JawaPos.com – Perkumpulan Prakarsa, a research institution in the field of fiscal policy, social policy, and sustainable development, has again calculated the Multidimensional Poverty Index (IKM) for the period 2015-2018. This calculation uses the Alkire-Foster method and is based on data from the National Socioeconomic Survey (Susenas) from 2015 to 2018 by calculating deprivation in the dimensions of health, education, and standard of living.

The trend of the number of multidimensional poor people in Indonesia has decreased significantly in the 2015-2018 period when compared to the 2012-2014 period. The multidimensional poverty population has fallen drastically over the last 4 years.

There are 34 million people (2015), 30 million people (2016), 24,9 million people (2017), and 21,5 million people or only about 8,17% (2018). The decline in the multidimensional poverty rate is in line with the decline in the monetary poverty rate and is even lower.

In September 2018, the monetary poverty figure showed 25,67 million people (9,66 percent of Indonesia's total population), which was the lowest figure since the monetary crisis in 1998.

"This achievement deserves to be appreciated as the result of the work of the government and all levels of society in reducing poverty," said Executive Director of the Ah Maftuchan Initiative Association, Thursday (11/4).

The results of the IKM calculation show that all provinces in Indonesia have experienced a decline in the number of multidimensional poor people where the ratio of the poorest population is concentrated in rural areas. The characteristics of multidimensional poverty in Indonesia during the 2015-2018 period were dominated by sanitation problems, inadequate drinking water, and cooking fuel.

By region, the highest number of multidimensional poor people in 2018 was in Papua at 60,56 percent (67,10 percent in 2015), East Nusa Tenggara at 35,64 percent (49,35 percent in 2015) and West Papua at 32,66 percent (41,96 percent in 2015).

"Meanwhile, the lowest number of multidimensionally poor people in 2018 was in DKI Jakarta Province at 2,17 percent (3,18 percent in 2015), Yogyakarta at 2,22 percent (4,70 percent in 2015) and Central Java at 3,74 percent (6,79 percent in 2015)," added Dwi Rahayu Ningrum, researcher at Perkumpulan Prakarsa.

source: ThePrakarsa.org