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This study was undertaken by the UK Department for International Development (DFID)

and the World Bank Office Jakarta, as a companion to the World Bank's examination of

poverty in Indonesia outlined in the document'Poverty Reduction in Indonesia: Constructing

a New Strategy' (2001). It has provided depth to the World Bank report by studying dynamics

of poverty in selected communities, combining participatory methods with the Sustainable

Livelihoods framework.

January 2002. Jakarta,,lndonesia

Cover design : Ariya Pramudiya

Photographs by: Field research teams

The findings, interpretations and conclusions expressed in this study are entirely those of

the authors and should not be attributed in any manner to DFID, the World Bank, to its

affiliated organizations, or to members of its Board of Executive Directors or the countries

they represent. The boundaries, colors, denominations, and other information shown on

any map in this volume do not imply on the part of the World Bank Group any judgment on

the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries.

The World Bank Office Jakarta DFID, JakartaJakarta Stock Exchange Building British EmbassyTower 2, 12th & 13th Floors Ji. M.H.Thamrin 75JI. Jend. Sudirman, Kav. 52-53 Jakarta 10310. INDONESIAJakarta 12190. INDONESIA Tel: (62 21) 315 6264Tel: (62 21) 5299 3000 Fax: (62 21) 314 1824Fax: (62 21) 5299 3111Website: www.worldbank.or.id

The World Bank Department for International Development1818 H Street N.W. 1 Palace StreetWashington, D.C. 20433, U.S.A. London SW 1 E 5HE, UKTel: (202) 458 1876Fax: (202) 522 1557/1560Website: www.worldbank.org

People, Poverty and Livelihoods:Links for Sustainable Poverty Reduction in Indonesia

Nilanjana Mukherjee

Joan Hardjono

Elizabeth Carriere

Department forTHE WORLD BANKnternational

THE WORLD BANK Dvlpnn

Acknowledgements

"Our lives are lived in holes To fill one hole, we must dig another (Galh lubang, tutup lubang)".

I magine feeling you are always living in a hole, which such as Indonesia where poor population groups areyou cannot escape Filling the hole requires that often identifiable by their relationshlip to a majoryou dig another, in which you again become livelihood resource (for example: coastal fishers, rice

trapped. This feeling of powerlessness was expressed farmers or forest dwellers), solutions to poverty mustby many poor Indonesian women and men who focus on the strategies that people use to make a living.described their lives in this study: in a coastal fisherfolks' And this points to the need to understand peoples'community in Lombok, in a village of small rice farmers capacities and vulnerabilities, and their relationships toin Java, in a hamlet bordering forests of timber, rubber institutions, power, and livelilhood resources.and fruit trees in Kalimantan, and in an urban slum The"hole" signified the trap of unending indebtedness We embarked on the present study in early 2000 to gatherexperienced in all these locations. Poor people's information that would be directly useful to peopledescriptions of the forces that pushed them into the hole involved in designing and carrying out poverty reductionand have kept them there varied widely. But a common policies and programmes in Indonesia. We also wantedperception among the poor people who participated in to test how the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach ' couldthis study was that those forces influenced thelr livelihoods add depth to participatory research on poverty. At thatin ways beyond their control. time the country was experiencing a fragile recovery from

the economic crisis of 1997-98. The new, democraticallyPoor peoples' knowledge about what impoverishes, and elected government had just begun to establish newhow, is vital to the effectiveness of strategies for poverty principles for decentralizing power, governing and doingreduction. This knowledge has, nevertheless, remained business. In consultation with the government and

virtually untapped by large scale programs intended to international agency partners in Indonesia, the World Bankcombat poverty. Is it possible to draw directly upon the was carrying out a country poverty assessment to redefineknowledge of poor men and women when operating and re-think poverty reduction, and to inform its Countryat scales larger than a few communities? Are there ways Assistance Strategy for Indonesia in the post-economic-of generating and utilizing such information so that crisis era. It was an opportune time for new ways ofpoverty is sustainably reduced and poor people can thinking aboutand acting against poverty.improve their lives? There is a growing body of opinionthat an understanding of low people adopt (and adapt) The Sustainable Livelihoods study was one suchpractices in relation to thelr means of livelilhood is a key initiative, conducted as participatory action research into designing better anti-poverty interventions. In countries four communities in Java, Kalimantan and West Nusa

I TheDFID version ofSListainable LivclhhooclsAppro,ach is e.plahied mindetil in this zeport

Tenggara islands. This report documents the process, the and diligence through the six month process of fieldfindings and their implications, and offers some reflections work, analysis and site report preparations.on the methodology. Our conclusions argue strongly for

the adoption of decentralized poverty reduction We also thank the various individuals and organizationsprogrammes based on a framework which aims first at who provided us with information leading to theunderstanding and then at sustaining the livelihoods of selection of the study communities, in particular: Johnthe local poor, in whichever sectors of the economy they Carter, Nina Basira, Dr. Yunita T. Winarto, staff of the

are derived. Community Recovery Programme, staff of the

We would like to acknowledge first and foremost the Kecamatan Development Programme, and staff of theWorld Food Programme. The report owes much to

poor women and men in the four communities of gCentral and East Java, Lombok and West Kalimantan, insightful review comments from Joe Fernandez ofwho participated in this study and shared with us their IPCOS3, Stephen Mink, Thomas Walton and Christopherlives, opinions and assessments. Over several days at a Bennett of World Bank Jakarta and Simon Bland andtime in each community they contributed their time and Peter Balacs of DFID South East Asia. We thank Dr.creativity to communicate their ideas and insights through Tania Li for her editorial treatment which addedwords, numbers and pictures. They chose to participate substantially to the quality of the report.(which they did with unfailing enthusiasm), and we didour best to ensure that they benefited from the collective We are pleased that the findings and implications fromanalysis, problem solving and the social events that the this study are reflected in the World Bank policyactivity generated. They spoke to us in trust, and we have documents for which they were primarily intended It isrespected their confidence by avoiding mention of our intent, however to extend communication of these

individual community names in this report. findings far beyond written documents The possibilities

of combining the Sustainable Livelihoods approach withFinancial support was provided by DFID, making poverty reduction policy-making and planning need to

possible the involvement of professional staff from both be d eduan dbewel ysakeh d inDFID nd te Wold Bnk, tea of ndonsian be discussed and debated widely by stakeholders InDFID and the World Bank, a team of Indonesian

researchers and one international consultant. We would Indonesia, who will be making decisions and takingespecially like to thank Mark Baird, Director, World Bank actions to tackle poverty in the new millennium. An inter-Indonesia and Lant Pritchett, Principal Economist World agency effort is currently underway to communicate the

Bank Office, Jakarta and principal author of Poverty findings and conclusions to targeted stakeholders inReduction in Indonesia: Construcnnga New Strategy2, for Indonesia, to raise questions and promote thinking alongbelieving that the voices of the poor must be heard in these lines. It is our hope that this study contributes todebates about poverty and for having faith in our efforts better understanding of how poor men and women canto bring those voices significantly into the process. Grateful be empowered to take a central role in improving their

thanks are due to the Indonesian research team, whose livelihoods and moving out of poverty.names are listed on the following page, for their patience

Jakarta, November 2001 Nilanjana MukherjeeJoan Hardjono

Elizabeth Carriere

2 The WorldBankpovertyassessment, conducted In2000 andpubihshedin 2001

3 Institute for Policy and Comm unity Development Studies, Indonesia

ii

D ;17, _Department forDEl Y _ J InternationalTHE WORLD BANK Development

April, 2002

We are very pleased to present the report: Poverty, People and Livelihoods: Links forSustainable Poverty Reduction in Indonesia.

In 2000 the World Bank and DFID discussed how the World Bank strategic report on povertyin lndoncsia (Indonesia: Constructing a New Strategy for Poverty Reduction) could reflectthe voices and realities of poor people themselves. It was agreed that DFID and the WorldBank would organize a limited number of participatory poverty assessments to providequalitative depth to issues discussed in the World Bank report.

We chose the sustainable livelihoods approach as a framework for the assessments. Thisapproach has been useful in many applications throughout the world for linking macro andmicro issues, and ensuring a holistic look at how communities, households and individualsexpenence and grapple with poverty.

One of the strengths of this study is that it makes clear the links between direct experienceand policy analysis. The report plainly and convincingly demonstrates circumstances thatblock people's ability to use their assets to obtain sustainable livelihoods. Too often, thosebaruers arc institutional. Inadequate or inappropriate services, indifference, corruption andexploitation complicate the lives of the poor. They add to both poverty and vulnerability.

The study speak's for itself - or rather the voices of poor men and women who took part in thestudy speak for themselves. The report challenges us all to pay more attention to local andseasonal conditions, how poor men and women can constructively participate in decisions,and the gendered nature of poverty. It demonstrates decisively that local experience isrelevant to the formulation of regional and national policy. It urzges us all to heed what poorwomen and men told the researchers: "Listen to us".

We see this report as an element in the wide-ranging dialogue on the causes andconsequences of poverty, and possible solutions. We offer these findings as input to thediscussions, deliberations and actions that are now moving Indonesia toward defining anational framework for poverty reduction.

Mark Baird Mark MallalieuCountry Director, Indonesia Head of DFIDThe World Bank South East Asia

Field Researchers Organisation

Nyoman Oka Lembaga Penelitian, Pendidikan dan

Penerangan Ekonomi dan Sosial (LP3ES)

Titiek Suprijati Lembaga Penelitian, Pendidikan dan

Penerangan Ekonomi dan Sosial (LP3ES)

Leonardus Tatang Pancur Kasih

Tunita/Mita Pancur Kasih

Lina Rozana PESAT

Wawan Gunawan PESAT

Alma Arief Pradipta Paramitha

Amin Robiarto Pradipta Paramitha

Dea Widyastuti Pradipta Paramitha

Laksmini Sita Pradipta Paramitha

Ratna I. Josodipoero World Bank Water and Sanitation Program

East Asia and the Pacific.

People, Poverty and Livelihoods:Links for Sustainable Poverty Reduction in Indonesia

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements .................................Executive Summary ................................ xChapter One - Background ............................ .. 1

1.1 General Purpose of the Study ............................ .............................. 21.2 Yet Another Definition of Poverty? ............................. 21.3 Analytical Framework: the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach ..... ................. 31.4 Objective and Parameters of the Study . ............................................... 41.5 Organisation of the Report ................................................ 5

Chapter Two - Sustainable Livelihoods Framework and Research Methods ... 62.1 Sustainable Livelihoods Framework .... 6.. . .. .................................... ....... 6

2.1.1 Assets ...... . . . 82.1.2 Vulnerability Contexts ...... . ............... 82.1.3 Transforming Structures and Processes .82.1.4 Livelihood Strategies and Outcomes. 9

2.2 Research Principles, Values and Design ... . ........................................ 92.2.1 Research Principles .9. . . ............................................... ........ 92 2 2 Researchers' Values .92.2 3 Research Design .................................. ......... ............................... .. 10

2.3 Research Process ................... 112 3.1 Scheduling ................................... 1......... ............................................ 112.3.2 Selection and Training of Field Teams ................... 112.3.3 Participatory Analysis Techniques .................................. 1....... .... 2... ... 122.3.4 Field Trials and Synthesis ................... 122.3.5 Participation .............. 1...... .................................... 3................................ 132.3.6 Data Collection ............................. 132.3.7 Analysis ............................ 13

Chapter Three - Site Descriptions and Selection Issues . .153.1 Site Selection .......... . . . . . 153.2 Overview of the Four Sites .16

xi

3.2.1 West Java .................................................... 16

3.2.2 Surabaya (East Java) ..................................................... 17

3.2.3 Lombok . ................................................... 18

3.2.4 West Kalimantan ..................................................... 19

3.3 Appropriateness of Sites .................................................... 20

3.4 Links to Ongoing Programmes ................................................ ... 21

Chapter Four - Findings: Vulnerability Contexts . ................................................ 23

4.1 Varying Definitions of Poverty .............. .............................................................. 24

4.2 Gender Dimensions of Vulnerability .. .......................... 25

4.3 Trends .............................. 26

4.3.1 Reduced Access of the Poor to Natural Resources .................................. 26

4.3.2 Competition for sources of livelihood ........ ..................................... 31

4 4 Shocks: Vulnerability of the Poor to Macro-economic Crises . . 34

4.5 Seasonal Stress .................. .. ,,, ... .,,,,.,,.,.,. 36

Chapter Five - Findings: Assets for Livelihoods . .................................................. 395.1 Human Capital ....................................................... 40

5.1.1 InadequateHealthand Family Planning Services ......................... .............. 40

5.1.2 Unaffordable and Inadequate Education and Skills Training ........... ....... 41

5.2 Natural Capital ........................................................ 44

5.3 Financial Capital ....................................................... 49

5.4 Physical Capital ....................................................... 50

5.5 Social Capital ....................................................... 52

5.6 Using the Asset Pentagon for Secondary Analysis ................................................ 55

Chapter Six - Findings: Transforming Structures and Processes ....................... 606.1 Governance. ....................................................... 616.2 Agricultural Policies and the Poor ...................... ....................... ......... 66

6.3 Land Use and Tenure ........................................................ 67

6.4 Impact of New Technology and Globalisation ................................................... 69

6.5 Institutional changes ......................................... .............. 70

6.6 Exploitation and Poverty ....... ................................ . .............. 72

Chapter Seven - Findings: Livelihood Strategies and Outcomes ................. 747.1 Participatory Analysis of what Helps or Hinders Livelihood Strategies ........... 76

7.2 Assessing Outcomes within the SL Framework ................................................... 76

7.3 Sustainable Livelihood Solutions are Not Single-Community Issues ......... .... 79

Chapter Eight - Policy Learning ....................................................... 80

8.1 Interventions for What - Transformation, Prevention, Alleviation,

or Reduction? ....................................................... 81

vi

8.1.1 Types of Intervention .................................... ......... I . .................... 81

8.1.2 Getting at the Roots ..... 83

8.1.3 Transforming Power Structures and Relations .... 83

8.1.4 Holism at the Local Level ................ ..... ...................................... 84

8.2 Pro-poor Perspectives, Skills and Tools for Policy Makers . .85

8.3 Paying Attention to What Poor People Want . .88

8.3.1 'Listen to Us .88

8.3.2 'We All Want to Participate .89

8.3.3 'Work with the Institutions We Trust' .89

8.3.4 'We Know What We Need (and What We Don't Need)' .90

8 3.5 'But Do You Know What You Are Doing? .92

Summing Up .94

Appendix: Methodological Issues and Considerations .95

1 Adapting the SL Framework ...... . .. 95

2 Duration of Field Work, Local Familiarity, and Report Preparation 96

3 Participatory Methods in Practice .......................................... .... 97

4 Limitations of the SL Framework in Poverty Assessment .99

5 Merits of Combining the SL framework with Participatory

Methodology ....................... . 100

6 Further Methodological issues .................... 11.............. ........ .................... 101

Clarifying the Purpose of the Research: Transparency and Bias .. 101

Role of Community Members and Outsider Researchers in

SLAnalysis ...................................... 1........................................................... 102

7 Looking Forward ....................... 104

Works Cited .105

vii

List of Boxes

Box 1 : Why Use The SL Approach To Study Poverty? ........ ... ......................... 3

Box 2 . Barriers To The Adoption Of The SL Approach ....... 4... .......................... 4

Box 3: DFID Core SL Principles ......................................................... 9

Box 4 Researchers' Values For Design, Analysis And Conduct Of

Poverty Research ......................................................... 10

Box 5 Gender Differences In Perceptions Of Root Causes Of Poverty .......... 25

Box 6 Marriage, Divorce And Inheritance Norms Impoverish Women

And Children ......................................................... 26

Box 7 : Declining Access To Marine Resources: Lombok ...................................... 29

Box 8 : Angry Fishers Torch Trawlers. Palembang, South Sumatra ............ .......... 30

Box 9 : Deteriorating Resource Base: West Kalimantan ............................... .......... 30

Box 10: Reduced Access To Land, Labour And Capital In A Rice Growing

Area, West Java ......................................................... 32

Box 11: Circular Migration From West Java To Cities ...................................... ........ 32

Box12 : Country's Financial Crisis Quickly Translates To Survival Problems

For The Poor .......................................................... 34

Box 13: Shock Pushes Urban Poor Closer To The Edge Of Survival ................... 35

Box 14: The Poor Say They Can No Longer Afford Contraception ...................... 35

Box 15 : Illness Aggravates Vulnerability ......................................................... 41

Box 16: Service Without Medicines Not Worth The Trip .......................................... 41

Box 17: Low Quality Of Primary Education Available To The Poor ..................... 42

Box 18: Paucity Of Alternative Earning Skills And Opportunity To

Develop Them ......................................................... 43

Box 19: Damaging Potential Of Locally Inappropriate, Didactic Extension

Services ......................................................... 44

Box 20: Diminishing Access To Land .......................................................... 48

Box 21 : Rural Poor Excluded From Rural Credit, Urban Poor Depend On

Money-Lenders ......................................................... 49

Box 22: Government Credit Programme 'For The Poor'? ........................................ 50

Box 23 : Physical Infrastructure In A Farm-Forest Area ............................................. 51

Box 24: Physical Infrastructure In A Poor Urban Area .............................................. 51

Box 25: Yono: Profile Of Poor Urban Youth ......................................................... 52

Box 26: 'The Extension Worker Never Comes Here' ..... ......................................... 62

Box 27: Government Agencies Do Not Talk To The Poor ...................................... 62

Box 28 Village Elite Control Others By Selectively Filtering Information ............. 63

Box 29 . The Poor Have Reasons For Trusting Only Their Own

Relatives And Traditional Institutions ......................................................... 63

Box 30: From A Poor Rice Farmer's Viewpoint ...................................................... 66

viii

Box 31: The poor Have No Voice In Government Decisions About

Resources They Depend On . ......................................................... 68

Box 32: Process Used To Displace And Dispossess The Poor ....... ......... 68

Box 33: Technology And Market Forces Working Against Employment

Of The Poor ......................................................... 69

Box 34: Traditional Institutions Show What Helps The Poor .... ........ ................. 70

Box 35: Commercialisation Of Traditional Practices Depriving The Poor .. ........ 71

Box 36: 'Groups' that were never groups ......................................................... 71

Box 37: Poverty Is Nurtured And Sustained By Those Who Benefit From It..... 72

Box 38: Participatory Analysis Of What Helps Or Hinders In The

Struggle For Livelihoods ........................... . ............... 75

Box 39: Actions Recommended By The Poor For Addressing Root Causes Of

Their Poverty At The Kalimantan Site .. . . ............................................. 77

Box 40: Evaluation Of Prospective Interventions As Concluded Jointly By

Study Participants And Researchers .................. . ........................ 78

Box 41: Types Of Anti-Poverty Programming In Indonesia ............ .. ............... 82

List of Figures

Figure 1 DFID's SL Framework. 7

Figure 2 Women's Causal Diagram For Poverty, West Kalimantan .27

Figure 3 Men's Causal Diagram For Poverty, Lombok (NTB) .28

Figure 4 Trend Analysis By Men And Women From Surabaya .33

Figure 5 Seasonal Calendar By Women, Lombok .37

Figure 6 Seasonal Calendar By Women, West Java .38

Figure 7 Trend Analyses By Women From Lombok. . ................ 45

Figure 8 Trend Analysis By Men From Lombok ................... . ..................... 46

Figure 9 Trend Analysis By Women From West Kalimantan .47

Figure 10 Community map from the Lombok site showing only 5 households

out of 167 owning agricultural land around the hamlet .54

Figure 11 Asset Pentagon For The Coastal Fishing Community, Lombok ............. 56

Figure 12. Asset Pentagon For The Urban Poor Community, Surabaya ............ 57

Figure 13 Asset Pentagon For The Farm And Forestry Dependent Community,

West Kalimantan. . ............. . .......................................... 58

Figurc 14 Asset Pentagon for the Rice Growing Community, West Java ................ 59

Figure 15 Young Women's Institutional Analysis, Surabaya ................ .................. 64

Figure 16 Older Men's Institutional Analysis, WestJava ....... .. .. ........................ 65

Figure 17 The SL Framework Summary Of Findings From The

4 Communities .......... 86

ix

People, Poverty and Livelihoods:Links for Sustainable Poverty Reduction in Indonesia

Executive Summary

This study demonstrates the potential of DFID's is people-centred, responsive, participatory, multi-level,

Sustainable Livelihoods (SL) framework to increase dynamic, and balanced, highlighting the economic,

understanding of the dynamics of poverty and provide institutional, social and environmental dimensions of

policy input grounded in the experiences and needs of sustainability. Various methods can be used in association

poor women and men. Intended as a companion to the with the SL framework. This study elected to make use

World Bank's comprehensive report Poverty Reduction in of participatory methods, engaging community members

Indonesian: Constructinga NewStrategy, 2000, the study in the analysis of their assets, strategies, trends and

involved participatory field research in urban and rural institutions, and the interventions that help or hinder their

locations in four provinces. It highlights the links between search for more secure and sustainable livelihoods. In so

macro-level structures and processes, the resources upon doing, it alms to bring out the voices of the poor as they

which poor people depend, and the strategies the poor describe and analyse their conditions.

pursue in the struggle to survive and to improve their

situation. The SL framework offers a means of analysing Section Three provides Site Descriptions, introducing

and presenting the rich data from field studies in a format the four study sites and the selection criteria. While the

which is relevant to policy makers, adequate to the SL approach recognises that poor peoples' sources of

complexity of poverty issues, and directly linked to livelihood are usually diverse and multiple, the selection

potential arenas of intervention. of sites aimed to offer insight into some characteristic

configurations (without claiming that these are either

After an overview of the Background and the goals of exhaustive or representative). The sites included a rice-

the study, Section Two outlines the Sustainable farming community in West Java in which much of the

Livelihoods Framework and Research Methods. land base has fallen into outside hands; an urban informal

Rather than attempt to measure poverty or assume that sector community in Surabaya (East Java) where the key

increased income is the principal solution, the SL issue is competition for sources of livelihood, a coastal

framework highlights the range of assets or types of fishing community in Lombok experiencing declining

capital upon which poor peoples' livelihoods depend: catches and inadequate off-season alternatives, and a

human, physical, natural, financial and social. It examines forest-farm community in West Kalimantan with insecure

the contexts that make these assets vulnerable to loss or and declining access to its key natural resources.

deterioration, and the structures and processes which

influence the viability and sustainability of the livelihood Section Four describes the Vulnerability Contexts

strategies that poor people pursue. Applications of this encountered in these four communities, beginning with

framework result in an understanding of poverty which peoples' own definitions of poverty, and the variations

x

in perceptions of poverty by women and men due -to competition for resources, exploitation, dislocation,

the differences in their livelihood practices and gendered violence and despair. A set of figures representing assets

cultural norms. In Lombok, for example, women were in the form of a pentagon attempts to capture the

concerned about leaky housing because they are relationship between these fivetypes of capital and the

responsible for the preservation, storage and marketing need for a balance between them.

of fish, whereas men stressed their limited access to fishing

equipment. The dynamics of livelihoods are highlighted Section Six describes the Transforming Structures and

by focusing on long-term trends (deteriorating natural Processes that shape the conditions under which poor

resource base, increased competition for resources and people seek their livelihoods. Measures to decentralise

jobs), short-term shocks (especially those caused by the Indonesia's government system together with the

sudden economic crisis of 1997), and regular seasonal pressures and opportunities presented by globalisation

variations which increase vulnerability at particular times make for a radically uncertain environment. Existing

of the year (between harvests, when it is too stormy to governance practices increase the vulnerability of the poor

fish, when the dry season drought brings illness caused by excluding them from information, consultation and

by polluted water). decision making and by undermining traditional

institutions that have served them well. Agricultural and

Section Five examines the key Assets for Livelihoods land use policies have also had negative effects, making it

upon which the poor depend, highlighting the role uneconomical for small farmers to continue rice

government policies have played in making access to production, for example, or rendering poor peoples'

critical resources less, rather than more, secure. Human access to fishery, forest and land resources insecure. New

capital (skills, knowledge, good health and ability to technologies have tended to be labour-displacing, and

labour) has been negatively affected by inadequate they have put pressure on traditional institutions and

government investment in education, training, health and labour practices which once offered the poor some

family planning services. Natural capital comprising the security. New institutions such as groups formed at the

sea, sea shore, forests, agricultural land and rivers is the instigation of government agencies or donors for the

key to livelihoods in the three rural study sites, but is sole purpose of receiving project inputs have also

deteriorating as a result of population pressure and weakened traditional forms of leadership, solidarity and

inappropriate resource policies and extension advice. self-reliance. Overall, the poor in Indonesia continue to

