imperfections, mainly due to the unavailability of target group data and their standard measurements reflecting the poor caused by the crisis. The programs were therefore implemented using proxy data and very limited information.
At the operational level, the lack of accurate target group data has created many difficulties. Experiences from the implementation of the food subsidy program, labour intensive programs, and health program revealed that the supply of funds allocated were highly insufficient related to prevailing demand, and that some mistargeting had happened.
Interwoven with other factors, and not to mention the socio-political climate changes because of the reform (reformasi) and euphoric democracy, this problem of data and targeting had strongly influenced the implementation of the SSN programs in general.
Therefore we consider that this Workshop which is specifically focused on the aspect of targeting and rapid assessment is very important to all of us in order to improve the planning and implementation in any social program in any country in the future.
We also consider that the Workshop is very useful to every participant to share other people's experience and perhaps draw some lessons from that experience.
We have a very high expectation that this Workshop will be a very beneficial to each of us, to the best practices in our country.
We thank the Government of Australia for its support and cooperation and goodwill shown to the ASEAN people, and for making this Workshop possible.
We would also like to thank the ASEAN Secretariat for its incessant drive and support to ASEAN member countries, particularly to Indonesia, in many development issues and particularly in this field of Social Safety Net.
Last but not least, we thank Mrs. Mayling Oey-Gardiner and her team for their efforts in organizing this Workshop and try to make this Workshop a successful and unforgotten one.
To the rest of our guests, I wish you have a pleasant and wonderful stay in Jakarta, and hopefully you would have a chance to enjoy the stimulating flavour of our "democracy in transition", and if, by chance, this process of democracy gives you an unpleasant and uncomfortable situation during your stay in the city, we do apologize for that. So, take care while you are enjoying it.
Having said all of the above, I hereby declare that the ASEAN-AusAID Workshop No.1 on Social Safety Net is officially opened.
May God The Almighty bless us all.
Thank you.
Jakarta, 21 May 2001
Dr. Dedi M.M. Riyadi