World Bank Country Director for Indonesia and Timor-Leste, Rodrigo Chaves after meeting with Indonesia's President Joko WIdodo on June 25, 2019. (Image credit: ANTARA/Desca Lidya N)

World Bank agrees to give a loan of US$300 million for poverty alleviation in Indonesia

Faradita Prayusti
Market & Investment
New Investment
Jun 28, 2019
2940
The World Bank Executive Board of Directors accepted to give a loan with total amount US$300 million for Indonesia to hasten poverty alleviation and upgrade services in over 66,000 villages in 380 regions across the country.

On Thursday, Rodrigo Chaves, the World Bank Country Director for Indonesia and Timor-Leste, noted in a statement that the project will help suburbs to reduce differences in rural infrastructure and human resources. These two things will give supports to decrease poverty and enhance economic growth in the future.

A press statement from World Bank published on Thursday reported that the Institutional Strengthening Project for Improved Village is going to invest in capacity development and systems through community collaboration to help villages in improving their development plans and budgets as well as to enhance participation in planning and strengthen accountability.

The Deputy for Regional Development at the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), Rudy Prawiradinata said suburbs now have an important role to reduce poverty together with government and community. Executing the role successfully will depend on how good the village can turn its budgets into investments and services.

It is hoped that through various investments, villages can rise their budget expenses and lead them for better development.

In terms of poverty and inequality, Indonesia has been making progress to reduce those two, according to Rodrigo Chaves.

Several ways have been done by the government to tackle down the issue, including providing subsidized rice for-the-impoverished (Raskin) and creating Family Hope Program (PKH) as well as giving subsidies for fuels and fertilizers.

However, in 2017, Indonesia Vice President Jusuf Kalla said the country’s efforts to reduce poverty haven’t been made optimally.
The 2018 data also showed a large gap between poverty rates in villages and cities which is 13.2 percent in suburbs and 7 percent in rural areas, as the World Bank Country Director said.

The loan project will focus on three aspects, first is to improve capacity development for data-based and outcomes-oriented medium-term programs and budgets along with information systems and data integration in decision making.

Second, the project is expected to boost community participation in planning, application, and monitoring, including using technology-based applications so everyone can involve in checking the real-time use of the village funds and their participation.

And the last focus on the World Bank’s loan project is to aid suburbs in improving system transparency and accountability in the areas by releasing financial reports and performance-based awards.

Source: https://en.antaranews.com/news/127893/world-bank-approves-us300-million-for-poverty-reduction-in-indonesia

World-Bank , Indonesia , Poverty , Inequality , Village , Loan