Financial capital in the study sites is derived mainly from live under conditions of relative powerlessness and

peoples' own savings and informal money-lending, as exploitation not as a matter of oversight, but because

formal credit programmes seldom reach the poor, even coalitions of powerful parties benefit from structures

when they are the intended beneficiaries. Physical and processes in their current arrangements.

infrastructure such as access to roads and school buildings

generally improved in all the study sites during the New Chapter Seven which describes Livelihood Strategies

Order decades, but quality is often poor and there are and Outcomes, presents the study participants' analysis

major gaps in facilities (such as small-scale flood control) of what helps or hinders them in their efforts to improve

relevant to poor peoples' livelihoods. Social capital their incomes and well-being, revealing the interlinked

embedded in community relations, social norms and market- and socio-cultural forces that trap the poor into

practices is a crucial resource for poor people, but it too poverty and how they grapple with them. It then presents

can deteriorate under adverse conditions: acute the results of a joint exercise bringing together the

xi

perspectives of the study participants and the.research poverty-focused programmes and projects will neverteam to assess proposed interventions in terms of their reach their intended beneficiaries. Poor people want tocapacity to bring about sustainable improvements in be taken seriously as partners in their own development,incomes, well-being, vulnerability, food security, and capable of exercising "voice and choice" in determiningnatural resource management. Not surprisingly, poor the relevant forms of assistance, and working withpeoples' concerns tend to be survival rather than institutions they trust. Specific interventions requestedsustainability-focused. A SL approach, which recognises by participants in this study include accessible micro-credit,the need to begin with peoples' existing assets, strategies better family planning facilities, education and trainingand concerns, is capable of responding flexibly to poor especially in job skills, reformed agricultural policies, andpeoples' priorities while moving towards sustainability. secure access to the natural resources on which theyNotably, the natural resource management problems depend.encountered in the various study sites cannot be resolvedby the communities alone, since they require shifts in policy An Appendix to the report brings out someand law enforcement, as well as more accountable, Methodological Issues and Considerations. There iscollaborative forms of governance. a need to adapt the SL Framework to the purpose of a

particular study (policy development, impact assessment,Section Eight highlights the Policy Leaming derived programme planning, evaluation) and to the particularfrom the study. It begins by using the SL framework to cultural context and location (rural, urban). It is importantassess the different types of poverty programming to allow sufficient time for field work and reportcurrent in Indonesia, from Empowerment, Social preparation. The participatory methods selected for thisProtection and Pro-poor growth to Safety Nets. The SL study depend upon the rapport between the participantsapproach clearly favours long-term, systemic solutions and the research team, but poor peoples' time is alsoto poverty, transforming underlying power relations, valuable and must be taken into account in field workwhile recognising the need to work with the structures plans. Participatory research generates large quantities ofand processes that actually exist and reforming them as rich data which has to be organised and analysed in orderappropriate. It also sees the need for short-term assistance to be properly used - thereby justifying the time andto alleviate shocks which can decimate precarious resources'expended. These methods require special skillslivelihoods and eliminate crucial reserves. SL perspectives in facilitation to prevent group processes from being hi-which link micro and macro realities would permit policy jacked by powerful elites, and to make judgements aboutmakers to select pro-poor interventions according to a when a sensitive topic should be explored with selectedclear logic, knowing what kinds of outcome can -be individuals in private. In general, sustainable livelihoodexpected in the short and long term, and how one kind approaches require strong analytical skills, and the abilityof intervention will interact with another. Overall, the to track back and forth between the micro and macro,study findings indicate that poor people favour between local understandings and the structures andapproaches that get to the roots of poverty, transforming processes that shape patterns of vulnerability. Furtherthe power structures and relations that keep them poor. work is needed to develop techniques to bring studyAdequate provisions for health, education and training, participants more fully into the process of analysis, sofor example, are more useful to them than short-term that they can share optimally in the generation of newprojects or handouts. Without reformed governance, insights.

xii

_ _ _ Fi ?' .. --- x

J r ndonesia has committed itself to developing and

implementing a strategy for poverty reduction.

It is also in the process of decentrallsing. There

are concerns that a centrally devised poverty strategy will

have little relevance to, or ownershilp by, autonomous

regions in determining policy and expenditure priorities

For one thing, the central government faces the challenge

of outlining a poverty reduction framework that moves

from a centrist, welfarist, project-oriented approach to a

more holistic, pro-poor governance approach that is truly

Background locally defined. Policy making has traditionally been acentral government function, and the tendency is still to

devise central frameworks for local application, rather

than national frameworks built from broad-based local

consensus.

It is well recognised that local control does not necessarily

translate as response to the interests of the poor. Given

the concentration of regional attention on revenue capture

and regional coInpetition, the uncertainties of Indonesia's

transition from central control to regional autonomy do

Chapter One Background

not, on the surface, bode well for the poor. In the absence A further purpose of the study is to field-test the

of a robust and locally credible framework within which assumption that the SL approach and framework can

the central and local governments can agree on approaches add value to research and policy dialogue about poverty

and standards for poverty reduction, there is a real risk reduction in Indonesia.

that the first years of decentralisation will be very hard

on the poor, and on poorer regions.

1.2 Yet Another Definition of Poverty?It has been argued' that the Sustainable Livelihoods (SL)

framework has considerable potential to improve the We want to disengage this study from the debates about

process of formulating strategies for poverty reduction definitions of poverty and statistical trends that have

through diagnosis, design, and devising monitoring captured considerable energy in Indonesia in the last few

provisions. With its emphasis on participatory and people- years. As interesting as the debate was, it tended to focus

centred approaches and micro-macro links, the SL attention on narrow, consumption-based definitions of

approach is already contributing significantly to poverty and diverted attention from more strategic issues.

development of country strategies for poverty reduction Nevertheless, the outcome of these debates, perhaps

in DFID work elsewhere (e.g. Uganda and Bolivia) In encouraged by a growing tendency among international

Indonesia, using the SL approach to frame this and Indonesian analysts to see poverty more holistically,

participatory poverty assessment component of the seems to be a greater willingness by Government and

World Bank poverty report 20012 takes a first step in this donors to focus on wider and more dynamic dimensions

direction. It remains to be seen whether there will be of poverty.

sufficient interest to carry this forward as an element in

the development of a policy framework for Indonesia's This study does not attempt to ascertain how much

poverty reduction strategy. poverty there is in Indonesia, but focuses on the question

of what are the dynamics of poverty in Indonesia, from

1.1 General Purpose of the Study the views of poor people themselves, and within a

framework of issues and questions suggested by the SL

The main purpose of this participatory sustainable approach.

livelihoods study of poverty is to produce an analysis of

the dynamics of poverty at community level that can As mentioned, this study both contributes to and draws

inform policy. Qualitative data and analyses from the from the World Bank study on poverty in Indonesia.

study have already been used to inform and enrich the The position put forward in that document concerning

comprehensive poverty report3 undertaken by the World definitions of poverty is consistent with the approach

Bank during 2000 - 2001. and findings in this study. The key points are:

I The Potential of Using Sustainable Livelihoods Approaches in Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers. Andy Nonon, Mick Foster, Centre forAid and Public Expenditure, ODI

Novernber2000

2 PovertyReducton in Indonesia ConstructinggaNewStrategy. WorldBankNovember2001

3 kiffn

2

Background Chapter One

* Poverty is not a static state, but rather a dynamic (clean water, sanitation, shelter), and insufficient

relationship between people and the risks and opportunities to participate as equals in social and

opportunities of their day-to-day existence, mitigated political life. In addition, participants in this study drew

by various levels and types of institutions and attention to other significant dimensions that

processes - some in which they are actors, and some determine and foster poverty - marginalisation and

which are beyond their control. exclusion, oppression, exploitation and abrogation

of human rights, as well as the precariousness of

* Vulnerability is a key factor. According to a recent resources on which people depend for thelir

study,4 half the population of lndonesia is either poor livelihoods.

(based on a consumption/expenditure definition of

poverty) or vulnerable to becoming poor in the near 1.3 Analytical Framework:future. In many ways, this present study illustrates the Sustainable Livelihoods Approachpoor peoples' vulnerability and powerlessness as they

struggle to balance their risks and assets in the context The SL framework focuses analysis on the assets and

of practices and decisions over which they often have vulnerabilities that bear on poor peoples' abilities to attain

little influence. and sustain their livelihoods. It emphasises understanding

the vulnerability context and the organisational and

* Study findings re-enforce the assertion made in the institutional environment within which poor people,

World Bank document' and elsewhere that poverty drawing upoIn various assets, implement their livelihood

is a condition in which people experience multiple strategies It defines five types of assets: human capital,

threats to well-being. These include inadequate social capital, natural capital, physical capital, and financial

consumption, vulnerability, limited education, capital. Similar ideas underlie the treatment of risk and

inadequate services to meet basic health needs, vulnerability in the World Development Report 2000/

infrastructure that fails to provide for daily needs 20016.

Box 1: Why Use the SL Approach to Study Poverty?

v People-centred and participatoiyC Responsive to changing circumstances* Reflects the range of assets and activities on which livelihoods depende Recognises the importance to poor people of assets whlich they do not own* Addresses a range of policy issues e.g. access to credit, markets, and personal security as well as health and

education

* Facilitates analysis at multiple levels from national to local, and highlights macro-micro linkages and interactions

* Emphasises sustainability and the need for structural changes in the long term

4 Qml mtifvymg Vulncrjb,bihtv to l'overtn A Proposed Mc.isure, vwith Application to Indonlla -lin t Prtchett Asep SulwyhId, Sud,uno Swnuto, SMERU Work-iig Ripci, Aw

2000

5 Po ei te- Rer1uction in Indorecsia Constructing a New Srr.tcgy, Worid B.unk Novmnbei 2001

6 Att,ckmnc Poverty Wo Ild Developienr tReport 2000/2001 The World Baik 2000

3

Chapter Oine 3acdgrounaJ

It has been argued that the key features of the SL Although this report is largely a description of the

approach, summarized in Box 1, provide an excellent methodology and findings of a SL study, it is not an

basis for development of cross-sectoral anti-poverty argument for a single methodological approach to

programming.7 The SL approach views the experience assessing poverty within the SL framework. Rather, this

of poverty as the lack of secure conditions of life, and study provides one example of how the SL approach

suggests analysis of the threats which poor people face, can be applied to link the assessment of poverty to the

along with the assets they can deploy to deal with formulation of policy solutions.

contingencies. 8 It offers a holistic framework for

systematising poverty analyses. It is people and livelihood- The SL approach is not 'new'. Neither is it the only

centred, and emphasises linkages between micro-level approach linking an asset/vulnerability analysis to

realities and macro-level policy environments. developing a framework for policy response.9 A number

of its elements can be located in other analyses of poverty

A major strength of the SL framework is its potential to (such as the World Development Report 2000/2001:

link diverse scales of analysis, tracking back and forth Attacking Poverty). There has been multiple exposure in

between the specifics of people's livelihood strategies Indonesia to people-centred frameworks that emphasise

and national policy environments. The SL framework livelihoods, security, vulnerability and empowerment.

has high policy relevance when applied to planning Still, the challenge remains to clearly demonstrate the value

processes generally, and specifically in the preparation of added by inserting SL principles into institutions, policies

strategies for poverty reduction. It can be used as a tool and practices so that poor people reap the benefit.

for pro-poor policy analysis, planning and priority setting,

as well as monitoring the effects of existing policies and 1.4 Objective and Parameters of the Studyprogrammes. If the present study does, indeed, confirm

the usefulness of the SL approach, the challenge remains Using participatory research methods within the SL

to generate sufficient interest among donors, civil society framework, the study aims to assess livelihood contexts

groups and government to first recognise, and then and strategies with a number of poor communities. Each

prioritise, the concerns it represents of the communities selected has a distinctive resource

Box 2: Barriers to the Adoption of the SL Approach

o Habits of thinking about poverty principally in terms of incomeo Reluctance to acknowledge or address systemic inequalities

o Preference for single sector approaches* Over use of 'projects' for poverty intervention, neglecting systemic alternativese Popularity of short term hand-outs which address symptoms not causes

7 The Potential of Using Sustainable Livelihoods Approachcs in Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers, A ndyNorton, Mick- Foster, Centre for Aid and Publhc Expeniditure, ODI

Noveinber2000

8 The developnent of this k-ind ofanalysis cum be traced fronm Qmi,nbern (1988) 4nd Swft (1989), throiighparticipatorypovertyassessments, and to Moser's work on urban poverty

(1998), and eventually to the 2000401 World Developmi ent Report with ts enmphasis onl livelhhoodsecurnty

9 AsAndy Norton and Nick Foster point out (The Potential of UsinigSustainable ljvelihoods Approaches in PovertyReducton Strateg Papers, Aid and Public Expenditure,

ODI Novernber 2000) The Social Risk Mi.agemnenlt perspective of the Word Bank's Social Protection Sector Strategy Paper builds on verysmnularground It is, in fict,

potentially quite complemenitary to theSL a.ppro.tcli -inasm7uch as it emphasises the acuons that publlc policycan take to dsrertlv assist the poor to cope with rtsk- where SLA

tends to em phasise tlhcrolcofpubihcpohlicyi creating an en.ibingenvironmeintfbi poor people to deploytheirown resources to iniprove the livelihood ecuntyind well-beng.'

4

Background Chapter One

base and one dominant source of livelihood, 1.5 Organisation of the Report

supplemented by various other livelihood strategies as

assets and opportunities permit. The research findings This report is divided into eight Sections. Section One

are intended to provide insights into the patterns and has provided an introduction and background to the

relationships that influence these contrasting livelihoods, study. Section Two outlines the Sustainable Livelihoods

including those that influence vulnerability, and resistance, framework and the methods and techniques used in

to poverty. the study. Section Three provides a brief overview of

each of the four sites. Sections Four to Seven present

Because of time constraints, the study was limited to the main findings, combining the analyses offered by

four communities. In order to include a regional communities with secondary analyses by the research

component in site selection, two locations were chosen team. Policy implications are highlighted throughout,

in Java and two in provinces outside Java. Obviously, and illustrations from field results are presented in boxes

the relationships these communities have with their and visuals. The findings are organised according to the

livelihood contexts cannot be claimed as representative four components of the SL framework: Vulnerability

of, nor should the findings of the four case studies be Contexts, Assets for Livelihoods, Transforming

generallsed to, the wider population. There are many Structures and Processes, and Livelihood Strategies and

other patterns of livelihood in Indonesia, and some Outcomes. Section Eight, which concludes the report,

communities may well be poorer than those selected for pulls together the Policy Learning from the study These

our study include far ranging 'messages' from the poor people

who participated in the study, as well as broad

The sites selected and their principal economic activities implications for constructing a strategy and reorienting

were: government responses to poverty.

* a community strongly involved in the cultivation of The Appendix provides a detailed account of the

irrigated rice (WestJava) methodological issues and lessons from combining the

o an urban community dependent on informal-sector SL framework and participatory assessment methods

livelihoods (Surabaya, East Java) in this study. Works Cited lists the technical documents

* a community mainly dependent on a coastal fishery referred to in the report. The detailed Site Reports for

(Lombok) each of the four study sites are available from the

o a community dependent on combined forest and authors on request, as technical papers.

farm activities (West Kalimantan)

5

gj A ATLAwp A .'� I.A S

- ~~UA If ' _

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ t

T S his section outlines the sustainable livelihoodsframework and the principles and values that

guided the research design. It also outlines the

research process, from selection and training of

fieldworkers to analysis and report writing. The study

adopted participatory methods for data collection, using

Sustaina ble techntques drawn from Participatory Rural Appraisal(PRA) combined with in-depth interviews. Our reflections

on the strengths and limitations of the SL framework

s o @and participatory research techniques are discu'ssed in theLivelihoods Appendix to this report

Framework and 2.1 Sustainable Livelihoods Framework

The SL approach provides means to consider factors

that influence livelihoods, interactions between those

Research M ethods factors, and sustainability of livelihoods. In shifting the

research focus to the ways in which people, especially

the poor, earn a living, this application of the SL approach

provides a framework for analysing the risks to which

the poor in particular are vulnerable, and the strategies

they adopt in striving to achieve livelihood outcomes such

as higher household incomes.

6

DFID's SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOODS FRAMEWORK

,

DS~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I

LIVELIHOOD ASSETS

TRANSFORMING LIVELIHOODSTRUCTURES & OUTCOMES

PROCESSES____ ____ *~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ More income

VULNERABILITY STRUCTURES /* Increased well beingCONTEXT H* Levels of 0

o * SHOCKS S N 'Influence & government LIVELIHOOD X . Reduced vulnerability'access * Private STRATEGIES I 01 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~> * Improved food security

*TRENDS ------- sector00 * SEASONALITY P F / / * Law < * More sustainable use*SEASONALITY P<

___i__\_____/__X_ Policies m of NR base/Culture

*InstitutionsPROCESSES

H represents human capital the skills, knowledge, ability to labour and good health important to the ability to pursue different livelihood strategies,,,.

P represents physical capital the basic infrastructure (transport, shelter, water, energy and communications) and the production equipmentand means that enable people to pursue livelihoods,

S represents social capital the social resources (networks, membership of groups, relationships of trust, access to wider institutions of society)upon which people draw in pursuit of livelihoods,

F represents financial capital the financial resources which are available to people (whether savings, supplies of credit or regular remittancesor pensions) and which provide them with different livelihood options, and

N represents natural capital. the natural resources stocks from which resource flows useful for livelihoods are derived (e g land, water, wildlife,biodiversity, environmental resources)

Chapter Two Sustainable Livelihoods Framework and Research Methods

2.1.1 Assets o technology (the effects of the introduction of new

tools and machinery)

The concepts in the livelihood assets pentagon were used a social environment (e.g. social cohesion and conflict,

as the starting point in designing research scope and perceptions of security, crime, family life).

parameters. Access to the following kinds of capital was

assessed with the four communities. Shocks of various kinds that affect the community but

are beyond its control were investigated as and when

* human capital (number of people in the study they were raised by participants, such as:

community, household size, labour availability,

education and skills, population health) o health conditions (precipitous changes in health service

* natural capital (land, water for agriculture, forests, availability or disease profile)

wildlife, marine and other environmental resources) o natural disasters like floods, droughts, tidal waves,

e financial capital (credit sources, savings, remittances, volcanic eruptions

pensions) o economic disruptions like the monetary crisis that

o physical capital (infrastructure, including transport, befell Indonesia in 1997-98, changing the price of

electricity, domestic water supply, energy, access to rice and other foodstuffs as well as farm inputs

information and producer goods, including access o crop pests and rodents in rural areas.

to tools and equipment)

* socialcapital(culturalandkinshipnetworksandgroup Seasonality was examined, as it can have non-

memberships, trust relationships, community controllable effects on livelihoods in such matters as:

institutions, supportive traditional practices, access to

wider social institutions) o food prices (due to shortages in non-harvest periods)

o production (fluctuations in agricultural output)

2.1.2 Vulnerability Contexts o employment opportunities and

o local illness and disease patterns.

According to the SL approach, simply detailing

community assets reveals very little about the dynamics 2.1.3 Transforming Structures and Processes

of poverty. The degree of vulnerability to which sources

of livelihood are exposed must also be considered. Men Attention was given to the policies and institutions that

and women's views were therefore sought about trends shape, and in some situations determine, the options that

mt: people have in earning a livelihood. It was possible to

pinpoint a number of reasons why the poor remain poor

e population (demographic aspects, family planning, from participatory analysis of:

unemployment and in- and out- migration)

e resources (changes in yields, in size of land holdings, o government policies in such matters as small-scale

availability of natural resources and environmental credit, land use and tenure, forestry and marine

changes) fisheries as well as regulations about the sale of

* local economy (commodity prices, subsidies, food produce.

security and the cost of services, employment) o aspects of governance relevant to the poor,

8

Sustainable Livelihoods Framework and Research Method Chapter Two

including the administrative system and government effective in helping the poor to improve their incomes in

control as well as community leadership, service a sustainable way and those that work against them.

delivery, corrupt practices, political and social Community members were asked about the interventions

organisations at village level and information sources and changes that they believe could be introduced to

to which the poor have access. help people move out of poverty and about their own

0 institutions, including land tenure and tenancy priorities in this regard. Projected outcomes, including

arrangements as they relate to livelihoods, reciprocal sustainability, and the balance between outsider and insider

and other labour relationships and wages, inheritance knowledge and interventions, were given further

patterns, traditional practices in rice harvesting and consideration.

marketing, and cultural aspects such as traditional

beliefs, norms and practices affecting access to 2.2 Research Principles, Values and Designresources, the division of labour, etc.

2.2.1 Research Principles2.1.4 Livelihood Strategies and Outcomes

For DFID, using the SL approach implies certain

The investigation of livelihood strategies focused on principles for poverty focused development activities.

problems, resources and solutions in each community as These are summarised in Box 3.

members of the community see them, and on the

sustainability of the strategies adopted by the different 2.2.2 Researchers' Valuesgroups to deal with these problems.

While the above principles steered the research, the

In considering livelihood outcomes, research fieldworkers researchers wanted to bring to the surface their own values

helped focus participatory discussion on identifying informing the work, some of which come from

government policies and traditional institutions that are participatory research itself These are outlined in Box 4.

Box 3: DFID Core SL Principles 1o

* People-centred: sustainable poverty elimination will be achlieved only if external support focuses on whatmatters to people, understands the differences between groups of people, and works with them in a waythat is congruent with their current livelihood strategies, social environment and ability to adapt

* Responsive and Participatory: poor people themselves must be key actors in identifying and addressinglivelihood priorities. Outsiders need processes that enable them to listen and respond to the poor.

* Multi-level: poverty elimination is an enormous challenge that will only be overcome by working atmultiple levels, ensuring that micro-level activity informs the development of policy and an effective enablingenvironment, and that macro-level structures and processes support people to build on their strengths.

* Conducted in partnership- with both the public and the private sector.* Sustainable: there are four key dimensions to sustainability - economic, institutional, social and environmental.

All are important - a balance must be found between them.* Dynamic: external support must recognise the dynamic nature of livelihood strategies, respond flexibly to

changes in people's situation, and develop longer-term commitmcnts

10 Ashley, CaidDC.rinej,iustaminbleLivelihoods Lessonsfioin E.irlyvEypenence Lorndon. DFID, 1999

9

Chapter Two SustaInab Livellhmoods Trarework and Research Miethods

2.2.3 Research Design The second was to select communities where a

development response to study outcomes would be

From the SL principles and the researchers' values possible through a project already operating in the

framework, a number of guidelines for design of the community It was assumed that there would be an

research were derived. ongoing relationship between the community and the

project such that some of the issues raised could inform

The first guide was that participatory approaches and project response. It proved unexpectedly difficult,

methods would be used in data collection and analysis. however, to identify four sites that met this requirement

This was in order to ensure that members of the The reasons for the problem and the alternatives that

community in general, and in particular poor men as a were adopted are explained in detail in Section 3 4 below.

