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

Qualitative Impact Study for PNPM Generasi and Pkh on the Provision and the Utilization of Maternal and Child Health Services and Basic Education Services in the Provinces of West Java and East Nusa Tenggara

This study aimed to examine the impact of pnpm generasi and pkh on the provision and the utilization of maternal and child health (mch) services and basic education services. the study was conducted in 24 villages in two provinces, West Java and East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), which were divided into treatment and control areas. the qualitative panel method was used by comparing the results of the impact study with the baseline study conducted in 2007. overall, the study found an increase in the provision and utilization in the sample areas, especially in pnpm generasi treatment areas. pnpm generasi contributed to the provision of services via building physical and supporting facilities of mch and basic education as well as incentives for service providers. contributions to improvement of utilization took the form of direct aid to households, including aid to cover childbirth expenses, supplementary feeding, scholarships, transport and dormitory allowances, and school equipment. on the other hand, pkh contribution to the improvement in service utilization was evident only in NTT province. improvements were indicated by the increase in mothers' attendance at posyandu (integrated health service posts)i and of students attendance in class. these increases were encouraged by the role of pkh facilitators in motivating the beneficiaries, the possible consequences of pkh fund deduction or fund withdrawal, and the relatively large proportion of beneficiaries in each village. however, a number of problems regarding the provision and the utilization of mch and basic education services were still evident, especially in NTT. the problems included geographical and economic barriers, unavailability of service providers (of village midwives and teachers), and the villagers' beliefs in traditional customs. ___________ ia posyandu or an integrated health service post is a medium for a village/kelurahan/rw community to provide basic health services for its own members. the main objective is to help reduce under-five and maternal mortality rates. the services, provided by local cadres assisted by a puskesmas medical staff member, include immunization, weight measuring, and general health checks for children under the age of five as well as general health checks for mothers and the elderly

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