Bekasi, The PRAKARSA – On April 7-10, 2026, The PRAKARSA Together with the Ministry of Social Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia, a series of Focus Group Discussion (FGD) activities were conducted at the Pangudi Luhur Bekasi Integrated Center, Ministry of Social Affairs, as part of the study on the development of Sustainable Direct Assistance (BLB). The activities aimed to gather input from Ministries/Institutions and key actors to strengthen the BLB policy design, particularly in terms of the program's position within the national social protection system, target refinement, institutional role allocation, financing, and implementation readiness. Acting as FGD facilitators were Pierre Bernando Ballo (Social Policy Officer) and Ari Wibowo (Researcher) from The PRAKARSA.
This initiative stems from the need to strengthen social protection for non-productive groups facing multiple vulnerabilities, particularly the elderly and people with severe disabilities. In this context, the BLB is being promoted as a permanent social security scheme more aligned with lifecycle risks, differing from the Family Hope Program (PKH), which has historically focused more on productive households and human capital development through a conditional approach.
During the four-day event, discussions involved internal units of the Ministry of Social Affairs, including the Directorate of Social Security, the Directorate of Social Rehabilitation for the Elderly, and the Directorate of Social Rehabilitation for Persons with Disabilities. In addition, input was gathered from the Coordinating Ministry for Community Empowerment (Kemenko PM), the Ministry of National Development Planning/Bappenas, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Home Affairs, and the Central Statistics Agency (BPS). The series of interviews explored various key issues, ranging from the position of BLB in the national social protection architecture, its relationship with the Family Hope Program (PKH) and social rehabilitation services, to the challenges of benefit distribution in the regions.
One common thread that emerged was the importance of positioning BLB as an assistance scheme that is more adaptive to the level of dependency of recipients. The discussion highlighted the need to use an Activity of Daily Living (ADL) approach to differentiate between mild, moderate, and severe categories, so that assistance can be more targeted. In the scheme discussed, BLB is directed not solely as cash assistance, but as a cash-plus approach that combines cash assistance with five pillars of non-cash assistance: food support, healthcare, burial services, assistive devices, and caregivers.
The discussion also emphasized that groups with moderate to severe dependency require more sustainable support, including social rehabilitation services, homecare, specialized nutrition, and strengthening the long-term care ecosystem at the community level. Therefore, the development of BLB cannot be separated from strengthening the capacity of social assistants, developing more operational dependency assessment instruments, and cross-sector coordination so that cash benefits can work alongside basic social services and health care.
In terms of policy governance, FGD participants emphasized that BLB development requires a strong regulatory foundation and a realistic implementation design. The discussion underscored the importance of academic papers or urgent drafts that convincingly address conceptual, regulatory, and fiscal needs, including phased implementation options and the possibility of pilots before scale-up. Data quality issues were also a key concern, particularly regarding the integration of Regsosek, DTSEN, and cross-ministerial/institutional dashboards, updating deciles 1-4 data, and mitigating inclusion and exclusion errors to ensure more accurate BLB targeting. The discussion also noted the need for further validation of the initial data overlay results, which indicated a potential target of approximately 540 people with severe disabilities.
In addition to testing the benefit design, this forum also served as a space for initial synchronization regarding BLB implementation strategies in the regions. Various inputs emphasized that the program's success will be largely determined by the readiness of the delivery system, the clarity of the division of roles between the central and regional governments, the regionalization of the assistance index, and the system's ability to link cash assistance with existing services. Within this framework, the pilot option was deemed crucial not only to test the distribution mechanism but also to assess the readiness of case management, service coordination, and data quality in the field.
The PRAKARSA We hope that the results of this study will help the Ministry of Social Affairs formulate a more implementable, integrated, and pro-vulnerable BLB design that currently requires ongoing state support, including as a basis for preparing policy options for the next planning and budgeting cycle.