Box 4: Researchers' Values for Design, Analysis and Conduct of Poverty Research

o Reality is Heterogeneous: participatory methods recognise that the realities and perspectives of various

stakeholders are diverse. No single individual or group can claim to know the whole picture of poverty,whether they are the rich or the poor within communities, government personnel at the sub-district or

district level, national planners and policy makers, or the researchers themselves, whatever their experiencewith poverty research. Thus a variety of perceptions must be sought and respected, in order to construct

a multiple picture of reality.o Respect for Community Effort: Since participatory assessments consume substantial amounts of time of

poor women and men, participation should be a community choice. Something should be returned to the

community as a result of the research. This may be some form of empowerment or capacity building ofvalue to the participants, and/or some other form of culturally acceptable added value.

o Linking Voices with Choices (Decision-Making): Studies such as the present one bring forward some of thevoices, opinions and aspirations of the poorest sections of society and link their perspectives with macro-level processes. The goal is to influence policy choices to positively affect the lives of the poor, enhancing

possibilities for sustainable poverty reduction.o Poor People Pay the Price. Mistakes made by centrally planned and executed poverty reduction programmes,

many based on elegant theories of the day, abound in Indonesia and elsewhere. Paying attention to the

rationales, practices, strategies and struggles of poor people can forestall large and costly errors."

group and poor women as a group, had opportunities A third guide for the research design was that studies be

to express for themselves their own realities, their analysis conducted among communities with widely differing

of the underlying causes of poverty and their views about resource patterns, since the extent of diversity in poverty

how to address them. As a companion piece to the more and in the livelihoods on which the poor depend was

quantitative and macro-level analyses supporting the main one of the subjects of study. Emphasis was placed on

World Bank poverty report, this participatory study was the dynamics and sustainability of these contrasting

intended to contribute dimensions of everyday livelihoods and not only on their superficial characteristics.

experience. There was no attempt to generalise the findings of the

11 See exdnples ifn the World Bank PovertyReducton in tindonesia, Constructng a New Strategy, Novenmber2001

10

Sustainable Livelihoods Framework and Research Method Chapter Two

four case studies to the larger population, although of the participatory exercises with community groups,patterns were recognised and comparisons made. and a Site Report in Bahasa Indonesia, in an agreed

format. After returning from the field, each team was toThe fourth guide was to combine research and spend five days writing up its site report for presentationcommunity experience, as well as gender balance, in the at the synthesis workshops. 12

composition of research teams. This required the

participation of two senior researchers who had an 2.3.2 Selection and Training of Field Teamsunderstanding of the Sustainable Livelihoods framework

(referred to hereafter as the SL Researchers) and ten Seven field researchers who came from Jakarta, Bandungresearch fieldworkers (five men and five women) The and Lombok were selected on the basis of theirdesign allowed for a four-person field team for each of experience in previous participatory field research workthe four sites. The need for regional familiarity was taken with one or other of the two SL researchers. Three ofinto account by including local fieldworkers in the ten- the seven were fluent in Sundanese and two in Javaneseperson team to provide area-specific knowledge and (the major regional languages spoken in Java) The twolanguage competence relevant to each of the sites fieldworkers from West Kalimantan and one other from

Lombok were recommended by the two local non-

2.3 Research Process government organisations (NGOs) that assisted in thestudy in sites outside Java. They spoke the local dialects

2.3.1 Scheduling of the study sites outside Java, although the two from

Kalimantan did not have prior research experienceThe study commenced in late January 2000. Training of

fieldworkers took place in February, while fieldwork and Training of the ten fieldworkers was carried out fromsynthesis workshops were undertaken in March and April. 16 to 25 February 2000 Training objectives were:Field reports were prepared during May and June 2000.

Writing and editing the final report and getting feedback . to develop a common understanding about thethrough peer reviews took place between July and purpose and scope of the study among the ten

December 2000. fieldworkers

. to orient all team members to participatory research

Two periods of fieldwork were planned, so that two exercises to be used in the field and to the

sites would be studied simultaneously during each period, requirements of site report preparation

making it possible to rotate fieldworkers. In preparing o to facilitate skill development in the use of these

schedules, it was estimated that an input of 7 to 10 days exercises through field trial and reflection

(depending on the time needed to travel to the site) would o to plan a detailed fieldwork schedule for all study

be required for data collection by the four-person team sites

at each site. One of the SL Researchers would visit each o to familiarise fieldworkers with the SL framework,

of the study sites for supervision while the fieldwork a summary of which had been prepared in both

was in progress. The products expected from each team English and Indonesian for discussion during training

were a compilation of the findings, the actual outcomes

12 Iti vlould Ix n0oted tins fiecd.typenodpro'ed to beIx sulflic,ent

Chapter Two S"astalnabfe Livelihoods TrameworU and Research flethofLs

Training consisted of: o Gender Analysis to understand men and women'saccess to and control of family and community

o Classroom sessions and simulations of the research resources.

tools in Jakarta (3 days) o Livelihood Sources Analysis , by gender and

* A field trial in a rural hamlet in West Java, previously poor/non-poor groups in the community

identified by one of the SL researchers, who later o Causal Diagramming for poverty, by gender

supervised the trial and subsequent report writing o Trend Analysis of factors influencing local

(5 days) livelihoods over past 10-15 years, by gender.

O Reflection on field trial experiences plus fieldwork o Seasonal Calendars for annual patterns of stress/

planning in Jakarta (2 days). well-being, by gender.

O Daily Time-Use Patterns by gender and major

This classroom segment was designed to sensitise the seasonal variations.

field teams to the SL conceptual framework, including o Venn Diagramming to assess the roles of existing

the 5-dimensioned Livelihood Assets pentagon/pyramid institutions in the lives of poor men and women.

comprising the 5-fold classification of Human, Social, o Matrix Ranking of sources of information trusted

Financial, Natural and Physical capital. The trainees' real by poor men and women.

life experiences were used to build up the abstract

pentagon model and imbue it with concrete meaning. 2.3.4 Field Trials and Synthesis

Perceptual definitions were then expanded to the

analytical framework of the SL approach. This helped The field trial in a hamlet near Limbangan in West Java

emphasise the importance of encouraging local provided opportunity for the ten fieldworkers to put

definitions of poverty and well being during the study. the techniques into practice, and take note of situations

This was followed by classroom simulation and reflection in which modifications might be needed, or where group

on the results of simulation of a sequence of participatory methods should be supplemented by individual methods.

analysis techniques designed for the study by one of the Further site-specific training in the SL approach was given

SL researchers. Field trial and further reflection on the by one of the SL Researchers at the beginning of the

experience completed the process. data collection period in two of the sites to ensure that

fieldworkers did not overlook any relevant points and

2.3.3 Participatory Analysis Techniques cross-checked among techniques where necessary.

The sequence of techniques used in this study included: All ten fieldworkers attended the two synthesis

* Well-being / Wealth Classification to elicit criteria workshops conducted in Jakarta. The first session was

used by communities for social categorisation held in March after fieldwork was completed in two

* Social Mapping and Mapping Access of the sites, and the second in April after fieldwork was

community to natural resources completed in the other two sites. Each team presented a

* Tracing Historical Timelines with communities to draft site report for discussion at the workshops and

understand their current situation in the perspective prepared final site reports by May 2000. One of the SL

of past experience researchers then summarised in English Site Reports for

12

Sustainable Livelihoods Framework and Research Method Chapter Two

each of the four sites, using the Field Reports prepared and quantitative and represents peoples' collective

in Bahasa Indonesia by the fieldworkers. The same perceptions and estimates, drawn from their life

format was followed for each site. Final Site Reports are experiences. It is their reality as they have expressed it, in

available from the authors as technical reports. response to the questions posed to them. The results of

their analysis are presented in sections 4 through 7 of this

2.3.5 Participation report.

Since the focus of the study was the nature of poverty, The field teams worked in pairs (usually one man and

participation of the poorer members of the communities one woman), with one conducting the discussion and

was specifically sought through both group methods and the other taking notes during each group or individual

in-depth interviews In order to gain a picture of process. With four fieldworkers per team, this meant that

livelihood sources accessible to the community as a whole, two activities could take place at the same time in a

better-off members of the community were often community. Sometimes an activity required the presence

included in group sessions. This is because livelihoods of of the whole team to deal with situation-specific

the poor are intricately bound up with those of the better- problems, such as keeping a crowd of small children

off members of the community. Frequently the entertained so that their mothers could participate in group

sustainability of the livelihoods of the latter group analysis, or taking a dominant village chief for a walk so

determines the sustainability of those of the poor, whom that other villagers could have a chance to speak their

they may perhaps employ directly or indirectly. In any minds!

case, as discussed in the Appendix, it would not have

been possible at most sites to exclude better-off members While in the field, fieldworkers kept records of their

of the community from participation, especially when findings in the form of notes, photographs and hand-

they were village officials whose decisions can affect the drawn copies of outputs of visualised group analysis.

poor, or community leaders who felt entitled to know Records of these findings formed the basis for preparing

what was going on. Where necessary, field researchers site reports. In keeping with the principles of participatory

met with poor and non-poor groups separately research, the original products of visual analysis (maps,

drawings, etc.) prepared by the communities were left

2.3.6 Data Collection with them for their own use in later planning or

monitoring activities

As already noted, a participatory approach was adopted

in data collection. Field research techniques combined At the time of data collection the currency exchange

PRA group analysis, semi-structured group interviews rate was around 9,800 - 10,000 Indonesian Rupiah

and in-depth interviews with a number of community to one US dollar."3

members. Within the analytical framework supplied by

the researchers, participants themselves chose and defined 2.3.7 Analysis

the categories (e.g. the choice and meaning of words to

describe 'well being' or 'poor'), and made their own The objectives and the type of information sought in

ratings The data gathered and analysed is both qualitative the study required that analysis focused on patterns

13 The excharge rate waS notstable Duong most ofl999-2001 there have been wveelklyfluctuations For the data collected in thu study, a rate ofRp 10,000 to a US dollar applies,

tuilless othernvse aplained

13

Chapter Two Sustainable Livelihoods Framework and Research Methods

influencing the livelihoods of the poor, and their researchers and fieldworkers discussed the findings and

implications for policies and strategies for poverty raised questions to elicit explanations and additional details

reduction. from the field teams' experiences. Conclusions were

deduced where appropriate.

Primary analysis was done on site by community

participants in each group process. This was recorded as Analysis focused on the questions:

actual outcomes from the field, consisting of visuals

(maps, diagrams, matrices), ordinal data (ranks and o What are the livelihood assets of each community?

scores) and descriptive/explanatory data. What are the contexts, processes and structures

influencing the access of the poor to those assets?

The next level of analysis was conducted in two o What are the problems of the poor in each

participatory synthesis workshops of two days each in community and what coping strategies have they

Jakarta, attended by the field research teams, the SL adopted in response? How efficient and

researchers and the DFID study co-ordinator. sustainable are the strategies adopted and why?

O What is working well in helping the poor in each

In these sessions for secondary analyses field outcomes community to improve their well-being? What is

were organised using the SL framework and examined working against their efforts?

for patterns, commonalities and divergences. There was o What changes/interventions could best empower

no attempt to aggregate data or make generalisations the poor in these communities to rise out of poverty?

from findings from any one site. Among themselves,

14

T h is section describes the criteria used in siteselection, provides a brief description of thefour communities, and offers a preliminary

assessment of the suitability of the sites in relation to theresearch goals.

3.1 Site Selection

Site Descriptions Communities were selected according to the following

criteria.• the comn-unity should consist of no more than 500

4and households

• the community should lhave a significant proportionof poor households

Selec1:ion Issues s the impact of the recent economic criss should beapparent

• sites should be sufficiently accessnble to provide usableresults based on 7-10 days of fieldwork

v some baseline data should be available.from previousstudies/secondary sources

a one or more communlity-based programmes shouldbe te ommuni shcommunlty and should be capable

1 5

Chapter Three Site Descriptions and Selection Issues

of responding to poverty alleviation needs identified The major natural resources of the hamlet are its fertile

through the study land and an abundance of water, which permits three

rice crops to be grown annually. Highly productive fish-

Because of unanticipated problems (discussed in section ponds have been dug on land less suited to rice-growing

3.4), the last of these criteria had to be modified. because the inflow of water from an underlying spring

cannot be controlled. Natural conditions favour the

3.2 Overview of the Four Sites breeding of ducks, which a number of households keep

in shallow ponds under their houses. There is no unused

3.2.1 West Java land around the hamlet. Every square inch has been

converted to sawah or fish-ponds, to the point where

A village located some 15 kilometres from the city of there is no land for home gardens to provide household

Garut in West Java was chosen for the study of an area vegetables and spices

where intensive rice-cultivation forms the basis of the

local economy. The village is situated on a plain which is Although the main source of livelihood is agriculture,

surrounded by mountains and transected by the Cimanuk, only 60 per cent of households obtain all or even the

one of Java's major rivers. Water for village rice-fields major part of their income from this sector. Most of

(sawah) is obtained from an irrigation system that diverts the remaining 40 per cent no longer have any real ties

water from the Cibeureum River, which has its source in with the land since they depend on income earned by

the mountains on the eastern side of the plain. Drainage male household members in the informal sector inJakarta,

is excellent as the Cimanuk is several meters lower than where they work as circular migrants. Those employed

the land at this point. in agriculture consist of land-owning farmers (5 per cent),

sharecroppers (25 per cent) and agricultural labourers

A hamlet that constitutes one of the eight administrative with no access to land (30 per cent) There are no sharp

subdivisions (RWs) within the village was selected for distinctions between these three groups, however. Some

more detailed study. The origins of the hamlet go back 'farmers' earn much of their income in Jakarta and have

to 1930, when four families from another hamlet settled their rice-fields sharecropped by other people. Some of

here. It was these families who first designed and those described as sharecroppers are also the owners of

established the irrigation system. The hamlet continued extremely small pieces of sawah; at the same time they

to grow as the children of the original settlers formed also work as agricultural labourers. Agricultural labourers

their own households and gradually improved and usually undertake a variety of other local jobs such as the

expanded the irrigation network. The hamlet, which has manual excavation of river sand, house building and

approximately 30 hectares of house-lots and agricultural repairs or general labouring when farm work is not

land, now has a population of 125 households (720 available. People thus combine on and off farm

persons) living in 103 houses. Houses are very close livelihood strategies according to the season and the assets

together and are built of brick with tiled roofs, as bricks available to particular social groups. the designation 'rice-

and tiles are much cheaper than timber in this region. farming community' only provides a starting point for a

Some of the very poor live in bamboo lean-to houses more complex analysis.

attached to the brick houses of relatives.

16

Site Descriptions and Selection Issues Chapter Three

3.2.2 Surabaya (East Java) main sources of livelihood are small-scale trade, pedicab

(becak) driving, scavenging, the driving of public

The site chosen in Surabaya Municipality is located in the minibuses, and construction work. Only a few people

heart of the city. The kelurahan (urban village) in which it earn regular income from permanent employment as

is situated is typical of the settlement pattern found in public servants, primary school teachers and office

most big cities in Java today It has expensive hotels, upper- workers.

middle class houses, banks, apartment blocks and

supermarkets, yet within a short distance of these People have continued to settle here over the years because

modern-style buildings there are densely populated areas of proximity to informal sector employment

in which physical infrastructure and amenities are quite opportunities. Meanwhile, high population density (900

inadequate for the large numbers of people living there. persons to the hectare in the study area) has itself

increased the demand for services like food selling and

The kelurahan occupies an elongated, triangular strip of becak driving. There are several government and private

land between the Surabaya River on the west and the business offices in the immediate vicinity of the settlement

main Jakarta-Surabaya railway line on the east. The study as well as two large markets and a major railway station

area, whlich consists of two of the kelurahan's 30 no more than 500 meters away, all of which provide

neighbourhoods (RTs), is situated at the apex of the opportunities for vendors of cooked food, cigarettes

triangle, at the point where the railway line meets a major and similar goods.

road on the eastern bank of the Surabaya River. The

two RTs occupy 1 6 hectares of land adjacent to the Sanitation presents a major problem because of

train line and owned by the State Railway Authority. The population density Over the years the community itself

community today consists of 330 households (1,440 has constructed public latrines and enclosures for bathing

persons), who are officially regarded as 'squatters' on and washing clothes with water pumped manually from

state land. wells but these facilities are inadequate for the number

of people who use them. The community has also

Occupation of the land began in the 1950s when a couple provided other public facilities that include two places

of families started cultivating vegetables and bananas of worship (musholla) and a community meeting hall.

along a railway track that branched from the main line at Electricity was made available by the government several

this point. Newcomers continued to move in, seeking years ago but many poor households cannot afford the

work in the early years as market gardeners but later monthly charge.

turning to other sources of income. Human occupation

has changed the local environment considerably. The land Population pressure has led to general environmental

is now completely covered in houses, which have no degradation. Ground water is now of poor quality as a

yards at all and have been built very close to the narrow consequence of the infiltration of polluted surface water.

path constructed by the community on top of the disused The nature of certain livelihoods, in particular scavenging,

railway track. Since houses are wall-to-wall without even has also had a negative effect on the quality of the

passageways between them, there is nowhere for children environment. Large quantities of waste materials collected

to play. Most households earn a living in the informal by scavengers are sorted out close to houses and this

sector where returns for labour are extremely low. The gives rise to constant air pollution.

17

Chapter Three Site Descriptions and Selection Issules

3.2.3 Lombok ready for sale. Approximately 25 percent of households

own fishing boats, which they operate themselves or else

The selected hamlet is part of a coastal village in the hire out to others, the return to the owner being half of

District of West Lombok, where sea fishing is a major the day's catch. Only ten households, 9% of the

source of livelihood. The hamlet, which is less than 15 community, own either irrigated (sawah) or dryland fields.

meters above sea level, stretches for some 500 meters This land has been passed down from one generation to

along the shoreline and is about 200 meters wide. Despite the next. They are regarded as the wealthiest people in

its coastal location, the hamlet has a stretch of agricultural the hamlet but they too have faced pressure, selling land

land used for gardens and dry fields as well as rice-fields, off to outsiders. Farmers in this area now own only one

which cover about 20 hectares. third as much land as they did in 1990.

The hamlet has 167 households, consisting of 588 people Fishers and fish traders must have secondary or seasonal

(314 women and 274 men). While some houses are occupations for the times when fishing is prevented by

permanent in nature with brick and cement walls or else the extremely strong winds that blow every year from

semi-permanent (half-brick and half-bamboo), many are December to March. Most of the poor turn to agriculture

non-permanent, constructed from woven bamboo and where they work as labourers in the transplanting of rice,

have an earth floor. These houses have no division between and the weeding and harvesting of rice or soy beans.

kitchen and sleeping quarters and no sitting room, but Some also work as gleaners, seeking fallen grains of rice

some have a veranda. Since 1994, 80 percent of houses in the fields after harvesting is completed. Their lack of

have had electricity. There is no primary school in the education and skills for alternative employment makes

hamlet; children have to walk about 30 minutes to a school this a period of heightened stress. Agricultural labour

in another part of the village. The only health facility in opportunities are few and women report walking to fields

the village is a Puskesmas Pembantu (Auxiliary Health in villages 6-8 kilometres away to look for a day's work.

Centre) situated about 2.5 kilometres from the hamlet. Another occupation, usually undertaken by women and

Services are provided by a nurse and a midwife. young boys when it is hard to catch fish, is the collection

for sale of edible shell-fish found on the shore.

There are four main sources of livelihood in the hamlet,

combined in various ways according to each household's The few better-off households have capital to buy and

assets and strategies. Some 37 percent of households process fish in bulk when in season, for sale and income

derive a major part of their livelihood from the husband's during the lean period. Poor women have no other earning

earnings as fishing labourers, since they themselves own skills than processing fish. They depend almost entirely on

neither boats nor equipment. Some men work on fishing fish trading and processing, but have very limited capital

boats while others pull in nets lowered from the boats and are unable to cash-in on availability of fish in the peak

some distance from shore. Approximately 29 percent season to put away a stock for the hardship months. Almost

of households obtain a living from trade in fish, an activity every household reported several child deaths for every 3-

that almost exclusively involves women. Women, rich 4 that are still alive. The women say that they cannot provide

and poor alike, purchase fish directly from fishers as soon enough food to children in the lean season and every year

as they land. The fish are then either resold immediately children die in February - March after bouts of diarrhoea,

in a fresh state or else are dried or preserved by boiling, chicken pox or measles.

18

Site Descriptions and Selection Issues Chapter Three

Today the people of the hamlet are experiencing from outside the region or else utilise the sago palms

economic difficulties because of declining incomes. This found in local swamps. Ladang land is also used for the

is reflected in the high divorce rate in the hamlet. At the cultivation of vegetables for household use.

same time there are increasing conflicts with fishers from

other areas The conflicts generally arise over two issues: Cash income is obtained from the sale of two ma)or

the fishing techlnology that the outsiders use and the zone tree products, rubber (latex) and fruit, in particular durian,

in which they fish. The outsideis, who come from Bali which is always marketable. People also obtain various

and other places in Lombok, use large nets whlich disturb forest products like rattan and pandanus from the

the activities of local fishers whose technology is limited community's forests on the mountain slopes Some 85

to much smaller nets and fishing rods. At the same time, percent of the households in the hamlet live exclusively

despite legislation that prohlibits large vessels from fishing from 'forest agriculture' of this kind, while the remaining

close to shore, they continue to trespass in waters reserved 15 percent, who are teachers or public servants in

for traditional fishers with simple equipment. subdistrict offices, also do part-time agricultural work

on their own land

3.2.4 West Kalimantan

Most households in the hamlet were described by

A Dayak community in the District of Mempawah in participants as 'having insufficient income'. Many of the

the Province of West Kalimantan serves to highlight the poor are in fact very elderly people who have no children

issues faced by a community that depends on both forest to support them. Those who are relatively well-off are

and farm resources. The community consists of 425 distinguished from the'lnsufficient income'and the'poor'

people (82 households) and its territory covers 1,028 ha groups by the fact that they own much larger areas of

The selected hamlet, which is administratively part of a sawah and ladang and have many more rubber and fruit

larger village, is 161 kliloimietres from the provincial capital trees. Income levels are reflected in the quality of housing

of Pontianak. Roads are good, whlich enables small buses materials and in the nature of furniture and other

and trucks to reach the haimilet without difficulty, thus possessions.

making it less isolatcd than it uscd to bc

The poor own land that is too small to yield enough rice

At first sight the area looks fairly prosperous with its rice to feed their households and rice must be bought for

fields crossed by two rivers, the hamlet almost ringed by much of the year. They earn a living by tapping rubber,

mountains and 382 hectares of forests. It is located on transporting wood cut by others from the forest, hunting

flat land sub)ect to inundation during the wet season. frogs, fishing in the river, and gathering rattan, fruits and

Sources of livelihood, which are closely related to the tubers from the forest. An NGO has helped orgamse a

natural resources of the area, involve the cultivation of rubber producers' co-operative society (Koperasi Pancur

rice, the tapping of rubber trees and the collection of Dagari) to help villagers market their produce at

fruit Almost all households own some arable land as reasonable prices, countering the exploitative practices

well as rubber and fruit gardens. Local land has no of a monopoly buyer. However, since the co-operative

irrigation, but rice is cultivated in both wet (sawah) and society truck can come round to procure rubber only

dry fields (ladang). Since output from these fields is low, once a fortnight, the poorest households still sell most

families have to buy rice for several months in the year of their rubber every 1-2 days to the monopoly buyer.

1 9

:hapter Three Site Descriptions and Selection Isseaes

They live from day-to-day and cannot afford to wait 1986 when a Pontianak timber company obtained

two weeks to sell their rubber. permission from district-level officials to fell trees within

the hamlet's territory Since then floods have increased in

Social cohesion within the community is extremely strong. the wet season, further reducing rice output from sawah.

Although the community is administratively under a At the same time river flow has continued to decline in

hamlet head (kepala dusun) in keeping with the national the dry season.

governmental structure, there is also a traditional leader,

the pasirah, who is responsible for all matters relating to 3.3 Appropriateness of Sites

customs and traditional law. Older people complain that

the younger generation today gives insufficient attention On the whole the choice of sites was satisfactory, but it

to customary practices but traditional ceremonies are still must be borne in mind that they were not intended to be

conducted and traditional institutions remain strong. The typical of different kinds of resource-based communities.

most important of these institutions is the farmers' work As already noted, there are occupations that provide even

groups known as aleatn. Members of an aleatn group more meagre livelihoods and places where people are

work together, preparing, cultivating and later harvesting even poorer than the poor in the four study areas.

each other's land in turn.

