Jakarta, The PRAKARSA - The PRAKARSA as part of a research consortium with the Resilience Development Initiative (RDI), Charles Darwin University from Australia, Indonesian Education University (UPI) from Bandung, Wira Wacana Christian University from East Sumba, Habitat for Humanity Indonesia, and the Institute of Resource Governance and Social Change ( IRGSC) from Kupang, has organized advocacy from research to further introduce Adaptive Social Protection (PSA) to the Indonesian government, on Wednesday (17/07/2024).
In this activity, team members explain aspects of social protection such as formal social protection programs carried out by the government which are referred to as formal social protection, to forms of social protection managed by the community using social capital.
The team members' presentations were taken from research results in East Sumba, NTT, since August 2023. In the morning session, team members explained the history and development of social protection in Indonesia. “Social protection in Indonesia has developed since 1998 after the Asian financial crisis. "Programs such as Direct Cash Assistance (BLT) and the Family Hope Program (PKH) are examples of programs implemented for the poverty alleviation agenda," said Ayu from UPI Bandung.
Social protection itself is managed by the people of East Sumba. "There are elements of social hierarchy, such as the Atta group as a lower class group of people and Umbu as an elite group. Each has social capital which is used to provide social protection to group members. "Apart from that, there is also the Maramba culture, namely exchanging agricultural products or other resources with fellow families which is very useful during difficult times such as crop failure, not being able to go to sea, or disasters such as Covid-19 and Typhoon Seroja," said John P. Tallan, consortium member of IRGSC Kupang.
In the afternoon session, Victoria Fanggidae as Deputy Director of The PRAKARSA delivered a presentation regarding the integration of formal and informal social protection managed by the community. Integration is an effort to see the potential for strengthening PSA taken from existing good practices in East Sumba. Victoria explained that there are many actors in social protection in East Sumba, these actors can take the form of individuals such as relatives and extended families, moneylenders, up to the group level such as social gathering groups, churches or cooperatives. At the highest level are institutions such as banking, NGOs, and the government.
“Each actor has their own form and target of social protection. "However, each actor is interrelated and forms relationships that can have the potential to strengthen the implementation of adaptive social protection in East Sumba," said Victoria.
In the next session, other team members explained what factors needed to be strengthened in the East Sumba community to face the risks of climate change and disasters. "Awareness and knowledge about climate change and disaster risk is needed, only then can people understand what actions they need to take. "Apart from that, the community also needs formal social protection to strengthen community resilience in facing disasters," said Maklon Killa, member of the research consortium and also Chancellor of Wira Wacana Christian University Waingapu, NTT.
After the presentation, research team members received several responses from the Ministry of National Development Planning/National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Culture (Kemenko PMK), and the Ministry of Villages & PDTT. Responses from several government agencies emphasized that the existence of research on PSA is an important input for the government in designing an effective PSA program. "This PSA requires support from comprehensive risk and potential poverty data, reliable institutions, and the need for sustainable financing support. "This research adds insight regarding the need for disaster and risk maps that are regional in nature and cannot be generalized," said Dinar Dana Kharisma, representative from BAPPENAS RI.
The activity closed with the hope that this meeting would not be the last meeting but would continue in other meetings which would discuss the form of PSA contextually in the implementation of social protection programs, disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation.