VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Jakarta (voinews): Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture (PMK), Muhadjir Effendy, has asked local governments to verify data on people living in extreme poverty in their respective regions.

"Each region must carry out validation regarding the P3KE (Targets for the Acceleration of the Alleviation of Extreme Poverty) data, thus it can be followed up by the Coordinating Ministry for PMK later,” he said here on Wednesday.

The data validation is urgently needed so that the information on each extremely poor person can be made accurate based on the determined criteria, he added.

“For any region which still has problems with the data, it can be coordinated with the Coordinating Ministry for PMK," he stated.

The accuracy of P3KE data is also important for ensuring that the government's poverty eradication programs are on target, he explained.

With an accurate database, extreme poverty alleviation programs would be able to truly benefit impoverished people who need assistance from the government, he added.

"Using ‘by name by address’ data as well as data per village, it is hoped that there will be no more mistarget," he said.

The government is striving to reduce the extreme poverty rate, which, in 2021, was recorded at 4 percent, or 10.86 million people, to zero percent by 2024.

"President Joko Widodo has instructed all stakeholders to commit to eliminating extreme poverty (in Indonesia) by 2024, or 6 years prior to the target of SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals), which is 2030," Effendy added.

Earlier, he had urged all parties to optimize three key programs to expedite the eradication of extreme poverty.

The first involves disbursing social assistance and subsidies to ease the burden on extremely poor people, while the second involves community empowerment to help increase the productivity and economic capacity of the people.

Meanwhile, the third program concerns the development of basic infrastructures to reduce areas with high rates of extreme poverty.

According to Presidential Instruction Number 4 of 2022 on extreme poverty eradication acceleration, regional heads have been asked to determine the target data on extremely poor families, depending on the results of village meetings. (Antaranews)