The West Kalimantan site was perhaps the least suitable

The hamlet has electricity, provided by the government for the present study of poverty, although it met the

in 1995-6, but as yet only 40 percent of households have initial requirement of a location in which a community-

had it connected to their homes. Educational levels are based programme was operating. While the design of

low, although the hamlet has a government primary school the present study did not allow for detailed comparisons

and a private junior high school. Health facilities are limited. between sites, the researchers observed that most

A polyclinic, recently constructed in the hamlet, has no members of this community had better living conditions

staff. People therefore have to travel by bus to the and incomes than in the other research sites. There has

subdistrict Community Health Centre (Puskesmas). The been so much input from the local NGO that was

community has an important advantage, however, in the involved in site selection that many of the obstacles to

fact that some years ago a Pontianak-based NGO started income enhancement that were observed in other sites

a credit union, which provides local people with low- are not found here. In particular, mention can be made

interest loans whenever they need cash. of the existence of a well-organised Credit Union that

provides valuable assistance to the community and leaves

Drinking water presents a major problem in the hamlet. no scope for the formal and informal moneylenders

In the wet season households catch rain water in tanks whose activities elsewhere tend to exacerbate household

but when rain ceases, they draw water from a nearby poverty.

stream. As the dry season continues, they have to walk

two kilometres to another hamlet where there is a reliable At the same time the West Kalimantan site was a very

spring. While there is a need for agricultural extension good choice in that it illustrates many of the problems

services specifically suited to local environmental that cause local people in regions outsideJava to remain

conditions, the greatest problem that the community faces relatively poor, despite the abundant natural resources

is deforestation on the mountain slopes, which began in that should be at their disposal. In particular, it highlights

20

Site Descriptions and Selection Issues Chapter Three

governance issues that have a direct connection with actively in a number of villages and was able to identify

regional development and decentralisation policies. a suitable hamlet in one of them, located 161 kilometres

from Pontianak. This was the only study site among the

Two of the study areas have a certain relevance to each four where baseline data in the form of excellent maps

other, although this was not intended in site selection showing roads, rivers, forests, house locations and land

The densely populated urban site selected in Surabaya use were available from previous studies. The two local

illustrates the problems that have arisen in major cities members of the fieldwork team, both of whom had

because of steady rural-urban migration over the years, been involved in the activities of the NGO, were able to

while the WestJava site demonstrates why this rural-urban arrange focus group discussions and conduct in-depth

migration continues to take place. As declining access to interviews without any delay after an initial meeting with

natural resources forces rural people to seek a livelihood hamlet officials and prominent members of the

not only outside the agricultural sector but outside the community. Since residents were quite accustomed to

region as well, further pressure is placed on already limited the sight of'outsiders' visiting thelr hamlet, data collection

employment opportunities in urban areas The Lombok went smoothly.

study likewise illustrates how declining access to natural

resources forces poor people to look for outside sources Problems arose, however, in identifying other sites with

of income for much of the year. ongoing programmes. Initially, a coastal fishing village in

South Sulawesi was to be chosen as the second site outside

3 .4 Links to Ongoing Programmes Java. An unsuccessful attempt to identify a suitable village

was made through the Community Recovery Programme

The original site criteria included the specification to (CRP) and through certain individuals said to be

choose sites in which at least one programme such as the knowledgeable about the area. Subsequently a site was

Kecamatan Development Programme (KDP) or the chosen in Lombok, where a local NGO identified a

Community Recovery Programme (CRP) was already coastal fishing community with which it was familiar. The

functioning. It was hoped that the programme would same NGO provided two members of its local staff to

be able to respond to the poverty reduction needs form part of the four-person fieldwork team for the

identified through the study. It was also assumed that the research. While there was no ongoing project in the study

presence of such a programme would provide area to which the SL study could be linked, a certain

fieldworkers with comparatively easy entry to the amount of information was available about a similar

community. This would reduce time needed to get to fishing village in the same general region.

know community leaders and members, reduce

suspicions about the research and establish the confidence In Surabaya attempts were made to identify a suitable

required for successful discussions with participants. site through Kecamatan Development Programme

(KDP) or the Community Recovery Programme (CRP)

No difficulty was encountered in selecting a community and ultimately the World Food Programme (WFP), even

dependent on forest resources, since the ongoing DFID though the last named does not conduct 'projects' in the

MultiStakeholder Forestry Programme assisted in usual sense of the word. It turned out that there are no

selection of a study site in West Kalimantan. A local NGO ongoing KDP undertakings in Surabaya and that CRP

with links to the DFID Programme had been working activities are limited to two projects, neither of which

21

Chapter Three Site Descriptions and Selection Issues

met other study requirements. The WFP Senior areas. Information from KDP revealed that five relatively

Programme Adviser in Jakarta provided a list of poor subdistricts are included in the current KDP

locations in Surabaya where assistance had been given to programme but that only one is located in a rice-growing

very poor families. The study site was then selected with area. One of the SL Researchers visited a number of

the help of a local NGO whose staff had been visiting villages in this subdistrict and chose a hamlet where the

the area regularly in the course of weekly distribution of external condition of housing suggested that the

WFP rice over a period of six months. Entry by the community was relatively poor.

research team was greatly facilitated by the fact that the

NGO, trusted and regarded highly by the community, As a consequence of the difficulty of linking research to

handled the necessary introductions to local-level officials ongoing programmes, direct follow-up to the findings

and community leaders. of the present study is unlikely, except perhaps in the

West Kalimantan and Lombok sites. Hopefully, however,

Identifying an irrigated rice-growing site proved even these findings will influence policy-making at a higher

more difficult. Garut District was chosen because it was level, for the problems that were identified are common

known to be a rice production region. Several CRP to many poor communities.

projects were traced but none were located in irrigated

Locations of SL Study Sites in Indonesia

\ "'', Ž/?t

st~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)~~-- ,J a,--.

'\ oR \R O ~ - -. \,~

2 - i .r

22

40 -~@

Y>~~~~~~~~4

T t his section explores vulnerability to poverty.The SL approach recognises that, while many

people are poor, the ways in which they define

poverty, and the contexts that make them vulnerable to

poverty, vary by social group. Thus women and men,

young and old, or members of different ethnic groups

living in the same community often gain their livelihoods

Findings: n different ways, and face different opportunities andconstraints. Vulnerability contexts also change over time.

The SL approach highlights three types of change: trends,

Vulnerability progressive shifts in access to resources and other assets;shocks, which are sudden changes brought about by,

for example, economic crisis or crop disease, and

Contexts seasonality, the annual pattern of variation in income,production, or other natural phenomena such as water

availability and illness. Each of these dimensions of

vulnerability has policy relevance poverty alleviation needs

to begin with people's own definitions and concerns; it

must be gender sensitive; trends, shocks and seasonal

variations, once identified, suggest particular kinds of

intervention.

23

Chapter Four Findings: Vulneraaitity Contents

4.1 Varying Definitions of Poverty measuring about 10 square meters and use public

washing, bathing, and toilet facilities.

The study used participatory social classification exercises

to explore each community's own criteria for well-being The rice-farming (West Java) and fishing (Lombok) site

and poverty. Participants drew pictures of people in participants estimated that the poor/very poor make up

different social classes and provided descriptions for each 46% and 52% of the communities, respectively. In both

category. The criteria generated are specific to each sites the poor own no land. In Lombok, the poor own

community and useful mainly for understanding the basis no boat or fishing equipment except fishing rods, and

for social differentiation and identifying who are the earn their livelihoods as wage labourers for land-owning

poorest therein. The criteria are not intended to be farmers or owners of fishing boats. When work is

comparable across communities. Rather, their diversity unavailable, they get into debt to keep their families fed.

illustrates and underscores why it is necessary for poverty- Within both communities women-headed households are

targeting criteria to be locally developed. The the poorest, with 5-12 children each to support. In the

characteristics used by men and women to describe the Lombok fishing community poor women who head

poor in each community generally included the types households are deserted or divorced wives, whereas in

of assets they owned or did not own, the way they earned the West Java rice farming community women in this

their livelihoods, the extent of food security they had, category are mostly widows.

the quality of their shelter, their access to education and

health care services, and their proneness to indebtedness. The forest-farm community in West Kalimantan classified

There were considerable variations among the four sites 9% of its households as 'miserably poor' and 76% as

particularly with respect to access to assets for production. 'wanting' (kurang). Although the community has better

The communities also provided percentage estimates of access to natural resources than poor communities

the poor/very poor, middle class and the well-off elsewhere, the returns from their land and the river are

amongst them, through the 100 seeds exercise. Three rapidly declining, making them increasingly dependent

communities identified three main classes each. One on cash income from selling forest produce. Monopoly

identified four classes. buyers for cash crops and external forces exploiting forest

resources restrict the villagers' incomes and add to

The urban poor community in Surabaya described environmental degradation, in a cycle of diminishing

themselves in terms that seem more dire than peoples' returns from all natural assets. Even the poorest in this

descriptions of poverty in the other three sites. They community have half a hectare of irrigated land, although

described 74% of the community as poor. From the uncontrolled floods cause damage to crops. They also

researchers' viewpoint, their situation is directly linked to have access to 0.6 hectares of dryland fields (ladang) but

the urban community's total cash dependence, whereas lack the resources to maintain long term soil fertility or

most people in the three rural study sites had at least protect crops from pests. The few rubber trees owned

some access to direct food production. The urban poor by poor households yield only about a kilogram of resin

in this study have irregular incomes and typically eat only per day per household, which does not keep an average

once a day. Often what is earned in the morning is used family fed the year round. The 'wanting' category of

for food in the evening. On days when work is not found, households, who comprise the majority, own about 3

they must borrow from relatives or neighbours just to hectares of land, rubber trees yielding up to 4 kilograms

eat a meal of rice and crackers. They live in homes of resin per day and 5-10 seasonal fruit trees.

24

Findings: Vulnerability Contexts Chapter Four

4.2 Gender Dimensions of Vulnerability poverty, due primarily to the differences in livelihood-related activities and culture-specific norms governing

The present study found notable differences in perceptions the lives of men and women. These are illustrated in

of men and women about the root causes of their Boxes 5 and 6.

Box 5: Gender Differences in Perceptions of Root Causes of Poverty at the 4 sites

According to Men According to Women

Coastal Fishing Communityo Don't own fishing equipment (net, boat with

machine). * Don't have skills other than fish processing.* Small fish catches due to over-fishing in coastal

water by rich fishers from outside using largenets & power boats.

* No income during 3 months of rainy season . House leaks - no place to store preserved fish.when seas are too rough to go fishing.

o No organisation of poor fishers to help market o Frequent divorce (women left alone to supportfish for good price in peak season, or build up themselves and their children).reserves for the off-season.

* No money to send children to school.

Forest & Farm-dependent Community* Use of chemical pesticides. * Inability to regulate water in paddy fieldsl Long droughts. (flooding as well as drought).o Chronic illness. * Vulnerability of new variety of rubber treese Low education / ignorance / stupidity to diseases (traditional variety replaced* Very large families. by Agriculture department).o Small land holdings. * Rubber buyer's monopoly.

0 Unavailability of family planning advice.

Rice Cultivating Community* Too many children per family. o No cheap family planning option.m High crop losses due to rats and insect pests. * No access to capital/skill training opportunityo No capital for agriculture or trade. o Agriculture labour opportunity reduced duec Bandar (commercial harvest buyer) is dishonest, to commercialisation of harvest (Bandar uses

fixes low price for harvest and does not pay contract labour from outside the community).as agreed.

* Lack of employment for long periods every year. * Inability of local children to continue schoolingo Low education and capacity for earning. beyond primary level.

Urban Community* Cannot find work - low education and have no * Too many competitors for earning by vending food

contacts for KKN (corruption, collusion, (only skill women have).nepotism). * Afraid or too late to adopt family planning methods

- too many children.o Forced to remain indebted to money lenders. C Dirty, unhealthy physical & social environment leads

to young men gambling, drinkinig aiicn crimile anclo Krismon (financial crisis in the country). sickness.

25

Chapter Four FIndings: Vulnerability Contents

Box 6: Marriage, Divorce and Inheritance Nonns Impoverish Women and Children

Women in the Lombok site regard frequent divorce as a root cause of their economic hardship. They reportedthat the number of divorced or deserted wives in their hamlet in 2000 is five times as many as in 1990 althoughthe total population has only doubled. Men, especially richer-than-average men, have been marrying up to 4times. Women are increasingly unwilling to stay on in a marriage when the man brings home another, usuallyyounger wife. The result is that many older women are divorced or deserted, and find themselves alone or withyoung children to support. In the case of divorce the man keeps the house and heavy furniture and all theproductive assets (e.g. boat, fishing rod, land, fruit trees, fishing net and means of transport). Women get theirjewellery, kitchen equipment and stored grains. The son of a divorced couple keeps his right to inheritance fromhis father's property. The daughter loses it. A divorced or widowed wife without children usually losesproperty that she had jointly owned with her husband if it is claimed by her former husband's parents orbrothers. Poor women pursue marriage to a better-off man as a means - often the only means - of escapingtheir lot, while poor men find it difficult to get wives. Notably, the child mortality and morbidity rate in thecommunity seems unusually high. Each of the women participating in discussion groups had 4-5 living children,although they reported having given birth to 5-1 1 children.

Source: Sustamiable Livelihood Site Report, Lombok, 2000.

PohcyIrnphcatzons which are rarely recognised or addressed by poverty

reduction programmes.' 5

Gender makes a significant difference in vulnerability to

poverty. Throughout their life cycle poor women in Box 5 confirms the need to obtain both women's and

Indonesia, as in many other countries, are doubly men's viewpoints to be able to understand the total

disadvantaged by their economic statLis and gender (see picture of poverty in each community. It reveals why

Box 6). In addition to the social and cultural forces that without gender-responsive approaches poverty

often undermine women's struggle against poverty, reduction efforts cannot be effective.

women must also contend with the unintended negative

impacts and unrealised benefits from development 4.3 Trendsprogrammes designed without sensitivity to genderissues.14 4.3.1 Reduced Access of the Poor to Natural

Resources

Although poor women are economically active in all major

livelihoods of the poor and contribute equally or often Many poor people rely on access to common resources

even more than men to the household income (e.g. when because they lack resources of their own. In rural areas,

men migrate to cities and can't find work there), their this mainly means natural resources of all kinds. In the

roles are not adequately recognised by extension services SL study sites in Lombok and West Kalimantan the prime

and development programmes. Gender analyses are still means of livelihoods were marine, agricultural and forest

not routinely undertaken at the start of projects and poor resources. Participants' causal analysis of the current

women are seldom effectively involved in shaping project situation and trends over the past 10 years revealed rapidly

interventions A recent study by one of the authors also declining access by the poor to their natural resource

found evidence of how things work against women, base due primarily to human actions such as the use of

within their homes and in the community - problems unsustainable high-technology fishing equipment and

14 Joan Hardlono, A Soci.i Assessment of the Land Certificatio Piograni The Indonesian LindAdninistrathon Project jakarrta The World BankandAusAID, i999

15 Nilanjana Mukherjee, Conlisuhtion5 with thc Poor mn Indonesia, CounitrySvynthesis Report, World Bank, 1999

26

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Findings: Vulnerability Contexts Chapter Four

Box 7 : Declining Access to Marine Resources: Lombok

Livelihoods of the poor are under increasing stress, especially over the past 5 years. Daily fish catches andearnings per head have dwindled to one third of what they were in 1990. The reasons include: a) increase in thenumber of fishers in Lombok; b) over fishing in the coastal waters by outsiders from Bali or other parts ofLombok, who use trawlers and large nets and c) reduction in the numbers of fish in the area due to use ofexplosives and potash on coral reefs. Poor fishers desperate for a catch use these techniques to drive out thefish, as do the owners of large driftnets.

Villagers believe that most of their problems could be solved if zoning regulations were enforced and outsiderskept out of the fishing zone allocated to coastal communities. The question is who would enforce such regulationsand how? Other recent consultations with the poor in the region'6 also found coastal communities tryingunsuccessfully to get local governments to take action, because 'the wealthy and powerful outsiders who owntrawlers and tuna nets are friends with local authorities and give them generous donations for public functionssuch as Independence Day celebrations'.

Source: Sustainable Livelihood Site Report, Lombok, 2000.

both legal and illegal logging. (See Figures 2 and 3) The PolicyImplcations

people undertaking these activities are not from local

communities. They are people with financial and political If natural resource utilisation policies were based on

power who collude with local government authorities consultation with poor communities dependent on them,

or evade control by them, and operate both from within the government and other powerful interests would bemore likely to respect their rights of access and ownership.

and outside the country across porous land and seaEnforcement of such policies would require adequateempowerment of poor communities to preventviolations and protect their resource base. History

Growing population pressure within communities also provides ample evidence that poor communities generally

contributes to a reduction in individual access to natural know how to make sustainable use of their natural

resources like land, water, forests and fish. In rural areas resources, but are often rendered powerless to do so by

land holdings are becoming smaller because of forces external to their community. Although violations

subdivision among heirs, while small landowners and of poor peoples' rights are sometimes the result of bad

sharecroppers compete with landless labourers for policy decisions, they are often fuelled by the greed of

additional employment as agricultural wage workers. those seeking ever-greater financial power.

As poor peoples' access to local natural resources declines, A number of government policies that specificallythey are forced to make increasingly more intensive, and encourage the transfer of rights to non-local people for

therefore less sustainable, use of the resources still available exploiting certain resources need to be revised. This appliesnot only in the case of forestry concessions and fisheriesbut also to much smaller resources like river sand. New

and practices This is generating desperation and anger policies are needed not only at the national level but alsothat builds and erupts now with increasing frequency in in the provinces and districts, more so under

different parts of the country. (See Boxes 8 and 9). decentralisation.

16 Nilanjana Mukherjee, Consultations with the Poor in Indonesia Country Synithesis Report, World Bank, 1999

29

Chapter Four Findings: Vulnerability Contexts

Box 8 : Angry fishers torch trawlers. Palembang, South Sumatra

Dozens of local fishers in Must Banyuasin regency burned three trawlers on Wednesday, injuring three people...The

arson was triggered by the fishermen's anger with the presence of the trawlers, which they accused of stealing

their livelihood. ...The police said traditional fishermen have long targeted the trawlers. Antara reported.'

Source:.Jakarta PostJune 3,2000. Page 2.

Box 9 : Deteriorating Resource Base: West Kalimantan

In the late 1980s, a forest concessionaire P.T. Gelora Agung began operations in the forests near the West

Kalimantan community. Between 1991 and 1998 they felled nearly all fully-grown trees in the concession area.

They have encroached upon and cut trees in the community's common resource forest despite villagers' protests.

The small trees left in the forest cannot provide timber for building homes. Men and women of the study

hamlet agree that forest cover is now only about one third of what it was in 1990. Small wild animals hunted

for food until 1990 are no longer found in the forest. Study participants estimate that it would take more than

50 years for the forest to recover its 1980s' state, even if no further trees were cut. During the last decade

villagers have had two violent conflicts with the concessionaire. They burned the company's base camp and

trucks and obstructed its lorry track with felled logs. In 1998 some poor men from the hamlet were lured by

Gelora Agung's attractive wages to cut trees for the company in the common forest. This led to intra-community

conflict and adat leaders imposing stiff fines on the errant villagers.

The river is drying up. In the 1970s, it used to be perennially navigable by boats. Now it has become shallow,

silted and can no longer supply water for domestic purposes in the dry season: it dries out if there is no rain for

just two weeks. People have to carry water for drinking from a spring several kilometres away in another

hamlet, or rely on the scanty, polluted flow and risk diarrheal diseases. The Kampung (hamlet) has the reputation

in the nearest Puskesmas, as the 'village of people with stomach disorders', a condition which has increased

three-fold in the past decade, In the rainy season, the river floods its banks, inundating rice fields and damaging

rice crops The problem has intensified over the past few years due to clearing of forests by villagers living up

the hills, in the catchment area of the river, as population pressure on the land increases in those villages.

Paddy and rubber yields have also suffered due to inappropriate agricultural extension advice and policies.

Local residents are desperately looking for ways to prevent flooding or find a variety of paddy that can

withstand flooding They hope that the government can build them an irrigation canal to drain away excess

water during the flood season. This is beyond their own resources, although they can dredge and clean the river

using some help from food-for-work programmes. There seems to be little awareness in the community that

longer-term, sustainable solutions would require several villages to manage their shared watershed using mutually

agreed conservation practices. Even if villagers did organise themselves for proper watershed management,

how would they control destructive logging by wealthy and powerful concessionaires from outside?

Women's groups voiced their fear that their hamlet may have to be abandoned by its residents if things continue

this way, forcing all households to shift to shanty towns around Pontianak city to find work in its numerous saw

mills or seek other means of livelilhood on city streets.

Source: Sustainable Livelihood Site Report Kakn3antan, 2000.

30

Findings- Vulnerability Contexts Chapter Four

4.3.2 Competition for sources of livelihood earn a living in this sector but also from modern-sector

businesses like supermarkets that seek customers at all

Linked to declining access to natural resources is increased social levels. The poor are dependent on those who

competition among the poor for sources of hvelihood. purchase goods and services or provide jobs For

At all study sites with the exception of West Kalimantan, example, vendors of foodstuffs depend on the

where population density is very low, people spoke about purchasing power of the wider community, becak drivers

increasing competition in efforts to earn a living (See depend on customers whose finances are often very

Boxes 10 and 11). With steady growth in the country's limited, scavengers depend on the existence of higher-

population, more and more individuals are tiying to level recycling agents, construction workers depend for

obtain a livelihood from the same resources, whether jobs on foremen who in turn are dependent on the

they be natural resources such as marine fish in places availability of construction prolects.

like Lombok or opportunities to trade in the informal

sector of cities like Surabaya Migration reduces resource PobiyLnpicadons

pressure in rural areas, but increases pressure in the cities

where urban facilities such as water, sanitation and living Perhaps the most salient policy lesson lhere is the

space are in short supply, and income sources are interconnectedness of the lives of the poor with those

increasingly squeezed. (See threefold increase in numbers better off, and the links between rural and urban poverty.

of snack-vending kiosks between 1995-2000 in Surabaya, When viewed from a livelihoods perspective, poverty is

Figure 4). seen as a dynamic condition connected to social,

economic and political systems. This perspective argues

Existing competition in urban areas is compounded by strongly for a mainstreamed approach to poverty

the fact that the purchasing power of buyers has declined reduction, as opposed to isolating poverty as a set of

due to the overall economic situation, which has both social problems treatable by technical solutions. Poverty

resulted from as well as caused loss of jobs in many is linked to the very fabric of Indonesian society - its

occupations such as factory work. The urban poor whose processes and relationshlips - and can only be addressed

livelihoods depend on informal-sector trade now sustainably if this connection is incorporated in defining

encounter competition not only from others trying to solutions

31

Box 10 : Reduced Access to Land, Labour and Capital in a rice growing area, West Java

Participants reported that although 60 percent of the households in the WestJava study site depend on agriculture

as their primary livelihood, only 5% now own agricultural land. 95% of the land in this community belongs to

outsiders, as the descendants of the original four rich landowners who established the hamlet in the 1930s have

moved to town. They have sold off parcels of land to urban buyers who find agricultural land a profitable

investment. These owners rent out the land to locally resident sharecroppers. The latter bear all the risks of

farming and give the landowner a fixed share of the harvest. As input costs for agriculture have increased

sharply since 1997, sharecroppers are finding new ways to cut costs and risks by selling crops before harvest to

commercial harvesters from outside the village and renting tractors to prepare land. Both practices deprive the

poorest villagers of wage labour in the agricultural season, forcing them to look for alternative employment.

The poorest households in the village are those of widows with small children, who have no male relatives who

can go to work in the city. There are no opportunities for trading or small industry as the poor have no source

of capital credit in the hamlet, and there are no natural resources for use in small industry. Agricultural credit

institutions like the KUT (Kredit Usaha Tani) are designed only for the land-owning, wealthier farmers.

Source. Sustainable Livelihood Site Report, Westjava, 2000.

Box I 1: Circular Migration from WestJava to Cities

The response to the lack of employment in the hamlet near Garut, West Java, has been the emergence of a

pattern of temporary or circular migration to Jakarta by some 40 % of male household members. Men return

to the village only when they have money to give their families, which is generally about once a month. The

resettlement of their families in the city would be self-defeating since urban living costs are higher than those in

the hamlet, where the kinship support system assures every one of access to accommodation and food. Even

so, the residence of temporary migrants in the city for much of the year puts an additional strain on urban

facilities like clean water and health care services.

For inexperienced circular migrants, who normally set out with nothing in their pockets but their bus fare, lack

of capital is a handicap. They need money to rent a market stall, to buy cooking utensils for the preparation of

food, to purchase the initial stock for a cigarette kiosk and so on, but lack access to credit sources. The type of

informal sector employment into which they move depends very much on the amount of working capital at

their disposal. This in turn affects the size of the profits that they make. Circular migrants who have the

necessary capital trade in goods like clothing and watches, not in foodstuffs like noodles. Lack of knowledge of

urban trading patterns is a further handicap, but they get started by working with close relatives. In Jakarta, men

from West Java have to compete with people from many other regions who are also striving to earn a living inthe informal sector.

