Integrating Spatial Aspects of Poverty Into Urban Spatial Planning: Solutions for Tackling Urban Poverty

The results of a 2011 SMERU study on urban spatial poverty and the relationship between city spatial planning and efforts to reduce poverty in Kota (the City of) Surakarta and Kota Makassar suggest that there is only a limited understanding by stakeholders, particularly the local government work units (SKPD), of the relationship between the elements of spatial planning and efforts to reduce poverty. In addition to this, efforts to reduce poverty in both Surakarta and Makassar still tend to focus on programmatic approaches and budget considerations and have yet to directly involve city spatial planning. Therefore, SMERU recommends that stakeholders (i) increase their awareness of the importance of spatially-based poverty information and the characteristics of spatial poverty as fundamental considerations in formulating urban spatial master plans and in designing poverty reduction efforts and (ii) create a social protection and poverty reduction system that is sensitive to the needs, livelihood conditions, and vulnerabilities of the poor according to the spatial context of the group

Rapid Appraisal of the 2011 Data Collection of Social Protection Programs (Ppls 2011)

Research team smeru researchers hastuti, syaikhu usman, bambang sulaksono, r. justin sodo, asri yusrina, rahmitha, gracia hadiwidjaja, prio sambodho field researchers: basyri nasution, muhammad imam zamroni, asep kurniawan, muhammad badar translators: stephen girschik, mukti mulyana, budhi adrianto abstract to support the implementation of numerous social protection programs and the development of a unified database for social protection programs, statistics Indonesia (bps), in coordination with the national team for accelerating poverty reduction (tnp2k) and world bank, conducted the 2011 data collection for social protection programs (ppls 2011). ppls 2011 was implemented in order to build a unified database system containing information on all the 40% poorest households in Indonesia which will be used for the purpose of targeting social protection programs to eligible beneficiaries. to achieve this goal, around 45%-50% of low to lower middle socioeconomic households have been enumerated as part of the ppls 2011 implementation. in order to assess the quality of ppls 2011, the smeru research institute carried out a rapid appraisal of its implementation in four provinces covering eight kabupaten/kota, and sixteen villages/kelurahan. this appraisal was formulated based on interviews with bps staffs in kabupaten/kota and kecamatan (ksk), regional government officials, field enumerators (pcl), field supervisors (pml) and 253 households. in this qualitative study, smeru also observed training, data collection, data verification and data entry activities. in this appraisal, smeru finds that ppls 2011 has a number of improvements compared to previous data collections used to determine social protection program beneficiaries, namely the 2005 socioeconomic census (pse 2005) and the 2008 data collection for social protection programs (ppls 2008). some of these improvements are: a far greater coverage of households, clearer standard operating procedures (sop), the use of pre-listed lists of households as starting points based on technical analysis of census data, the neutral association of ppls 2011 to any programs, and the more detailed household information.meanwhile general criticisms of ppls 2011 are: the survey was perceived as being too centralized and/or insufficiently able to accommodate local socioeconomic characteristics, socialization to the community was limited, the criteria of low to lower middle socioeconomic households were not clear, and there were indications of possible under-coverage of households in some areas. this study offers several important recommendations that may be useful for future rounds of data collection for social protection programs. first, a fine, precise and firm explanation on the purpose of ppls should be given to all stakeholders, including the general population. second, in order to get high quality partners, enumerators must be recruited through an open and objective recruitment process. third, more precise and clearer definitions of what constitutes a low to lower middle socioeconomic household should be defined well in advance. fourth, training and field supervision activities should be improved. keywords: poverty, unified database, middle to low socioeconomic household, social protection program

Addressing Urban Poverty Increasing Learning on Urban Poverty Reduction in Kota Surakarta and Kota Makassar, Indonesia

Research team research advisor asep suryahadi smeru research team rizki fillaili (team leader), r.justin sodo, prio sambodho, rachma indah nurbani, herry widjanarko, kartawijaya, abdul ghofur, rika kumala dewi, mona sintia, ratri indah septiana regional researchers kota surakarta kota makassar isnaini rohmatulloh histiraludin wahyuning tuti widyaningrum ardian pratomo denny paulus suardi bakri a.muh. syarief hidayat bustam rikawati edi hariadi nur rahmah abstract with the growing intensity of urban problems, most notably poverty, it is imperative to identify the range of related aspects that help or hinder urban poverty reduction efforts. one emerging aspect is the role of city spatial planning in urban poverty reduction efforts. with the support from ford foundation, the smeru research institute conducted a study to understand the connection between city spatial planning and urban poverty: how city spatial planning addresses urban poverty issues and the extent to which this planning is inclusive of the issues being experienced in the study areas. it is hoped that in the future, with an improved understanding of this connection, city spatial planning can be more pro-poor and supportive of urban poverty reduction efforts. this study covered two selected cities, kota surakarta and kota makassar. both cities are well known for their innovation in inventing and implementing local programs that aim to reduce poverty and other social problems. the study implemented the sustainable livelihood approach (sla) as its analytical framework and conducted the participatory poverty assessment (ppa) as its data collection method. the study revealed two important findings: first, that the characteristics of poverty and poverty dynamics have spatial relevance. results of the ppa show that during the last ten years, poor people in the inner city have been enjoying welfare improvement due to urban economic agglomeration. in relation to the spatial aspect of poverty, the urban poor are facing illegal settlement problems, clean water and sanitation, and unsustainable urban economy. the second finding is that the current city spatial planning in both of the studied cities pays only limited attention to spatial poverty problems, which is reflected in several of their major planning documents. moreover, poverty reduction efforts in these two cities are still dominated by programmatic approaches and have not taken into account aspects of urban spatial poverty. key words: urban spatial poverty, city spatial planning, urban poverty reductio

Assessment of Policies to Improve Teacher Quality and Reduce Teacher Absenteeism

To avoid the middle income trap, Indonesia needs to start shifting its economy to higher-value products, which requires a workforce that has an increasingly high level of knowledge, skills, and competencies. this implies that Indonesia needs to put more serious effort into the improvement of the quality of its education system. currently only 37% of teachers have the appropriate teaching qualification as defined by the 2005 teacher law and approximately 15% of all teachers are absent from their class each school day across Indonesia. to set a higher standard for teachers and to upgrade their skills, the government has implemented a massive teacher certification program beginning in 2006. this teacher certification is attached to a professional allowance that effectively doubles certified teachers' salaries. this has provided an incentive for teachers to upgrade their qualifications and increase their teaching loads to meet the certification requirements. furthermore, the program has attracted more university graduates to enter the teaching profession and produced a jump in demand for teacher education in Indonesian universities. on the other hand, there is yet to be any clear evidence that the program has had a significant impact on improving students' overall educational performance and reducing rates of teacher absenteeism. similarly, other efforts to reduce teacher absenteeism, such as the provision of a special allowance for teachers working in remote areas, have yet to show a significant impact on reducing teacher absenteeism