Source: Sustainable Livelihood Site Report, WestJava, 2000.

32

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Chapter Four Findings: Vulnerability Contexts

4.4 Shocks: Vulnerability of the Poor to Migration to an urban area, either permanent or

Macro-economic Crises temporary, is one of the strategies that the rural poor

have long adopted in coping with inadequate sources of

Indonesia faced problems associated with poverty livelihood. It is driven by poverty that has its roots in

before the financial crisis of 1998 (popularly known as lack of employment, agricultural or otherwise, in rural

krismon), but things have worsened for many since the areas. While these phenomena have existed for years, itcrisis. While the poor are vulnerable to deeper poverty, took the krismon to demonstrate the vulnerability of

the population of Indonesia as a whole is at significant livelihoods based on migration (Box 13)

risk According to a recent study 50% of Indonesians

are either poor or at significant risk of becoming poor An indirect outcome of the 'shock' of krismon with

in the near future.'7 Box 12 illustrates the vulnerability very serious, long term implications, has been the loss of

of the rural poor to macro-economic factors beyond access to family planning: subsidies for government-

their control, which they do not understand, and could supplied services were cut and many of the poor now

neither foresee nor prepare for. find them too expensive (Box 14).

Box 12: Country's financial crisis quickly translates to survival problems for the poor

The poor, by their own criteria of poverty, make up 91 per cent of the households in the small rice-growinghamlet near Garut, WestJava These households are dependent on income earned as small farmers, sharecroppers,agricultural labourers and circular migrants. The monetary crisis (krismon) has had a severe impact on theirstandard of living. This is because the majority of households have to buy rice throughout the year, despite theagricultural base of the local economy. Many could not afford rice when the price moved upward to Rp. 3,500per kilogram and they were forced to eat cassava. Nor could they afford to purchase the usual amounts ofother goods like frying oil, garlic and soap.

The different groups in the community felt the impact in different ways, depending on their source of livelihood.Small farmers and sharecroppers were particularly affected by the sharp rise in the cost of fertiliser and pesticideAgricultural labourers suffered since they continued to receive the same daily wage, which was then Rp. 3,000and insufficient to buy even one kilogram of rice. They were further affected by the fact that small farmers andsharecroppers could no longer afford to provide them with meals in the traditional way because of the highprice of rice. Other labourers who did house building and repair work in surrounding villages were soon outof work since very few people could now afford to have improvements made to their homes.

Meanwhile, circular migrants who earned a living as street vendors in Jakarta found that a large proportion oftheir customers disappeared when retrenched factory and construction workers returned to their homes outsidethe urban area. The purchasing power of those who remained dropped considerably as lower-income Jakartahouseholds themselves struggled to make ends meet. Many of these circular migrants returned to West Java andremained there without employment for some time, while those who managed to survive in Jakarta hadrelatively little money to bring home.

Source: Sustainable Livelihood Site Report, WestJava, 2000.

17 Lanit Pritchett, Asep Suryadi, Sudarno Sumarto, Quantifying Vulnerability to Poverty A Proposed Measure, With Applications to Indoniesia SMERU

Working Paper, May 2000

34

Findings: Vulnerability Contexts Chapter Four

Box 13 : Shock Pushes Urban Poor Closer to the Edge of Survival

Lacking not only capital but also educational qualifications and skills, the majority of the people of the kampung

(poor urban neighbourhood) studied in Surabaya earn their livelihood in the informal sector, where returns tolabour are small. They work as becak (pedicab) drivers, scavengers dealing in scrap metal and other waste,

roadside sellers of cooked foods, small-scale retailers in the local market and vendors of cigarettes and foodsnacks on the railway station some 500 meters from the kampung. A small number of men are employed as

truck, taxi and mini-bus drivers and occasionally as construction workers.

Households have always been vulnerable to external shocks like the flooding of their homes after heavy rain

and threats of eviction by local authorities. But the comparative stability of their livelihoods was much moreseriously shaken by the krismon. Households found that on the one hand their own living expenses increased,while on the other the purchasing power of their regular customers declined drastically. Most had to dispose of

savings in the form of jewellery and household possessions to survive.

Roadside vendors are affected by the reduced purchasing power of the wider community, pedicab drivers relyon customers whose finances are often as limited as their own, scavengers survive on the waste discarded by

businesses and better-off households, and construction workers depend on the provision of work by foremen.Foremen in turn are dependent on the existence of building projects, which have stopped or slowed down inresponse to economic factors beyond the understanding of the people of the Kampung.

Source: Sustaminable LivelihoodSiteReport, Surabaya, 2000.

Box 14: The poor say they can no longer afford contraception

"Before the 1990s family planning methods were free and health workers used to often visit our village topromote their use Women were so afraid that they used to hide whenever the health workers came. They were

afraid of being forced to accept contraceptives, particularly the ones that are inserted into women's bodies.They had seen their neighbours or relatives suffering and getting sick after such thlings happened in the past Atthat time the contraceptive injection cost Rp. 750 for a 3-month dose, and the monthly pills were available freeof charge

By 1995 people began to understand the benefits of family planning and many women voluntarily started usingcontraceptives. At that time the injection cost was Rp. 6000 for 3 months and the pills for a month cost Rp.1500.But most women in poor households have stopped using contraceptives since 1997, when the krismon (financialcrisis) hit the country The injection is now too costly for us (Rp.10,000 plus the cost of a day's wages andtransport money to go to get it). Even the pills are Rp.3000 for a month's supply. How can we spend that muchfor contraceptives when we can't buy enough rice to feed our children? We are seeing more births per year inthe village since the last 2-3 years."

Women's group explaining their Trend Analysis. Note that the poorest 9% households in this communityincluded women-headed households, mostly widows, who each have 5-12 children.

Source: Sustainable Livelihood Site Report, WestJava, 2000.

35

Chapter IFouir Tidings: Vulnerability Contens

4.5 Seasonal Stress inundating their crops and fields during the rainy season

from October to January. Poor drainage due to silted-

Communities with predominantly natural resource-based up rivers means that the water stands in the fields for

livelihoods are subject to seasonal cycles of stress, when days, rotting and ruining rice crops. The poorest who

poor households find their incomes dwindling, meagre are daily wage workers get no work while the fields are

assets disappearing, debts growing and hunger and flooded, and sharecroppers lose their investments for

malnutrition setting in. The poor rarely have protection the crop season (See Figure 2). Adding to the stress is the

against these seasonal stress periods due to lack of increase in rice prices at this time because food stocks

alternative sources of income and savings. They are from the March-April harvest have already been

especially vulnerable when shocks have forced them to exhausted.

liquidate assets or savings. Various types of seasonal stress

emerge from a livelihoods perspective. The rice-growing community in West Java also

experienced two distinct periods of hunger every year,

For example, poor fisher households in the Lombok in the month before each harvest, when the previous

site, like the poor in coastal fishing communities harvest has been exhausted. (See Figure 6).

throughout Indonesia, experience the most difficult

period during the rainy season (in Lombok from Pobylmplimcaons

December to March), when seas are rough, storms

frequent and poor fishers dare not venture into the sea Social safety programmes could be much more effective

in their little sampans (traditional, non-powered fishing if they were designed to target assistance to poor

boats). No fishing activity means no daily income and communities during their periods of known, annual

therefore no capacity to buy the day's staple food. stress, with activities that specifically address the type of

Alternative earning opportunities are few and the seekers short-term need identified by communities. In some

too many. Undernutrition during the period exacts its cases, food-for-work programmes at this time of the

toll on the most vulnerable. Women reported that during year could be useful assistance for the poorest local

this period measles and diarrhea become endemic in households. The non-stress periods could then be used

the community and some children die every year.(See to analyse with the communities the underlying causes

Figure 5). of seasonal stress, and develop alternative, longer-term

ways of addressing them. These might include social

The West Kalimantan community in the study (and many protection measures, or new small and mediumother communities in Indonesia situated on low-lying enterprises and associated market mechanisms

lands at the foot of hills) is beleaguered by floods appropriate to the seasonal niche.

36

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E _ ven the poorest people have assets or resourcesupon whiclh they depend. Indeed, lacking

money, they have to make use of several types

of capital in order to survive. Thus the attempt to make

livelihoods more secure and sustainable has to build upon

an understanding of the assets that people already have,

and how they are used. Failure to do this can lead to

policies which, often inadvertently, undermine or destroy

Findings: the basis of peoples' livelihoods, or make them morevulnerable

A ssets for The SL framework draws attention to five types ofcapital upon whlich poor peoples' livelilhoods depend:

human, natural, financial, physical, and social. This section

Livelihoods describes the study findings regarding access to these typesof capital in the four study sites. It focuses especially on

the ways in which poor peoples' assets are affected by

government policies. At the end of the section, some

figures prepared by the research team serve to summarise

the principal assets and deficits noted by study participants

at each of sites, and place the characteristics of the

different sites in a comparative perspective

39

Chapter iHve lir:eings: Assets foi PLiveNhoulds

5.1 Human Capital The rural poor report frequently being told that medicines

are out of stock at primary health centres. According to

Human capital represents the skills, knowledge, ability to them, having to buy medicines in the market defeats the

labour and good health that together enable people to purpose of going to the health centre. They also feel that

pursue different livelihood strategies and achieve their the medicines provided by the Puskesmas (health centre)

livelihood objectives. It is one of the types of capital are often ineffective, while better quality medicines

most deeply affected by government policies and available elsewhere are beyond the financial reach of the

programmes: investments in human capital through poor. (See Box 16).

education, training and health services tend to pay off,

while failure to invest, or inappropriate investments, have Reliable sources of clean water for domestic purposes

serious consequences. are often unavailable. The urban poor have to buy it

from private vendors which places a further financial

In the study sites, assets noted by the participants included strain on them.

ready access to schools (especially in Surabaya), skills in

fishing or fish processing and marketing (Lombok), ability Good family planning (KB) services are lacking in both

to migrate in search of work, and the consequent rural and urban areas. Women prioritised this as their

broadening of personal experience (West Java) and skills foremost problem at several sites. Factors discouraging

training from NGOs (West Kalimantan). In several sites, the use of any available family planning services by the

there was an interest in family planning (if/ when poor include.

appropriate services are available) and, in general, a

willingness and determination to work hard to improve o Relatively high cost of contraceptives since the financial

family well-being. There were also notable deficits in crisis. (See Box 14).

human capital formation, described below. o Lack of choice in the forms of contraception

provided by the Puskesmas.

5.1.1 Inadequate Health and Family Planning o Lack of extension services at the lowest community

Services level (the RT or hamlet), to provide information and

dispel concerns inhibiting acceptance.

Many people are so poor that they cannot afford the o Women's justifiable objections to mass campaigns

charge (around Rp. 1,500) for treatment at a Community or pressure by the government of the type common

Health Centres (Puskesmas), yet the allocation of health in the past.

care cards (Kartu Sehat), which enable the very poor to o Limited awareness in many communities of the

obtain free Puskesmas treatment, has remained limited. implications of constant population growth for

The services offered by Puskesmas in both urban and future livelihoods.

rural areas tend to be of poor quality and do not meet

community needs, to the point where a visit to a Pocyirmpphcatons

Puskesmas is often not worth the cost of time and

transport to get there. Sickness therefore becomes a The lack of interaction of the poor with public health

major household crisis. (See Box 15). and family planning services observed in this study (and

40

Findings: Assets for Livelihoods Chapter Five

corroborated by other consultations with the poor in centres as a single-choice standard service. Moreover, it

recent years) raises doubts about the basis for designing is seen as a service only for women. Poor communities

them and the reliability of available health and family need mobile family planning services that offer both

planning statistics The poor can seldom afford distant women and men information about possible methods

services due to the multiple additional costs of and a choice amongst methods. There is sufficient

transportation, time and energy involved. Yet, local evidence from development experience to show that

traditional healers (Dukun) make their living from the given proper information, choice, and flexibility regarding

sicknesses of the poor The poor said that they often the means to pay, poor communities make good use of

choose the local Dukun's medicines rather than a visit to services that they really want.

the Puskesmas with full knowledge that the Dukun's

potions are not as effective as modern medicines. 5.1.2 Unaffordable and Inadequate Education

Diverting more resources to mobile services (e.g. and Skills Training

puskesmas keliling) could make services more accessible

to the poor. Most participants reported the general assumption that

the higher the individual's level of education, the better

Lack of information about family planning options as the job that one can obtain. They do believe that education

well as high costs are also obstacles that could be Is an asset, and continue to invest in it to the extent their

overcome. Villagers describe the current situation at health resources allow.

Box 15: Illness aggravates vulnerability

A family with eight children, none of whom is yet working, lives close to the site where scavengers sort out thewaste materials they have collected. The family is dependent on the father's job as a becak driver and themother's employment as a small-scale food vendor. Recently one of the children developed severe bronchitisbecause of polluted air from waste materials. Since medication was beyond the scope of the local governmenthealth post (Puskesmas), the child had to spend several weeks in a local government hospital, where treatmentcost Rp. 2,000,000. To pay the bill the father had to borrow from wherever he could Although neighbours lentmoney without interest, the loans had to be repaid fairly quickly. The father was ultimately forced to borrowfrom moneylenders. Today the family is deeply in debt, which has thrust them further into poverty.

Source: Sustainable Livelhood Site Report, Surabaya, 2000.

Box 16: Service without medicines not worth the trip

When they are ill, most people at the WestJava site rely on the services of the nearest community health centre(Puskesmas), which is located in an adjacent village less than 1.5 km away. The charge for an examination is Rp1,400 but public transport to get there and back costs Rp.1,000. The main complaint made by the communityis not the services offered by the Puskesmas but the cost of the medicines that patients have to purchase Somepeople prefer the services of a man with some medical training and experience as a hospital orderly He lives ina village some two kilometres away and adjusts his charges (which include herbal and other medicines) to thepatient's economic position. All members of the community have great confidence in his treatments

Source: Sustainable Livelilood Site Report, WestJava, 2000.

41

Chapter Five Finhdings: Assets for ILivelihoods

Many of the poor households in the sites studied reported not equip them with specific job skills for immediate

they cannot afford to send their children to government employment.

high schools because of high enrolment and monthly

tuition fees (SPP), the cost of books and uniforms and Women from poor households in both urban and rural

additional money required regularly for internal school areas tend to be less educated, and feel they lack the skills

tests, government examinations and the like. Apart from that would enable them to obtain better employment.

the question of cost, children from poor households can Many are idle for months because of seasonal fluctuations

rarely gain access to government high schools as they in livelihood sources, while others work long hours in

usually cannot reach the minimum passing grade required occupations with low returns to contribute what they

for admission, due to the low quality of their primary can to household expenses. (See Box 18).

education. (See Box 17). Moreover, their experience tends

to show that those who succeed in getting through high Private courses to improve skills for young people and

school have difficulty in finding what they feel is a women are usually expensive, while skills training is not

worthwhile job because their high school education does provided to the poor by the government. NGO assistance

Box 17: Low quality of primary education available to the poor

Very few people in the West Java site are educated beyond primary school level, and relatively few of the

present generation of teenagers attend junior secondary school (SMP). It is ironic that there is a government

SMP less than 400 meters from the WestJava hamlet but local children have never been able to qualify academically

to enter the school because of the low quality of the primary education that they receive in their village school.

In any case most parents would be unable to pay enrolment and monthly school fees and to buy books and

other necessities. The SMP caters for children from local towns where primary education is better.

A few children from better-off households attend private SMPs elsewhere, but the costs are high. Some

continue their education at pesantren (religious studies schools) elsewhere in the subdistrict, but once again few

can afford the cost. Access to senior high school (SMA) is even more limited. At the present time five boys and

girls from the West Java site attend a pesantren at SMA level in a neighbouring village. 'Where education is

concerned, there is no differentiation between sons and daughters. With no opportunities to continue their

studies, teenaged boys tend to join fathers and older brothers who earn a living in Jakarta, while girls usually

marry by the age of 16.

An attempt was made recently to establish an Open SMP in the government SMP close to the hamlet. Under

this system teachers help children not eligible for the regular classes to follow a special curriculum in afternoon

hours twice a week. Results have not been encouraging as local children feel that paying pupils look down on

them, the teachers give them very little attention, and the services are poor. Motivation among both parents and

children is low, although they believe it would improve if the quality were better. Parents would like access to

scholarships, based solely on the criterion of poverty, to enable their children to attend the regular SMP. People

reported that the government's Social Safety Net UPS) programme scholarships were not distributed fairly at

village level since noi-ie were allocated to hamlet children, even though it is the poorest hamlet in the village.

Children from several well-off families, particularly those of village officials, did receive scholarships.

Source: Sustainable Livelihood Site Report, WestJava, 2000.

42

Findings: Assets for Livelihoods Chapter Five

in this area is highly appreciated by poor communities, opportunities for economic growth and improved

as was seen at the Kalimantan site. livelihoods.

PoliCYb27pliCd1on The findings in this study point to the importance of

Free quality education for the poor, and affordable skills governments at every level giving priority to appropriate,

training for work have long been identified as a affordable and accessible education and skills training for

fundamental platform for poverty reduction 18 The poor children and adults, enabling them to meet the

perpetuation of socio-economic barriers to quality demands of economic growth and global competition,

education and skills training will simply prolong and as well as their own empowerment. Since children from

exacerbate the widening gap between educated elites and poor families rarely proceed to the higher secondary level

the under-educated poor. Without investment in human of schools, targeted interventions are needed at the

capital, the demands for skilled, technically trained workers primary and junior high school levels to link curricula

for a globalising Indonesian economy will not be met, with training in job skills relevant to employment

and the country and its poor will miss out on new opportunities in local job markets.

Box 18 : Paucity of altemative eaming skills and opportunity to develop them

Very few people in the WestJava site have any special skills beyond those relevant to rice growing. Unemployed

women, especially the wives of circular migrants, would like to have regular work close to the hamlet and want

to acquire skills to enable them to obtain jobs and improve household income. At present there is no form of

home industry within the hamlet or in the wider region that could provide jobs, and the women believe some

outside help is needed to formulate a plan and provide training. In 1993 several women worked in a factory

that made bamboo chopsticks in a nearby village but it became bankrupt and closed after three months In

another agricultural hamlet in the same area women manually stitch together pieces of cloth supplied by a

Bandung manufacturer to make children's toys. The piece rates are low, at Rp. 3,000 ($ 0.30) for approximately

nine hours' work, making this type of off-farm employment unattractive, even though it can be done at home

without any special equipment.Source: Sustainable Livellhood Site Report, Westjava, 2000.

The poor in the coastal fishing communities studied in Lombok dread the 4 months of rainy season every year

(See Figure 5) when the weather does not permit fishing trips to the sea. Since they live on daily incomes from

fishing, the rainy season brings unemployment, hunger, and indebtedness. Wage labour opportunities are rare in

the rainy season. Only 5 families out of 167 in the hamlet own agricultural land (See Figure 10) and even they

have started selling their harvest to commercial harvesters who bring their agicultural labourers from outside

the community. Unable to afford much formal education and lacking skills besides fishing or fish processing,

during the rainy season the poor depend on occasionally available agricultural work in fields 6-8 kilometres

from their homes, or go to cities to search for construction jobs They realise that their lack of alternative job

skills binds them to their poverty but don't see what they can possibly do about it.

Source: Sustainable Livelihood Site Report, Lombok, 2000.

18 Seefore.xarnple Ami.irtv Set,, Bieyond itheCrtts Developren rtStrjtegictinAsi 1999, InstituteofSouitheastAsi.inStudies

43

Chapter Five Findings: Assets for Livelihoods

5.2 Natural Capital forest, as well as agricultural land and fruit trees for food

and income (West Kalimantan), and open access to the

Assets noted in the study sites include good quality sea and beaches, as well as (limited) agricultural land for

groundwater from wells (Surabaya), access to river sand employment during the rainy season when sea fishing

for construction and sale, plus pond water for fish must be halted (Lombok).

farming and irrigation (West Java), access to community

Box 19: Damaging potential of locally inappropriate, didactic extension services

Trend analysis with men and women at the West Kalimantan site revealed that annual rice yield has now fallen toone third of what it used to be 10 years ago. The reasons include increasingly frequent flooding of the rice fieldsin the rainy season; a threefold increase (their own estimate) in rats eating standing crops, and reduction in soilfertility. In 1990, they could catch up to 10 kilograms of frogs and 5 kilograms of fish per night. Now they getonly about 3 kilograms of each per night. Daily yield of rubber resin now is half of what they could get in1990.

In the early 1990s the agriculture extension service introduced hybrid rice seedlings and pushed farmers to plantrice crops twice a year, in violation of customary (adat) regulations. Chemical pesticides were also provided, asthe hybrids were more susceptible to disease than traditional varieties. According to farmers the pesticidesreduced soil fertility as they killed desirable microbes and worms in the soil that used to keep it fertile. Earlier,rats used to be controlled through an annual community-wide rat-killing campaign before planting. Those thatescaped were eliminated naturally when the fields no longer supplied food after the single harvest was over.With crops twice a year, the rodents never die out naturally. They multiply throughout the year and are nowbeyond the community's control despite the use of rat poison.In the past, pest control and soil enrichment were achieved by the customary (adat) practice of burning post-harvest vegetation in the field. The burn eliminated pest eggs and larvae in the soil. Organic matter was alsocomposted in the fields in preparation for the next year's harvest. With the use of pesticides, rodenticides andtwice-yearly crops, stubble burning is no longer practised and there is no time for composting. Study participantsalso said that the frequent flooding of rice fields (brought on by over-felling of upstream forests) has spreadpoison (chemical pesticides) to rivers and streams, killing frog eggs and fish fingerlings, reducing their subsequentnumbers.

Local species of rubber trees were cut down in the early 1990s and replaced by hybrid varieties given byagricultural extension workers, along with credit for the necessary fertilisers. The hybrids produced more resinper tree and the yield increased initially. However, they were more susceptible to termites and disease and theirroots could not withstand the strong winds common in the region. By 2000, many new rubber trees had diedof disease or been uprooted during storms, with the result that daily yield of rubber resin in 2000 is about halfof what people could get in 1990. As stated by a bitter villager "the extension worker lied. The new variety wasnot better in any way than our traditional one ..." (see Figure 2).

People of the hamlet want to revive their traditional methods of agriculture and move away from advice givenby the agriculture extension service. But old people who knew about them have passed away and the currentgeneration has lost access to traditional knowledge and practices. The human capital embedded in the traditional,locally adapted farming system having been lost, the villagers must now rely upon outsiders: an NGO active inthe area has been requested by them to provide training in organic agro-forestry.

Source: Sustamable Livelihood Site Report, Kalimantan, 2000.

44

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Chapter Five Tindings: Assets for [Liveilheo:Ds

Box 20: Diminishing access to land

One very obvious trend in the West Java hamlet, and one that partly explains the poverty of local households,is the decrease in the size of the land holdings to which cultivators have access. This trend is traceable to the highbirth rate in conjunction with the traditional inheritance system, which gives an equal share of property to allheirs, male and female alike. New land is not being acquired by local households. Ownership of land in thevillage is increasingly going into the hands of the rich in nearby cities. With marriages outside the hamlet, somemen have settled elsewhere but retained their holdings in the hamlet. Sale of land does take place but since localpeople cannot afford to buy, it is sold to family members who have moved to urban areas or to outsiders.

These factors have led to considerable fragmentation of land ownership within poor households. Today thebiggest landowner in the hamlet has only 0.85 hectares of irrigated rice field. Associated with this trend is thefact that the number of sharecroppers has increased in the last couple of years while the average area that eachcultivates has become smaller. The reason is that at the time of the financial crisis, some landowners allowedunemployed sons and sons-in-law to sharecrop parts of their land. The result has been a 'sharing out' of accessto land resources and of poverty. A decrease in the size of families and hence in the number of heirs throughFamily Planning would be necessary to slow down the decline in the size of holdings.

Source: Sustanable Livelihood Site Report, Westjava, 2000.

Natural capital is, of course, subject to deterioration. As PolcyImnplications

previously noted, soil fertility is declining in many areas

because population pressure has led to constant cultivation Government policies on resource utilisation have rarelyof the same land for many decades. Box 20 illustrates taken sustainability into consideration-A major lesson

the problems that arise when population growth is from past experience has been the damage to local

combined with inequitable land ownership. Also, environmental systems and livelihoods when agricultural

traditional soil enrichment practices have been extension services apply standard solutions to all

abandoned as a result of newer agricultural practices communities, regardless of their appropriateness to local

propagated by government extension services along with conditions. Top-down instructions have also enforced

pressure for compliance by farmers (see box 19). At the compliance with extension advice in the past, compelling

study sites in West Java and West Kalimantan, people farmers in some areas to grow nothing but rice, plant

estimate that less water is available from springs and rivers two crops instead of one per year, and replace traditional

than formerly, mainly because of up-stream crop varieties with high yielding hybrids.

deforestation. At the urban site in Surabaya good quality

of ground water in public wells is now threatened by Examples from West Kalimantan (Box 19) illustrate vividly

infiltration of surface water polluted by industrial waste the need for agriculture extension services to use

approaches that better respect local knowledge and

The poor are acutely aware that a decline in the quality practices, including those based in tradition or adat.

and extent of common property resources like forests Extension advice must be grounded in regionally-based

and marine fisheries has occurred because of excessive participatory research into what makes for sustainable

exploitation, usually by outsiders (See Figures 7, 8 and 9). agriculture in each locality. Another obvious

Deterioration in the quality and quantity of natural recommendation is that agricultural policies should stop

resources to which the poor have access is a pressing dictating what crops farmers should grow - as was done

problem in most parts of Indonesia. in the past.

48

Findings: Assets for Livelihoods Chapter Five

5.3 Financial Capital administrative structure or government co-operatives.

Credit sources are needed even more urgently nowSignificant assets noted by study participants in the study because poor households have been unable to build upsites included the presence of private money lenders savings in the form of jewellery, livestock and the like towilling to advance credit for daily repayment, a functioning replace savings which were totally depleted during thePKK savings (arisan) system (Surabaya); daily credit from worst times of the monetary crisis. Credit sources thatthe village shop (West Java), savings & credit groups use collateral for security are not usable by the poor in(arisan), Credit Union, rubber tappers' co-operative and urban or rural areas. Generally, poor people need cheap,scholarship assistance in West Kalimantan, and financial small-scale credit for survival and unexpected expenses.contributions from working children (Lombok). These They also need small credit on a daily or weekly basis assources of capital and credit are too limited to meet the working capital. In very cohesive communities, familyfinancial needs of most communities. and community ties may make borrowing on credit

unnecessary. People may also resort to pawning valuablesAccess to informal sources of credit was mentioned in as an alternative to borrowing. (See Box 21).several of the communities as a valued asset. All the same,

as economic conditions deteriorate, poor people have PoJicylnplintions

more difficulty obtaining credit and loans for anypurpose, and must turn to moneylenders who charge Credit provided through the government administrativehigh interest rates. Generally the study participants were structure or government co-operatives rarely if evernot able to access credit provided through the government reaches the poor or meets their needs, even when they

Box. 21: Rural poor excluded from rural credit, urban poor depend on money-lenders

There is nr-credit programme designed specifically to help small farmers like those in WestJava Indeed, thereis no policy that even recognises their existence. The only government programme that provides farm credit inWestJava is Kredit Usaha Tani (KUT or Farm Credit). Because of the way in which the programme has beendesigned and carried out, only relatively large landowners have access to it. Those cultiviting less than 0.5 ha ofland are ignored. Those who cultivate their own small holdings or sharecrop the land of others need cheap,small-scale credit as working capital. These cultivators need money to buy fertillser and pesticide and to paywages for field preparation. Sharecroppers usually borrow from the owner of the land they are cultivating,while small owners obtain inputs on credit from suppliers, who charge highler prices than they would for cashtransactions , .. :

West Java households have no access to formal credit sources for non-agricultural purposes. Close familyrelationships withlin the hamlet have, however, created a certain trust and social cohesion that makes possibleinterest-free borrowing from relatives, neighbours or friends. When this fails, people pawn clothing and otherpossessions at the government pawnshop in a nearby town. Most run up debts at the one and only local shop,which allows customers to owe up to Rp. 10,000 for as long as three months. No interest is charged but shopprices are somewhat higher than those in local towns. Money-lenders play no role in the local economy becausemost households do not have a regular source of income

In the urban areas where the poor live, the need for credit is equally pressing. A large proportion of householdsin the study site in Surabaya Municipality depend on money-lenders. Compared to rural areas such as WestJava,kinship ties are weaker in the city and there is less social cohesion, but daily incomes from jobs like roadsidevending enable urban households to pay the exorbitant interest rates demanded by money-lenders

Sources Sustainable LivelhhoodSiteReports, WestJava andSurabaya, 2000.

49

Chapter Five Findings: Assets for Livelihoods

Box 22: Goveznment czedit programme 'for the poor'?

PDM-DKE was a capital credit assistance component of the government's Social Safety Net UPS) programmeimplemented during the financial crisis period in Indonesia. Poor women in the fishing village study site inLombok defined PDM-DKE as 'loan facility available from Pak Kepala Dusun' (the sub-village chief). Poor

men and women mentioned several other forms of assistance that were received in the village, i.e. dug well,tube well, public toilet, housing repair credit. No one knew where they came from. The Kepala Dusun laterexplained that the source was the government's Fisheries Department. All development assistance enters thecommunity only through the Kepala Dusun. He selectively informs only those who would receive it, and hedecides on them himself. No one dares question him for fear of being considered greedy or impolite and

because 'he has influence with higher authorities'.Source: Sustainabe LivelihoodSiteReport; Lombok 2000.

are the designated target group. (See Box 22). Locally- who boost the local economy. In each case, however,

initiated and run micro-credit programmes (such as that deficits in physical capital contribute to the vulnerability

in the West Kalimantan site (See Box 34 and Section 3.4.2) of livelihoods.

seem to have the best chance of meeting needs of the

poor. The poor everywhere need direct access to small Site studies revealed essential irrigation and drainage

loans without collateral, red tape and inconvenience, for infrastructure is in poor condition in many places, reducing

daily household necessities and not just for business the yields of farming or animal husbandry. In poor rural

undertakings. It is here that NGOs could play a role. communities absence of drinking water facilities can

mean walking some distance to a natural spring several5.4 Physical Capital times a day. In poor urban areas poor households may

have to buy drinking water from vendors at exorbitant

In a city like Surabaya, poor people share in access to prices. The poor quality of essentials such as clean water

common physical resources such as roads, markets and and sanitation reduce the effectiveness of poor people's

trading places, hospitals and health centres, storage facilities livelihood efforts by taking up valuable time and effort,

for scavengers, as well as public washing and toilet facilities. and depleting human capital through infection and disease.

Some also turn private physical assets, such as housing, (See Box 23).

into a source of livelihood, by renting rooms to seasonal

migrants for extra income. In rural West Java too, The poor are particularly vulnerable to the degradation

participants mentioned good asphalt roads and of physical infrastructure because they do not have the

transportation, bore wells, health care facilities within means to go elsewhere or purchase essentials from

reach, and public toilet and washing facilities. Tractors alternative sources. Even when infrastructural

are a private asset that improve livelihoods for some, improvements reach the community, only the better-off

but cause losses (reduced earning opportunities) for others. sections may be able to benefit from them due to steep

In West Kalimantan, good roads and transportation, costs of obtaining connections - usually required at one

schools, electricity supply (to 40% of households) and a time and in hard cash. Besides economic reasons, legal

rubber processing machine are valued physical capital. complications related to land tenure make ownership of

In Lombok, all-weather roads permit movement even essential infrastructural assets difficult particularly for the

in the rainy season, and local holy sites attract visitors urban poor. (See Box 24).

50

Findings: Assets for Livelihoods Chapter Five

Pohcylnipbcatons planning processes so that poor people are involved in, and

benefit from, the labour and development undertaken.Government agencies need to give priority to the provision

and maintenance of the physical infrastructure on which the Necessary utilities such as electricity and water should be

poor in particular depend, such as those that can overcome made available to the poor on terms they can afford (such

water shortages in the dry season and flooding in the wet as payments for hook-up spread over longer periods) The

season. Where maintenance is within local community provision of urban utilities needs to take into account the

capacity, funds and technical assistance will be better targeted landlessness of the poor, and relax requirements for property

if they are provided in consultation with the poor, who ownership as a precondition for utilities. Alternatively,

could receive wages and gain experience from the work of innovative ways can be found to accommodate the poor,

repair and upgrading. Where maintenance is beyond local such as neighbourhood trusteeship.

capacity, larger schemes should still engage in participatory

Box 23: Physical infrastructure in a farm-forest area

The study hamlet in West Kalimantan suffers from the dual problems of wet-season flooding and a severeshortage of domestic water supply in the dry season. Rainfall is very heavy in certain months but this is not thereal problem. The hamlet is situated at the foot of a range of steep mountains. In earlier decades, when onlylocal people had access to mountain slopes, flooding occurred occasionally but on a relatively small scale.Nowadays, sedimentation of rivers is increasing as a consequence of deforestation in the uplands. Since thenatural drainage system cannot cope with the increased quantity of water, fields and settlements are oftenflooded for several weeks every year. In 1983 work began on the construction of a weir to control the flow ofexcess water but it was never finished by the contractor and so has never functioned. With increasing deforestation,fields are frequently inundated to such a depth that rice cannot mature and crops are sometimes completely lost.Even so, the government has made no attempt to provide flood control infrastructure that would benefitcultivators in this and the other hamlets in the area.

While floods present a constant threat in the wet season, the shortage of water for all purposes is a growingproblem during the dry season. Households catch rainwater in tanks for drinking during the wet season butdepend on local river water at other times for domestic purposes. For part of the year, however, the river fallsso low that water is too muddy to drink. Hamlet residents have to walk some three kilometres to a spring inanother hamlet to obtain fresh water. Once again, no attempt has been made by government agencies to supplydeep wells or other drinking water facilities for local households. Like flood control, the provision of all-seasondrinking water sources is beyond the capacity of the community itself.

Source: Sustainable Livelihood Site Report, West Kalimantan, 2000.

Box 24: Physical infrastructure in a poor urban area

There has been almost no expansion in public infrastructure in the Surabaya study site, even though populationhas continued to increase. In 1983 the community filled in the disused railway track close to which they live tomake a path. Electricity for household purposes has been made available by the government, although severalhouseholds in the lowest income category cannot afford the cost of the monthly bill, let alone the initial connectioncharge. The settlement has nine wells from which water is pumped for household purposes. Sanitation presentsa major problem because of the large number of people living in the area. The community itself built publiclatrines and enclosures for bathing and washing clothes adjacent to five of the nine wells, but they are insufficientfor the number of people who use them. Apart from electricity, the local government has provided noinfrastructure of any kind, its argument being that these people are 'squatters' on government land and aretherefore not entitled to any 'benefits'.

Source: Sustainable Livelihood Site Report, Surabaya, 2000.

51

Chapter Five Findings: Assets for Livelihoods

5.5 Social Capital Social capital assets noted in Surabaya include prayer and

religious teaching groups that build confidence and create

Social capital is embedded in community relations, social social cohesion, as well as a functioning PKK which

norms and practices. It can be viewed as a kind of social supplies information. In West Java, besides prayer

glue which holds people and institutions together, enabling meetings and community support for funeral expenses,

them to achieve collective and individual goals. participants noted the presence of the crop broker

Box 25: Yono: Profile of Poor Urban Youth

One aspect of the Surabaya site that sets it apart from the other study sites is the number of young men sittingaround in front of houses at all times of the day. When asked about their activities, they invariably reply: "I don'thave a job". Yono's experiences illustrate some of the basic problems as well as the consequences of thissituation.

Yono's parents moved to this kampung from a village in East Java many years ago. Yono, now aged 21, wasborn here, as were his three younger sisters. His parents were engaged in small-scale food vending but byeconomising on household expenditure they managed to put Yono through high school. Like many poorpeople, they firmly believed that the higher a person's level of education, the easier it would be for him to finda good job. Yono's father died four years ago and one of his sisters is already married. Today his mothersupports Yono and his other sisters by working as an itinerant seller of clothing in a number of local kampongs.One of his sisters earns a small amount of money every day by helping a neighbour prepare the ingredients fora food stall. The other sister is in junior high school.

Yono is unwilling either to help his mother sell clothing or to enter the food-vending business himself. He feelsthat his high-school education entitles him to 'something better'. But he does not have practical skills that wouldenable him to obtain regular employment at a reasonable wage. He would like to get a factory job but has noparticular skills that would give him an advantage over the thousands of other young male applicants. Lack ofmoney and connections exclude him from employment in the government public service. He does not want towork as an unskilled labourer in a car repair workshop as a couple of his friends with junior high certificates do,because the work is unattractive and advancement is slow. His family lacks the capital to launch him in larger-scale trade.

With nothing to do all day and in the evenings, Yono has taken to gambling and drinking. His mother, under theimpression that she is helping him to meet people who might find him a job, gives him as much money as shecan. He frequently visits friends in other kampongs who are also unemployed and he has often joined them inpetty crimes like stealing cigarettes and money from roadside stalls. He has already been in trouble with thepolice more than once because of his involvement in brawls with other youths. One of his friends from thesame kampong is now in jail because of the part he played in a murder when he was drunk. Yono feels verypessimistic about his future but can see no way out of his present situation.

Yono's mother is willing to invest her hard-earned money (financial capital) to help her son build the contactsand networks (social capital) that will help him to find a job. Despairing of the future, Yono's involvement indrinking and crime will cause not only financial losses to his family, but a reduction in their social capital too -putting at risk the family's good reputation, which enables them to live peacefully among neighbours, and givesthem access to informal credit and other forms of social support when needed. Multiplied a thousand times,Yono's experience is both cause and consequence of social deterioration on a larger scale.

Source: Sustainable Livelihood Site Repoit, Surabaya, 2000.

52

Findings: Assets for Livelihoods Chapter Five

(bandar) who protects small farmers from risk, although and forestry. The theft of private assets like sheep, chicken

he also increases the vulnerability of the poorest by and fish raised in ponds is increasing. In coastal Lombok,

excluding them from wage work. Traditional social as noted earlier, the divorce rate and desertion of wives

institutions provide social and economic support in West and children by husbands has been rising, a trend which

Kalimantan. Lombok participants noted social cohesion local people relate to growing poverty in the area.

among the poor, but tensions within households, since Divorced and abandoned women and their children face

men divorce easily, leaving women and children not only material deprivation, but also social isolation

vulnerable. and exclusion. (See Figure 7).

While cultural norms seldom change quickly, social ties PohcylnpLhcations

can become fragile under stress, and community traditions

are vulnerable to deterioration if they are not recognised The deteriorating social conditions mentioned by

and nurtured appropriately. A prime example is the participants are part of the unrecorded or 'shadow' costs

forestry-dependent West Kalimantan community, where related to poverty that are seldom acknowledged and

illegal logging activities by a forest concessionaire certainly not calculated But they draw considerable public

company has struck at the age-old adat traditions of forest and private resources and are perhaps the most costly

conservation. In 1998 the P.T. Gelora Agung officials of all undertakings linked with poverty. They comprise

reportedly lured some local poor villagers with attractive the efforts and costs borne by government, the private

cash incentives for cutting high timber quality trees in the sector, communities and especially poor people

community-owned protected forest area. The villagers themselves as they respond to, and try to repair, the

did so, in violation of adat regulations. Violent social negative effects of poverty.

ostracization and intra-community conflict resulted from

the incident The errant villagers finally agreed to pay stiff In all of the communities we studied we were struck by

fines imposed by the adat leaders. The villagers reporting evidence of, or reference to, the 'shadow' costs of dealing

the incident opined that in the face of declining returns with the damage caused by poverty. The list included.

from the land (see Box 9) they fear that even adat laws

are now losing their power to hold the community in a . the human cost of unhealthy mothers and children,

symbiotic relationship with its environment. exploited and/or abandoned women and girls,

malnutrition, despair, anger and lost opportunity

Low levels of social capital are thus both cause and . costs to families of mothers lost to unhealthy

consequence of the vulnerability of the poor. The case pregnancies or poor health services, and fathers lost

study of an urban youth (Box 25), illustrates these to illness and death from hard labour and unsafe

connections. Among urban youth there are many more work

cases of disorderly behaviour, physical fighting, . cost to government of health problems suffered by

drunkenness and petty crime than some ten years ago. poor people, unprevented and untreated because of

(See Figure 4). In rural areas too, this study recorded inadequate healthcare, nutrition and quality of life

reports of increasing occurrences of violent conflict over C cost to the nation of an unfulfilled future and reduced

access to common property resources like marine fish competitiveness because of poorly educated people

53

Chapter Five Findings: Assets for Livelihoods

_ I_RI V o /

3°vv q j E L

, ~ ~~~~ ~~~ -EE E 3'Do 4 v v l ~ ~~ ~~ °E; °C E s E B E o

o~~~~~~~~lOC 90990

|ESEESE E H ED/E ~~~ ~~~l tfv

j EJOo,' Ik ERC _ /v

ID~ ~ ~~~E |I|o3gOg '

9Lef VI V

ID CD VI

PerTA SOStI. v SUIIaEQ DAYA PoUNU

e ,sa v'6ur n ,9 ZawtrA6f [0 Rsl ce bA;OjL

El Sawi k' q 5 I i c

Figure 10: Community map from the Lom bok site showing only 5 households out of 167 owning agricultural

land around the hamlet

54

Flndings: Assets for Livelihoods Chapter Five

c cost to the nation of balancing the precarious 5.6 Using the Asset Pentagon for Secondaryeconomic and social well-being of its people, half Analysis

of whom are either poor or at high risk of becoming

poor The list of social costs in the previous sub-section points

* cost to businesses of inefficiency due to under skilled to another dimension of poverty highlighted in the SL

employees, and property destruction when poor framework: the close linkage between one type of capital

people resort to violence as their only means to and another, Deficits in one domain cause losses in

express dissatisfaction with exploitative practices another, and assets which should be nurtured and built

* cost of conflict, violent crimes, thefts, divorce, up can become burdens caught in a spiral of decline.

domestic violence brought on or exacerbated by For this reason the SL concept of sustainability is

poverty conceived as a balanced pentagonal pyramid, in which

* cost of lost resources and environmental degradation optimal access by a community to all 5 forms of capital

from effects of environmentally unsustainable (social, financial, natural, physical, human) is represented

extraction practices by large companies, and desperate by 5 points equidistant from the centre of the base of

and near-sighted exploitation by poor people whose the pyramid, which are also equidistant from the apex

resource base has been eroded point at the top of the pyramid.

* cost of repairing the devastation from sudden

disasters which too easily shatter badly constructed As an aid to synthesising the findings about access to

poor settlements and carry away soil loosened by capital, and to facilitate comparison between the sites,

environmental degradation researchers were able to visualise each community in

l the cost in human lives and destroyed communities terms of a two-dimensional graphic of the pentagon

of violence and conflict caused by social and Approximate assessments were made by the researchers

economic inequity about the extent of access to each type of capital using

c cost to the economy of lost growth because of the the qualitative information provided by each community

need to divert development funds to deal with Figures 11 through 14 show the shapes the pentagon

chronic poverty took in each case, along with the reasons spelt out in

* cost to international agencies in aid, humanitarian and boxes. Assets are signalled by a plus sign, and deficiencies

relief services that could go to other development by a minus sign. The lengths of the radial lines from the

initiatives central point to the perimeter of the pentagons indicate

the comparative extent of access to each type of

These are only a few examples of the huge social burden livelihood asset. Arrows within the pentagon show trends

borne by Indonesian society, as well as direct and in access described by the community groups. An inward

identifiable budget costs that accrue as a result of the arrow indicates declining access and vice-versa.

perpetuation of poverty. These social and economic costs Unbalanced pentagons, as well as negative trends, flag

are usually not considered 'poverty' costs by government, problems in need of attention.

but they are directly related to the conditions and

persistence of poverty. As long as poverty is not

substantially addressed by a focus on root causes, these

costs will remain.

55

Asset Pentagon: Coastal Fishing Community, Lombok(Exercise to Analyze Community Situation regarding Assets for Livelihood)

b Poor ready to Women prefer to be Poor young womenwork hard at divorced, than ready to becomeany earning accepting husband's second and third wife

O opportunity (+) second wife () of nch men, in order to 1b3 I come up in life (+)

`h Poor childrenI never get Women's only skill

s ncholarships is fish processing (+)I for schools (-)

8 ~t________ _fb

Only the nch Fish stocks Moat of theFrequent No regulation No taciiitator orfihrewth dptonbGueaiclread

divores and1 A exists / enforced | guidance a ailable | I / \ | power boats and trawier from is owned byOQ ~~~~remarriages for prohibiting to the povor netsai can continue outside overfish, people fromri li of the men (-) ovr-f ng using fi\, shing during using advanced outaide0 ii ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~advanced Iirailny seasons () equipment ()theovuiliage(-

equipment (-)

F~~~~~~~~~~~~~~. ~~~~~~~~~~~~The sea is within Beach providesSocial cohesion Poor e cannot SOCIAL NATURAL access of all levels crabs and mussels

t. t t among the poor cfindwives easily (-) of communiy for food stron I )

ii Poor people not trusted . Fghts.between Manychildren Poor have no is Atheonlytalteative r monthsofby land owning farmers, fishermen burden mther agricultural source of income deprive the poorfor harvest labor work aa i iocdln uigrainy o ann_ Ij for arves labowork(-) frequent at sea (-) | fdivorced (-) | Jn (.i of eann /(-|)esn +

---. ~~~~~~~~~~~. ~~~~PHYSICAL FINANCIAL

Poor homes are small, Roads within Low access to Many children,narrow, built on land of village enable I I capital (-) I manybetter-off relatives and easy movement L . ,,.I . I |Jcontributions to =

Poor own very little leak frequently (-) during rainy family income (+)fishing equipment season (+) , SOnly fishing rods Children becomeand boats without guaranteeforwomen

motors () Poor have no land to Local holy sites togetashare of Poor have difficulty getting >_buld toilets Even for I (graves) atracts family assets upon credit from any source - 61

those who have,the visitorswho | husbands death,(+) including government'stoilets no longer work contribute to local but burdens if credit facilities forbecause septic tanks incomes (+) | divorced (-) the poor (-) O

are full (-) _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Jl- I _________ ---- ___ _________________________________6

Asset Pentagon: Urban Poor Community, Surabaya(Exercise to Analyze Community Situation regarding Assets for Livelihood) >

CA~~ ~~ ~ ~~ ~~ ~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~(

rb0

rb SSkil developing Many unemployed Health services for womencourses / training youlh Want oniy and chiidren rarelyis expensive (-) salaried jobs (-) Schooling expensive available (-)

Fees rise every yearo Many for - ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Teachers'demands ar(e)Manycompetitors Contaceplives excessive for parents t ) Primary, secondary anda few avaiable I to costly and higher secondary level

opportunities (-) difficult to get (-) schools available (+)

.b

b3 Unemployed youth Prayer and relgiousget drunk (-) teaching groups build

confidence and createO social cohesion in

.9 |PKK source of community (+) Good qualityinformation for NA groundwater in

o community ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~ No need to buy (±)

Poor can access Women have skillscheap rice made and initiatives for

Iavaiable for them preparing and(+) vending snacks (+)

QI

8 1. | PHYSICAL | ll | Private money lender |l| Prlvate r mrey lendercharges very high avial o iediy

fv || | Dirty, unhealthy | | Small rooms can be | | Homes / rooms | ll f ll interest ) loans repaid daily (+)li1 ving environmenll I ented out tosseasonal very srmall & 1 1111

|f|causes sickness ()||migrants from rural || cramped () ll llNo other source of PKssaving and credit

capital available for (Arisan)scheme works (+|

11| Public washing ||PubUtceroads offer | |tPoor have no the 1nty 1rfIand to let facilite IItam plcso IIsaeor money to 1111

|||'an be accessed e(S+) || vendors (+) ||build own latnnes(-| 1 Bakcltel JPdos wrBank collateral JP doesn't workrequirement is Money not revolving,

too high loan not repaid, KKN(-Bicycles serve as PJKA godown p Can earn by scavenging The poor can earn

transport, trading and rovides storage facility and selling material trom by driving taxis orearning instrument (+) for scavenger (+) junk / garbage (+) pedicabs, but rarely JPS assistance is All sections of community

own them and have to only temporary - supposed to get creditCloseness to Markets and tradi pay high rent (+)1 not a solution (-) from JPS (+)Closeness to Markets and trading D

railway station places easilygood for earning accessible (+)as porter, trader,public transport

operator (+) Quality of all public I Hospital andfacilities low due to Health Center KKN - Corruption, Collusion, Nepotism

lack of maintenance (-) available (+) JPS - Social Safety Net Program of the GovernmentPKK - Women's Family Welfare movement

-t

Asset Pentagon: Community Dependent on Agriculture & Forestry, West Kalimantan l(Exercise to Analyze Community Situation regarding Livelihood Assets)

(b

Oq Governmen| Training from NGO Indigenous community EducationalO poiicies do fbi helps increase i~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~nsift ions avaiiable fr opportunitiespeopie's skilis () mutuai help to increased due tovracices (-) households (+) church & NGO

Organic farmingmethods training

Shops avaiiable from NGO (+)b for exchanging

rubber for daily HUM AN Inecessities (+)

Church helps by ANDEL- F c bproviding new traditional institution 382 hectares of orest cut by Gelora Agunginformation (+) helps families with common forest Now no big trees leh (-)

but works against expenses of social /vaiiabie to No animals leh to hunt (-)teaching of functions (+-) S I communty for

adt(tradition) ()I S CA Itruit caewood (+) Rice plot can Government policy

Traditional ADAT provides food for 8 for forcing farmersinstitution provides months a year (+ to grow 2 crops oft RIN community rice per year has

co ~~~~~keeps sociai stabilty INA U LIcasdireecohesionc(+ Floods stiii Use ot chemicai in rat pest(-

Agricultural extension cannot be pesticides hasIx ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~ALEATN workers of government controlled ()dsrydsi

traditional system gave wrong advice (-) tertiityI( IRubber buyer's of farmers mutual Harvest reduced

monopoly exploits help good for traditional practices Land and fruit treespoorest () poor (+) abandoned (-) Fruit yield from Droughts cannot available for

trees decreasing be controlied community's useo ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~every year ()stiiil- and cash income (+)

PHYSICALSchooi In village A i -

[helps accessto

2 euato () | I| ARISAN | | Rubber majorCA | helps buhid cash cropPF Eerctyonconep | Rautvlge || capital (+) IIavailabletoall (+) |tt

increase income - but only for help for marketing40% household (+) rubber (+)

- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Rubber byrsCetUnionmonopoly explo its gives cheap credit

Public transportnow Machie forrubber poorest | and advice (+) |

b | available for economic processing improvesactivities beyond village (+) local rubber (+) A Development C n a l

aIRubber buying Protect D ives Commun fitynsancialcou operative.ly scholars ip toittuincountrs moopoly(4-) oor students (+) strengthened (+)

0

I-5p

Asset Pentagon: Rice Growing Flatland Community, West Java(Exercise to Analyze Community Situation regarding Assets for Livelihood)

fb Community aware of Due to limited Migration to cities, Family planning The middle school i/-11 family planning access to land, wini gness to work reduces popsiation nearest to village

10 If cheap methods most of the and not become growth (+) does not admit many

available, most popultion migrates discouraged by Lets young women viillage children (-fb aawill adopt () to cities tor earning (+) dIfficult iocai be more productive (+)

conditions (+) e70

Can learn many new things from IAmore advanced More villageneighbors who children are Low education levelsOgo to cities for going to middle No money for education

work (+) school now (+) Little mobvation (-)

HUMANlb

lb

Water m the river River sand Very little rice

and mountain availability has growing and is

oq 11 1 *Bandar deprives | | *Bandar protects springs seems to declined - too many owned by

ilocai poorof wage tsmaii/armers be reducing in people are viiisgem (-)

work during harvest (- f from risk (+) quantty -) exploiting it (-)

Regular prayer ] Fishponds ex it | Situ Agung - pond,and learning group N T RAL but owned by tshe source of water tor

C: ~~~(Pengatian) builds rich Poor cannot irrigation and fishsocial cohesion (+) access (-) farming (+)

9 1l | Cheap rice meant tor poor | 1l \ / \ / || | Poor can use other hRat t Cibeureum riverdistributed equaily to peopie~s Iand to ea rn pssprovides sand for

all households (a) as agnrculture wage damage crops construction / seliing

Por aiysshare given Sociai support laborers 1+Wvr esnff(-" 11 | ~~~to others, when they II for funeral I11 /

had no money to buy (-) expenses (+)

Shop oniy source Farmers credit No savingsof ceditfor aily institutions oniy give No capitai to develop

---------|PYIC A L ||| ocredit for/dai ioans to land owne| l

Many infrastructure Tractor increases | o

facilities now availabeI, profit for land I_11_ _ _ _._ __ _a g asphalt road (+) owning farmer&

sharecropper (+f) Public buses vansavailable to go to city,

Tractor has school,health

Location by the asphalt displaced agricultural facilixes (+)road makes accessto laborers (-)transportation easy for Public toilet, washing Bore well for avillages to go to city & facility built by rich) Health centerdevelop the village (+) man used by all (+) within reach (+) community (+) 0 Bandar - Commercial haverst buyer from outside the community.

11 leves of D oes not em ploy local labor

7I,(a

AK

T t he SL framework highlights the importanceof structures. These are the organisations, both

private and public, that set and implement

policy and legislation, deliver services, carry on trade, and

perform other functions that affect livelihoods. The

framework also highlights processes, such as policies, laws,

institutions, cultural norms and beliefs, and power

Findings: relations that determine the ways in which structures -

and individuals - operate and interact.

Transformning Two major processes currently transforming Indonesia

have a major impact on the poor: administrative

decentralisation, potentially reforming both the structures

Structures and and relations of government, and globalisation, bringing

with it new market imperatives.

Processes While globalisation offers perhaps the greatestopportunities for substantial poverty reduction in

Indonesia, it also poses some very grave risks. Few of

the preconditions for forging a pro-poor approach to

globalisation exist in Indonesia: the education system is

weak and people tend not to have skills needed to

compete globally; the regulatory environment is almost

60

Findings: Transforming Structures and Processes Chapter Six

non-existent; the investment climate is precarious, and opportunities, rules and provisions of programmes for

democracy and national unity remain fragile. Moreover, poverty reduction. Programmes are not accountable to

experience in other parts of the world points to the special the poor, whom they are designed to help. The poor

hazards of undertaking structural adjustment and major get to know only what their neighbourhood or village

policy reform in the context of competitive globalisation: head chooses to tell them (See Box 28). What the village

these include impoverishment, environmental degradation, head (kepala desa) tells the poor is not always borne out

social divisions, disempowerment and further in reality. How government assistance is distributed in

marginalisation of the poor, especially women and the community depends on the decision of the head of

children. the village (desa) or urban ward (kelurahan). There are

too many examples of aid meant for the needy being

Our studies in the four communities help to illustrate distributed equally to all residents regardless of economic

how transforming structures and processes affect the status, or selectively to friends and relatives of the village

livelihoods of the poor, and the policy shifts needed to head, who cannot be classified as poor. As our researchers

make those livelihoods more, rather than less, secure and observed, and study participants confirmed, there is

sustainable. insufficient opportunity for the poor to participate in

community meetings and discussions or express their

6.1 Governance opinions.

The SL study found that on the whole, poor people in There is considerable 'distance' between the community

the communities studied lack confidence in government at the lowest administrative level and the community head

policies and programmes, especially those that have an in both urban and rural areas Real community cohesion

effect on livelihoods. (See Box 26) Study participants and activity tend to focus around the head of the RT or

were also very much aware of the lack of transparency neighbourhood cluster, who is not a public servant and

at the level of the lurah or kepala desa (administrative receives no salary for assisting in village administration.

head of a community) and the LKMD (the village council

established by a government decree) in all matters related In many instances, the institutions that are trusted sources

to government policies, projects and programmes This of information and considered valuable by the poor are

problem was particularly evident from comments in the indigenous ones (see Box 29). Both the World Bank

three of the four study sites about bias in the local handling studyConsultations mth thePoormnIndonesia CounuySynthesis

of the Social Safety Net UPS) programmes introduced Reportand the present study confirm this. In these studies,

after the monetary crisis of 1997. government extension workers, governments credit

institutions for farmers (KUT), various 'groups' formed

'Information poverty' keeps the poor powerless to only for the purpose of receiving government programme

improve their lot. The SL study found many examples assistance, and the LKMD were reported by participants

of how those in power control, obstruct, filter and distort as those not trusted and considered unimportant to the

information reaching the poor to manipulate the situation lives of the poor. (See Figures 15 and 16, wherein the sizes

to their own advantage. (See Box 27). Development of the circles represent the importance of the institution

programmes in Indonesia reflect this, and to date, they to the poor men or women doing the analysis. The distance

rarely have well-developed strategies and mechanisms of each circle from the community - shown as a hut,

for public dissemination of information about benefits, represents its extent of interaction with their lives.)

61

Chapter Six Findings: Transforming Structures and Processes

Pohcylmplications corruption and inefficiency have sometimes led to a

pattern in which government agencies at all levels are

The historical imposition throughout the country of a bypassed. This practice does not encourage or prepare

uniform administrative hierarchy down to RT level made local governments to take responsibility for the poor and

it difficult for the voices of the poor to be heard and poverty reduction. It poses the danger of setting up a

their needs to be recognised. It is now widely recognised two-tiered sysrem, in which non-government agencies

that centrallsed government policies introduced over the look after the poor, and the government looks after the

past three decades have eroded local autonomy and have better off.

greatly undermined traditional values and practices, thus

discouraging attempts by communities to find their own To develop governance mechanisms that promote

solutions to problems. It remains to be seen whether this sustainable livelihoods, it is crucial to begin from the

hierarchy will be eliminated with government principle that resources for the poor and the elimination

decentralisation. of poverty are not gifts or handouts but poor peoples'

entitlements. Thus the government and non-government

Donor agencies also have an impact on governance. In agencies are directly accountable to poor people for the

the past, they have not always operated in an open and efficiency and fairness with which resources are allocated.

participatory manner. Unless donor agendas and The village committee (LKMD) that was supposed to

programme details are fully transparent to the poor fill the role of the community institution responsible for

people who are supposed to be the beneficiaries, the programme design, delivery and monitoring has rarely

latter lack the information they need to monitor functioned in this manner. It needs to be replaced with a

programme delivery and hold both donors and local structure and set of practices more suited to empowering

implementing agents (government or NGO), poor people in their relations with government and non-

accountable. Donor concerns about government government agencies supposed to assist them.

Box 26: 'The extension worker never comes here'

Farmers, especially those with smallholdings, feel that they have been neglected by agricultural authorities. Manyyears ago in the 1980s when efforts were being made to increase national rice production, agricultural extensionworkers came to the hamlet regularly and gave 'instructions' on relevant matters to all farmers. Today it is rarefor an extension worker to visit the area. Farmers say that there is urgent need for pest control, especially of rats,and that they need outside advice and help. They also say that they would like a little more 'guidance' byextension workers in choice of crops and planting times. Some see the prevalence of rats as traceable to the factthat each farmer follows his own planting schedule, which enables the rats to move from field to field. They feelthat the agricultural agency is not helping them find practical solutions to their real problems.

Source: Sustainable Livelihood Site Report, WestJava, 2000.

Box 27: Government agencies do not talk to the poor

The Kepala Dusun (sub-village head) in the Lombok site constituted a fisher's group, as group formation wasthe Department of Fisheries' requirement before it gave the village a motorboat and a large tuna-fishing net.The Kepala Dusun unilaterally assumed the group leader's position and took control of the new equipment.Poor fishers in the group were unable to benefit from the boat and net and the so-called group has never beenfunctional. They would like to organise their own group and elect their own leader, if such assistance wasavailable from any source. But no agency talks to them. They only talk to the Kepala Dusun.

Source: Sustainable Livelihood Site Report, Lombok, 2000.

62

findings: Transforming Structures and Processes Chapter Six

Box 28: Village elite control others by selectively filtering information

At the study sites in West Java and Lombok people reported that the children who had received scholarshipswere from well-off families, unlike their own. The same has been reported in previous studies. The poor wereunaware of the criteria by which children were being selected. Village and school authorities told them only thatthe lists of recipients was decided 'from above' (by authorities outside the village) or that their children werenot clever enough to qualify. In reality the Social Safety Net scholarships had no merit-based criteria and weremeant to help the neediest of children.

SL Study participants mentioned 'KKN' (Corruption, Collusion and Nepotism) as one very effective strategyfor climbing out of poverty!

Sources: Sustainable Livelihood Site Reports, Lonibok and WestJava, 2000.

Box 29: The poor have reasons for trusting only their own relatives and traditional institutions

The Dayak community in Kalimantan depends on its elders for traditional wisdom on livelihoods. Parents andadat leaders are the primary source of information for agriculture, animal husbandry and socialisation ofchildren. At the Java study sites neighbours and relations were trusted most for information on availableopportunities and benefits. The neighbourhood chief (Ketua RT) was also an accessible and trusted source ofinformation in Java, but not in the other sites. In Lombok the poor did not trust the village and sub-villageheads who were considered unfair, not transparent in their dealings, manipulative and dominating. All aid waschannelled by the government only through these two men. In Java, the Kelurahan (sub-district administrativelevel in urban/pern-urban areas) administration was seen as a source of information, but a distant one. Ingeneral, the poor did not place their trust in the extension workers of government departments, with theexception of Lombok, where two extension workers from the Department of Fisheries and Agriculture, bothfemale, were held in high regard. Lack of trust in the official extension services was explained by studyparticipants in these terms:

C PPL (Agricultural Extension Worker) * 'He's never visited our fields* Pushes us to use pesticides / hybrid seedse His advice has not proved beneficial.'

* Department of Manpower (Depnaker) office * ' Requires long process but does not result in ajob. The only work offered is likely to be in anothercountry'

* BIDAN (Trained Midwife) * 'She is never available. Does not stay in the Polindes(village healthing clinic) that built.

* Prescribes costly medicine.'

C MANTRI HEWAN (Veterinary Technician) C 'Never comes to us.e There is an office, but he is not available there.'

C CAMAT (Sub-district Administration Head) * 'Does not give specific information aboutaid/asslstance.

l Difficult to meet.'

l SCHOOL TEACHER l 'Did not clarify why poor children did not getJPS scholoarships'

Sources: Sustainable ILvelhhood Site Reports, West Kalimantan, WestJava, Lombok, Surabaya, 2000.

63

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Figure 16: Older men's institutional analysis, WestJava

65

Chapter Six Findings: Transforming Structures and Processes

6.2 Agricultural Policies and the Poor Findings in this study have already illustrated that

agricultural extension services are inadequate in content,Poor rice farmers in this study reported that they could are rarely suited to the physical nature of different sub-

not get sufficient return from the sale of rice to make a regions and are not directed toward helping the small

living. They felt the solution was for the government to farmer or fisher. (See Boxes 19 and 29). In the West

raise the price they receive for selling their rice. But the Java site the extension worker visited fairly regularly during

price of rice is only one factor in a complex of issues the 1980s when the government was pushing agricultural

that make it difficult for many rice farmers to achieve a intensification for rice self-sufficiency. In recent years he

sustainable living. Under current policies the money that is rarely seen and is not available with advice or help

small cultivators have to spend on fertiliser and other even when pests attack crops (Box 26).

inputs is very close to the value of their harvested rice.

The farmers know that the KUD (government controlledThe poorest rural households are the landless. They are farmers' multipurpose co-operative) is supposed to

affected by agricultural policies indirectly, when their provide cheap agricultural credit, but say that the holders

employers (landholders and sharecroppers) run into of less than 0.5 hectares never receive any. The KUD is

difficulties. In West Java small landholders (owning less also supposed to buy their harvest at a government-set

than 0.5 hectares) and sharecroppers are only one tier floor price, but reportedly lacks adequate capacity to buy

above the landless in terms of poverty, as it is locally when the farmers need to sell, and payments are often

defined. Over the past 2-3 years these two categories of delayed. Farmers are selling their harvest to private traders,farmers have found their input costs growing at anfarmes hav foud ther inpt cots grwing t an but the trader does not necessarily pay the official flooralarming rate while their returns from selling the harvest

are declining. Sharecroppers and small farmers observed price.

that their incomes were now almost the same as

agricultural wage labourers. They find th currentsituation In sum, the small farmers and sharecroppers feel thatofpriingofagricultural inputlabourers aheind prcurement prics i their traditional occupation, growing food crops, is fastof pricing of agricultural inputs and procurement prices bcmn cnmclyuval n ndqaet utifor harvests devoid of rationality. They do not know becomigeconomicallyunviableandiadequatetosustai

why fertillsers have suddenly become so expensive their livelihoods (Box 30). The seemingly inevitable

(government subsidies were abruptly withdrawn due to alternative is to move to the cities, to further swell the

the economic crisis), whereas the selling price for their numbers of jobless or compete for the few small trading

rice remains the same. opportunities there.

Box 30: The world from a poor rice farmer's viewpoint

Pak Asep, one of the vast numbers of small rice farmers throughout the country, owns only 0.1 ha of irrigatedland. He has always cultivated his land with great care so as to obtain the maximum output and works as anagricultural labourer to increase his income. Today he finds it difficult to understand why the market value of hisrice crop has fallen while the cost of inputs has gone up. He believes that fertiliser should again be subsidised ifthe government is unwilling to make a substantial increase in the floor price for rice. He would also like thegovernment to develop some kind of a rice-purchasing system to ensure that he receives the floor price.Because the Village Co-operative (KUD) has never functioned in the interests of small producers, he sells hisrice to private rice-traders. At the same time he has heard that rice is being imported and is puzzled as to why thegovernment should allow this, especially at harvest time. His household remains poor because his profit marginis extremely narrow and because he has to sell his whole crop to pay debts incurred prior to harvest and toobtain money for cultivation of the next crop.

Source: Sustainable Livelihood Site Report, WestJava, 2000.

66

Findings: Transforming Structures and Processes Chapter Six

Policylrnphcations rice growers, fishers and forest-dependent communities

in the pattern of polices and interventions cannot be

Certain government policies, such as a sudden withdrawal overstated.

of subsidies before a competitive market for fertiliser

and pesticides has developed, work against the efforts Past attempts to raise land productivity and achieve self-

of small farmers to improve their incomes. Farmers are sufficiency in rice production involved various policies

at a further disadvantage because of the inconsistency in including, for many years, the subsidisation of inputs.

rice policies such as the import of rice at harvest time Those policies are now being reviewed and changed,

and the government's inability to ensure that rice-growers mostly based on macro-economic reform agendas."9 In

receive the government-set floor price. Farmers have the interim period, before viable free competition-based

long been vulnerable to changes in government rice market systems are developed, the brunt of the changes

policies, which are designed at national level and tend to is borne by those with few alternatives - poor agricultural

be influenced by political interests and especially by the producers. The makers and promoters of policy changes

need to ensure regular supplies of cheap rice for urban regarding agricultural prices need to be alert to the impacts

consumers, large proportions of whom are also very on rural livelihoods. Unless the pace of changes is properly

poor planned and managed, it can precipitate large undesirable

and irreversible shifts in livelihoods, including rural-urban

A focus on the actual situations of poor farmers suggests: migration, and spawn greater vulnerability to poverty.

the need to keep input costs to an acceptable level;

government purchase of farmers' rice at the government- 6.3 Land Use and Tenure

set floor price, perhaps through village cooperatives; and

making agricultural credit more readily available to small Land use and tenure is an area of policy with major

farmers and sharecroppers. implications for poverty in both urban and rural areas.

In urban areas, unused state land is increasingly occupied

The factors affecting poor farmers are a mix of macro- by newcomers from rural areas and by local people

economic policies (such as rice and commodity pricing, whose own settlements are overcrowded. These so-called

rice subsidies anci tariffs, fuel and fertillser subsidies) and 'squatters' live in extremely poor conditions and frequently

medium and small scale factors (e.g land ownership, encounter problems with city authorities. In the rural study

irrigation, extension services, environmental management, sites there were several examples of productive land

access to credit, introduction of technology, land use and having been converted to non-agricultural uses. While the

sharecropping practices). Analyses have tended not to commercial value of such land may increase, jobs for

adequately recognise the interconnectedness of these landless agricultural labourers have been permanently lost.

macro and micro issues, or have assumed conditions for (Box 31).

rural farmers that do not apply to the poor. Both domestic

and international aspects of agricultural policies are major The rural poor often have no security of tenure to the

determinants of Indonesia's development future, and its land on which they live, even when it is not state-owned.

competitiveness in global markets The extreme In the eyes of the community, the government practice

importance of considering the actual conditions of poor of granting land development rights in the form of a

19 Fordetails refer to Es5ays on Agricultural Ioisttuton' and Policy Rural developmentand niaturalresources uilt East Asia and Paciticregion The World B,ink Jlune 1999

67

Chapter Six Findings: Transforming Structures and Processes

Box 31: The poor have no voice in government decisions about resources they depend on

A major aspect of resource depletion in Java today is the ever-increasing conversion of irrigated land to non-agricultural purposes. Adult offsprings who need houses often build on family-owned rice-fields, thus reducingthe family's own productive assets. In the case of government acquisition of land, no heed is paid to legislationthat prohibits conversion of irrigated rice-land to other purposes.

The construction of a regional secondary school close to the West Java study site hamlet has taken one hectareof irrigated rice-land out of production. The land was privately owned but was purchased by the localgovernment. The location chosen for the school, intended as it was to benefit the wider community rather thanthe people of the hamlet, highlights a problem frequently encountered by local governments in densely populatedareas, namely, the acquisition of suitable sites for the construction of roads, schools, community health centresand other public infrastructure. The withdrawal of this land from agricultural production reduced employmentopportunities for the hamlet residents who once had access to it as sharecroppers and agricultural labourers. Asconversion of land to non-agricultural uses takes place, jobs for the poorer members of the communitydisappear and are not replaced by new forms of employment.

The same trend is rampant in the forestry and marine resource sectors where common resources are summarilytaken away from the local poor and exploitation rights granted to outsiders by government authorities.

Sources:Sustainable LivelihoodSiteReports, WestJava, LombokandKahmantan,2000.

location permit (izin lokasi) has long been the source of The people themselves, however, have had no voice in

much injustice. Occupants of the land for which a permit these negotiations and decisions have very rarely been to

has been issued have had no option but to move. At the the advantage of the community, least of all its poorer

same time they have had no voice in decisions about members (Box 32). Similarly, in forest villages outside

compensation, which, if given, has usually been far below Java land held under customary tenure arrangements has

market value. On paper there may appear to have been been appropriated for timber concessions or plantation

negotiations between the community, represented by the schemes without due consultation with or compensation

head of the village or kelurahan, and the land developer. to the local population.

Box 32 : Process used to displace and dispossess the poor

Several years ago small farmers living in Karawang District in West Java were forced by government authoritiesto move from the inherited land holdings which their families had cultivated for several generations. The reasonwas that a Jakarta-based private sector company had obtained an izin lokasi to establish a golf course on theland. The people were 'resettled' on much smaller and less fertile holdings elsewhere in the same district. Quiteapart from the basic injustice involved in the original eviction, there was further injustice as people were deliberatelymisled about the status of the land on which they were resettled. It turned out that the land was already legallyregistered with the agrarian affairs agency in the name of a local landowner. This means that they can neverobtain ownership rights to the land and that they could face a second eviction when the land passes to thecurrent owner's heirs.

Source: Joan Hardjono, A SocialAssessment of the Land Certifcation Program:The Indonesian LandAdministration Project, 1999,Jakarta: The World Bank and AusAID.

68

Findings: Transforming Structures and Processes Chapter Six

Pohcymplicantons . The use of explosives on coral reefs off the coast

of Lombok, reducing the catch for local fishers and

In urban, perl-urban regions and rural communities alike, destroying the very basis of resource sustainability in

a greater degree of security is needed in the face of rapid the form of fish habitat

social and economic changes Issues of land entitlement,

registration and consolidation in the context of * The use of hand-tractors reduces Jobs for agricultural

decentralisation are discussed in the 2001 World Bank labourers in field preparation, although it lowers

report PovertyReduction m Indonesi: Constructinga Nev production costs for landowners (Box 33).

Strategy. As the discussion points out, land policy involves

delicate issues of entitlement and local and national interest . The need to rent or own power saws and other

- matters on which the rural and urban poor should have equipment.

a voice.

6.4 Impact of New Technology and Pohcylmphcaborns

GlobalisationIt is neither desirable nor feasible to turn back the advance

The introduction of new technology is another process of technology. It is not technology itself that poses

that often reduces employment and income for the poor problems for the poor, but their comparative lack of

or compels them to compete at a higher level than their access to it in the context of competition and exploitation,

resources and credit facilities permit. Examples from the and its inappropriate use. Intelligent and informed polices

field studies include: and careful planning are required if technological

innovations are to work for the poor, rather than aggravate

* Modern fishing equipment that is beyond the financial existing patterns of inequity. This will require measures at

reach of traditional fishers, so they are out-competed the local and national level to construct a more 'level playing

by those using power boats and nylon nets rather field' for the introduction of technologies, so that poor

than rods. people can have more control of these means and benefit

from them.

Box 33: Technology and market forces working against employment of the poor

Pak Eman is a landless agricultural labourer, as was his father before him. Although he lives in a highly productiverice-growing area in West Java, he has employment only in certain months of the year. At one time he obtainedhoeing work for several days during field preparation but in recent years the use of hand-tractors has reducedhis job opportunities. Since mechanised ploughing halves the input of labour, farmers and sharecroppers, bothlarge and small, now use tractors to cut production costs. The fact that manual labour is still needed for therepair of embankments around fields provides Pak Eman with some work each planting season. At the sametime many local farmers now find it more profitable to plant glutinous rice (ketan) twice a year instead of high-yielding varieties three times a year because ketan brings much higher prices. For Pak Eman this has furtherreduced the number of days on which he is employed every year.

Source: SustainableLivelihoodSiteReport, WestJava, 2000.

69

Chapter Six Findings: Transforming Structures and Processes

More generally, although international development the livelihoods of the poor. They often represent

agencies and some governments are seeking to make appropriate, workable solutions to their problems. (Box

globalisation work for the poor, advocates for the poor 34).

in Indonesia are extremely wary. Macroeconomic policies

concerning investment, trade, pricing, marketing and Indigenous institutions are also dynamic, and can change

technological development need to be determined in in ways that reduce employment and returns to labour in

relation to the local realities of poor people. rural areas. This is particularly apparent in:

6.5 Institutional changes o the tendency on the part of landowners to economise

on production costs by paying agricultural labourers

Institutions at the local level are affected by a cash wage without food rather than retaining the

transformations in macro-level structures and processes traditional practice of a smaller cash wage

of governance, policies, markets and so on, as accompanied by two meals, which labourers prefer

communities respond to new opportunities and o the tendency for landowners to impose greater

constraints. Many rural communities have indigenous demands on sharecroppers, which usually implies

institutions that are born out of mutually felt needs by greater transfer of risk to the latter

poor communities and, having traditional origins, sustain o changes in harvesting practices whereby the traditional

Box 34: Traditional institutions show what helps the poor

Aleatn in the Dayak community of West Kalimantan is a traditional institution for collective management of

agricultural labour, which ensures systematic servicing of every member's plot. Every aleatn has 5-9 households

as members. Each household contributes the services of one person (male or female) to the group everyday.

The whole group works on each member household's field for 2-3 days at a time, by turns. The host household

only has to provide the mid-day meal for all workers. Any household failing to provide a worker must

compensate the group with a day's wages or an extra worker on another day. Aleatn can be formed for needs

other than agriculture, e.g. building or repairing homes.

Similar systems (proyekan) exist in Java whereby poor farmers with small contiguous plots pool their land and

resources to buy inputs in bulk and work each one's fields by turns.

Andel is a variation on the traditional credit and savings group, functioning in West Kalimantan. It is a form of

collective contribution to fund festive occasions that would be too costly for single households to bear, e.g.

weddings. Every household in the community contributes and an andel manager appointed by the community

keeps records. Every household holding a celebration can expect to receive a contribution from other households

to the extent that it contributed for them in the past.

Similar systems are reported to be operating in Java, Bali, and West Nusa Tenggara to help families tide over

expenses of funerals, weddings, religious ceremonies, sickness or accident. In the absence of other sources of

insurance, the poor have devised their own mechanisms to insulate themselves from economic shocks, based

on resources available within their own communities.

Sources: Sustanable LivelihoodSite ReportKalimnantan, 2000 andNilanjana Mukherjee,

Consultations with thePoormn Indonesia: CountrySynthesisReport 1999.

70

Findings: Transformning Structures and Processes Chapter Six

open harvest is being increasingly replaced by a more poor to obtam livelihoods, and building on their strengths,

commercially oriented system; The new system should be an essential element for poverty reduction

restricts the participation of the local poor because strategies. This requires detailed, participatory local

the traders to whom farmers sell their crop bring engagement and listening to the voices of the poor.

their own harvesters from other areas. (See Box 35). Unfortunately poverty reduction programmes can and

often do damage useful indigenous institutions by

Polcylmplicanon:s imposing upon poor communities external models of

community organisation devised in distant cities and seats

Understanding how traditional practices and institutions of power (Box 36).

contribute to a network of strategies employed by the

Box 35: Commercialisation of traditional practices depriving the poor

Pak Eman's wife has always done agricultural work like transplanting, wecding and harvesting, but her access to

harvesting work is declining. At one time participation in rice harvesting was open to all and harvesters were

given a part of the paddy that they cut as a wage in kind. In recent years, however, farmers and sharecroppers,

both large and small, have found it more profitable to sell their rice crop shortly before harvest to a rice trader

(bandar) who bears all risks associated with the cutting and marketing of the crop. This is also one consequence

of the government-run farmer co-operatives KUDs (Koperasi Unit Desa) not being able to serve the harvest

marketing needs of farmers and sharecroppers. The KUD does not guarantee timely payments even after the

harvest has been collected whereas the bandar pays in advance of the crop, to secure access to a farmer's

harvest. Since the bandar brings his own permanent team of harvesters from a more distant area, local women

now have to rely on the few remaiiiing 'open' harvests in the vicinity of the hamlet. They often walk up to six

kilometres a day looking for work of this kind Opportunities are few, however, for the pre-harvest selling of

rice is widespread and represents an institutional change that appears to be irreversible.

Source Sustainable Livelihood Site Report, WestJava, 2000.

Box 36: 'Groups' that were never groups

Development assistance programmes from external agencies usually ask the external facilitator or the VillageHead to organise 'farmers groups' before assistance can be provided. This had led to many indigenous groups

being broken up and new groups formed through arbitrary selections The new 'groups' do not last as they lack

common interests and priorities - as was seen in the dysfunctional fisher's group 'Beriyuk Maju' artificially

constituted by the Kepala Dusun in Lombok (Box 27).

In West Kalimantan a women rattan weavers' group was formed by an external 'facilitator' on behalf of the

official Family Welfare Movement (PKK) Women met and wove rattan products every week for 3 months,

but the products just piled up because the promised marketing assistance (from the facilitator) did not materialise.

The group has now been disbanded, and the community has become more wary of 'facilitators' and visitors

from outside

Sourcs:SustainableLivelihood SiteReports, Lombok and Kahlmantan, 2000.

71

Chapter Six TInclintg: traragslm'nz nstn.res and prcsesses

6.6 Exploitation and Poverty institutions and practices: community leadership, business

arrangements, market prices, government policies and

Exploitation and poverty are both cause and outcome procedures (Box 37).

of structures and processes that disadvantage the poor.

Classic theories about the causes hf poverty analyse PohcyImplcaitons

patterns of exploitation by those who own and control

the means of production. Examples of such patterns Development thinking is no longer dominated by the

illustrated in this study include latex resin buying belief that economic development will inevitably reduce

monopolies, large businesses (such as fishing companies poverty and benefit poor people Growth and economic

whose fleets use illegal technologies and encroach with development are still considered key instruments to

impunity on local fishing reserves), and large and small address poverty, but there is increasing sensitivity to how

landholders who exploit the landless through unfair different kinds of growth provide different opportunities

sharecropping arrangements. Although they sometimes to different groups of people. Economic growth and

operate through coercion and force, many patterns of investment that exclusively benefit the rich are obviously

patronage and exploitation are embedded in everyday not good for the poor. It seems that neither the market

Box 37: Poverty is nurtured and sustained by those who benefit from it

In the coastal fishing communities of Lombok poverty is perpetuated because poor fishers are caught in a

vicious cycle of small incomes and no savings, preventing capital accumulation in the form of equipment

(boats, engines, fishing nets) that would enable larger catches and larger incomes. Fishers are forced to rent boats

and equipment from the rich and pay them half the catch of fish, although the renters must bear all costs of thefishing trip. To aggravate the situation, wealthy entrepreneurs from outside Lombok are depleting fish supplies

in the coastal waters by using trawlers and large tuna fishing nets reducing the poor fishers' catch even in thefishing season.

A similar pattern of exploitation was described in agricultural activities. Sharecroppers in West Java estimate

that after bearing the costs of growing paddy, losing some of it to pests and rats, and paying half the agreed

harvest to the landowner, what they get as their share is little more than what they could get as agricultural wagelabourers. Landowners extract their share of the harvest but leave the costs and risks to sharecroppers.

Most of the rubber resin tapped by the Kalimantan community is sold to a single buyer who is a well off local

man owning transportation facilities. He retains a monopolistic hold on their daily output and pays them an

exploitative price , simply because he is available to buy it from them on a daily basis. An NGO is trying to

organise rubber tappers in the region into a cooperative society so that they can market their own produce

themselves. The society has recently procured a truck that can visit every tapper community once a fortnight to

collect the latex tapped by its members and pay them a better price, according to prevailing market prices. The

poorest households however cannot afford to wait a fortnight to sell their rubber. They have to sell it daily and

live on the day-to-day income. They are therefore still obliged to sell it to the monopoly buyer in the village

every 1-2 days, at a price that he dictates.

Sources:SustainableLiveljhoodSiteReports, Lombok, WestJavd, KJalimantan. 2000.

72

SectionSix Flndings:Transform lngStructuresand Processes

nor the benevolence of businesses can be relied upon have characterised business in Indonesia have made it

automatically to lift the poor out of poverty A 'trickle too easy for businesses to exploit those without power,

down' approach simply suggests that the poor need only and to contribute to, rather than reduce, poverty.

the 'crumbs' from economic development, as one

Indonesian activist recently put it It seems an analysis of poverty is now more than ever

also an analysis of power relations. The recent emphasis

The trickle down approach is challenged decisively by on 'empowerment' of the poor in poverty reduction

the principle of 'equitable' growth, which means that policies (contained in Government policy documents as

everyone is entitled to benefit fully and equally from well as in international position papers) suggests the need

growth. This principle requires a focus on ethical practices to take into account the implications of power sharing

by the public and private sector alike, which include by the powerful: be they politicians, government, the

elimination of exploitation and corruption In Indonesia military or businesses Sustainable poverty reduction

as elsewhere the business sector - a key player in economic requires the dismantling of exploitative monopolies of

development - continues to have immense influence on power. 'Empowerment' of the poor is in part the process

poverty and the livelihoods of the poor This is the case of community enablement, and in part the process of

even though most of the poor do not work in the formal democratically deactivating powerful structures and

sector. systems that prey on the weak and powerless

As responsible community members businesses can play Centrally designed poverty reduction strategies usually

a significant role in supporting sustainable livelihoods for do not lead to lasting outcomes because they tend to

poor people Througlh fair policies and practices in hiring, focus interventions on symptoms of poverty and do

wages and separation, safe working conditions, equitable not address root causes, such as exploitation patterns

training and advancement, and ensuring operations are specific to regions and their natural resource bases. Systems

environmentally appropriate and respect local land use, of exploitation that have endured over many years will

businesses can practice good corporate citizenship and usually negate the effects of palliative interventions

be an asset to all in a community. But the lax legislative Sustainable livelihoods for the poor cannot be protected

and judicial framework for protection of workers' rights or promoted without local administrations understanding

and the environment, the reported reinforcement of and having the will to tackle locally operating cycles of

monopolistic and corrupt practices by government and exploitation.

military collusion, and the networks of manipulation that

73

'- -

Cs,~~~~~~~~~~~~~o pepl are not pasv vitisothr

1 * r at -e _

.~*' ~- -

Door people are not passive victims of theirP circumstances: they actively seek opportunities,and adopt strategies to make maximum use of

the assets they have. Circular migration in Java is a prime

example of poor people taking the initiative to

Findings: compensate for lack of natural, physical and financial

capital by deploying their labour (human capital) and their

social networks, which span rural and urban areas.

LivelihoodIn pursuing their livelihood strategies, poor people are

sometimes assisted, and sometimes hindered, by the

Strategies structures and processes that surround them. This sectionbegins with the study participants' own assessments of

what helps or hinders them in their search for livelihoods.

and It then presents the findings from a joint exercise by studyparticipants and field workers to assess the outcomes

that might be expected from various types of

O utcom es intervention according to the criteria embedded in the

SL framework. It discusses the challenges involved in

bringing sustainability concerns into balance with poor

peoples' immediate needs and priorities, and devising

feasible solutions.

74

Findings: Livelihood Strategies and Outcomes Chapter Seven

Box 38: Participatory Analysis of What Helps or Hinders in the Struggle for Livelihoods

What works against efforts of the poor What helps efforts of the poorto improve their incomes and well-being? to improve their incomes and well-being?

Forestry & Agriculture-dependent Community, West Kalimantan

* Monopoly of rubber buyer. * Scholarship from NGO /Area DevelopmentProject.

* Church activities that conflict with Adat * NGO help in local resource mapping andstrengthening traditional forest preservation practices.

* Government's administrative regulations destroy * Church provides new information.traditional leadership and disturb community life. * NGO training for agro-forestry

* Cash and kind arisanC systems in community* Forced to plant hybrid paddy and use chemical * Mutual support institutions, e g Aleatn system of

pesticides working collectively on each others' crop fieldso Traditionail rat-pest control practices

* Landholding very small because of large families * Dukun for traditional medicine and contraception* Posyandu (community health post).

* Don't know how to control or prevent floods. * Asphalt road near village* Traditional leaders help adat activity.

* Rivers silted up, choked by vegetation. * Buyers from Malaysia for Durian in seasonCan't drain rainfall away, floods crop fields. ('group siving-+creditsystem).

Coastal Fishing Community, Lombok

* Non-transparent and unfair management by * PMDKE (credit) programme for women fishKepala Dusun of credit facility from outside processors

* Outsiders using advanced technology andequipment for fishing in coastal waters. * Crabs and mussels gathered from beaches.

* Mistrust of local agricultural labourers by land-owning farmers Use of labourers from outside * Agricultural labour by both men and women, whencommunity. available

* Teacher says chlildreni are too stupid to getscholarships

* Frequent divorce. * Women making and vending snacks* No alternative livelihood skills- men only know

rod fishing, women only know fish processlig

Rice Cultivating Community, West Java

* No savings. * Migration to cities for work* Cost of production higher thani returns for

sharecroppers * Duck raising* Too many children / No contraception use Cost

and ignorance as obstacles.* No access to credit except from shops for daily

necessities.* Low access to land, fishponds, natural resources* Commercialisationi of harvest work.

Urban Poor Community, East Java (Surabaya)

* Competition from other vendors * Daily credit from moneylenders for trading activities.* Competition from other job-seekers. * Sale of cheap rice by NGO* Cramped homes. o PKK saving and credit scheme.* Dirty environment from )unk dealing.* Too many children. * Seasonal renting of rooms to migrants from villages* Youth crime and violence* Trading activities too costly to keep up. * Womens' skills in preparing snacks for vending

75

Chapter Seven Ridilngs: UveRih=od Strategies and Outcomes

7.1 Participatory Analysis of what Helps important. Short-term, immediate needs and gains are

or Hinders Livelihood Strategies the driving factors in their lives. Their own analysis of

their livelihoods and root causes of their poverty helpBox 38 summarises study participants' views on the identify these driving factors, which are the most effectivefactors that help or obstruct their efforts to climb out of entry points for poverty reduction interventions. Such

poverty. It is a revealing picture of the interlinked market- entry points could well be sector-specific, andrelated and socio-cultural forces that trap the poor into programmes need the flexibility to start by responding

poverty, and how they grapple with them, given their to the need identified regardless of the sector to which itmeans. pertains. After a few options have been developed to

address the entry point need, longer term sustainability7.2 Assessing Outcomes within the SL issues spanning several sectors can be more successfully

Framework explored and addressed. It is very important for external

agencies working with poor communities to acknowledgeAs communities working together with external and respond to their initial short-term vision, and use itresearchers move from the identification of problems to open up dialogues on sustainability of livelihoods. The

to prospective solutions, the SL framework becomes a' ~~~~~~~poor have more knowledge and expertise than anyone

useful tool for stimulating discussion and evaluating else about how to survive in difficult circumstances.

projected outcomes. In this study, the SL framework was Drawing that knowledge into a SL analysis could help

used to encourage participants to think about the variouscombine the strengths of both micro and macro

dimensions of livelihoods and the outcomes that couldperspectives on poverty. Box 39 showing Actions

be expected from interventions proposed (Box 40). recommended by the poor for addressing root causes

of their poverty at the Kalimantan site illustrates that poorAs this assessment exercise confirmed, poor communities

often have survival-focused livelihoods, not sustainability- men and women can be systematic and comprehensivefocused ones. This is both natural and inevitable. The in identifying solutions to their perceived problems.

preoccupation of the poor with short-term, survivalneeds is often a result of their felt lack of options. Poverty Poor local populations are logically the largest stakeholderreduction programmes have to work with them, and group regarding the sustainability of their livelihoods.

with stakeholders at other levels, to develop alternatives However, they are also likely to be the least powerful

so that sustainabilbty of resources and livelihoods and vocal about issues that concern them. Empoweringbecomes a feasible option for the poor rather than the poor to make their own livelihoods more secure andsomething which hampers their immediate survival. sustainable usually means finding ways to make

sustainability the win-win solution for both the poor and

Community facilitators' understanding of sustainablity the non-poor in a community. The local better-off andissues and their skill in guiding communities to increasingly more powerful minorities need to be helped to see that

include the whole picture in their analysis and planning the sustainability of the livelihoods of the poor majorityare key to the successful application of SL approaches. is necessary for their own good. Increasing inequitiesAt the same time, the perceptions of the poor are very breed lack of security for the well-off, sooner or later.

76

Findings: Livelihood Strategies and Outcomes Chapter Seven

Box 39: Actions recommended by the poor for addressing root causes of their poverty: forestry &agriculture-dependent community, West Kalimantan

No Cost Solutions 1. Information about family planning methods (so we can choose what is suitable)-> availability of the Bidan (trained midwife and source of information) atthe Polindes (village birthing clinic).

2. Information about how to make meals more healthy without incurring highcosts. We know about "4 is healthy, 5 is complete" It is impractical for us.

3. Training about organic agriculture (to replace chemical fertilizer & pesticidesthat have damaged our environment).

4. Develop an approach to involve those who feel hopeless due to past failuresand are unwilling to take initiative (i.e. an empowering, confidence - buildingapproach).

Low Cost Solutions 1. Information and know how for controlling rats.2 Deepening (desilting) and cleaning up vegetation from river & creeks, to prevent

frequent flooding of crops.3. Information about how to prevent/control diseases of rubber plants (Hybrid

varieties introduced in mid 1990s yield more than traditional variety, but aresusceptible to disease. Many new trees already died).

4. Traditional ceremonies to prevent droughts and protect rice crop.5. Scholarships for children from poorest families to continue schooling (otherwise

they would be withdrawn from school to help on field/harvesting fruit in peakseasons).

Medium Cost Solutions 1. Form rubber-farmers' cooperative (to avoid being exploited by monopolypractices of one buyer). An NGO is already assisting this process.

2. Buy medicines from shops / at Health Centre.3. Use Family Planning methods (more people will use if Family Planning services

are available free of charge).

High Cost Solutions I. Build irr-igationi and drainage canal - to prevent flooding and better managewater reaching crop fields.

2. Reforestation.3. Subsidized medicines / service at hospital, for the poor.

-GOveniniiert 's sutritionl cduc.itiori camnpaign recoimIT}cnidiJg a diet coisistiig of dfoodgizuips .0 lhc.ilthy'aiidonje coint.in1g 5 food group?s sconmplete'

A community-wide shared understanding of sustainability in Jakarta Post, November 9, 2000) Empowering

issues can be a community's best defence against outsiders interventions that make such outcomes possible could

exploiting common resources unsustainably. Examples take different forms when decided jointly with

include recent successful action by poor fishing communities, e.g. awareness generation, participatory

communities in Sulawesi to protect coral reefs and fish analysis and action planning, technical assistance, skill

breeding grounds from foreign trawlers, and the example training, equipment, law enforcement or wider public

of sustainable sea/land use planning carried out by the opinion building through mass media support.

Nusa Ceningan island community south of Bali (reported

77

Chapter Seven ffeindngs: liveilhood Strategies anrd Outcomes

Box 40: Evaluation of prospective interventions as concluded jointly by study participants and researchers

Interventions Suggested Will the Intervention:Increase Enhance Reduce Improve Promoteincomes well- vulnera food sustain

being bility security able useof naturalsources

COASTAL FISHING COMMUNITYReorganise local fisher's group 'Beriyuk Maju'so that poor fishers can become leaders andprincipal actors in the group.Facilitate capital building for fishing andmarketing of fish through group effort. M M M

Make sure participatory approaches are usedfor the above, in view of past history ofdominance and exploitation by the village elite.Religious teachings and counselling throughlocal institutions to promote stable marriageand reduce divorce. e M

Get local government's commitment toregulations and law enforcement to prohibituse of advanced fishing equipment in coastalwaters.

FOREST-FARM COMMUNITYF Return to traditional (adat) practices of

cultivation and use of forest resources. M M

Improve local community's ability for organicagro-forestry.

F Construct drinking water facility for year-round supply in the village. M

Reforestation. v M

Build irrigation system to control water incrop fields. c v M c

RICE CULTIVATING COMMUNITYIntroduce duck breeding by poor households. r e M M F

Skill training for young women, e.g. tailoring. v M

F Develop water supply system from local springs,to sell water to neighbouring hamlets. M M

Micro-credit facility that does not require collateral. v M M e

URBAN POOR COMMUNITYMicro-credit facility with low interest that does notrequire collateral, has quick & simple procedures,and gives advice on management, marketing &procedures.

F Develop economically viable self-employmentalternatives for unemployed youth and provideguidance

F Organise traders, vendors, other self-employed intogroups so that members support each other forcommon benefit in marketing, managing resources,diversification, credit and capital building.

78

Findings: Livelihood Strategies and Outcomes Chapter Seven

7.3 Sustainable Livelihood Solutions are . The fishling communities in Lombok that are suffering

Not Single-Community Issues due to external over-exploitation of their fishing area

need to be organised for collective action for marine

The solutions and alternatives suggested by members of resources conservation. But their organising efforts

the study communities differed considerably in terms would be worthwhile only if they were empowered

of how much outside help was needed. Natural resource by legislation and supported by law-enforcement

sustainability issues are particularly difficult for agencies to protect areas of the coastal seas from

communities to address on their own. Solutions generally environmentally destructive fishing practices, and to

require multi-community action, policy changes, and implement periodic, collectively agreed fishing bans

support from local government authority and law- in certain areas for fish stock regeneration. Poor

enforcement. The responsibility for making their fishers would also need well-targeted group

livelihoods sustainable cannot be borne by poor people organisation and group credit assistance to improve

alone, either individually or as communities. In a their capacity to fish in deeper seas, so that they are

decentralised government structure, the responsibility for not all overly dependent on coastal waters.

assistance lies largely in the hands of local governments.

The examples below, drawn from the study sites, * The rice growing community in West Java is paying

demonstrate the need for interventions that combine a the price of agricultural policies that make agricultural

number of levels: community awareness and production an unrealistically costly activity with

organisation, multi-community facilitation, local inadequate returns for small farmers. With so much

government support and enforcement, and national policy land (95%) owned by non-residents, the remainder

review. divided into tiny plots, and costs and prices set against

them, small holders, sharecroppers and labourers can

o The West Kalimantan community needs to join other do little to improve their livelihoods if they stay in

comTnunities in the river's catchment area for better the village. Under current conditions, their best

watershed management Only a collective approach strategy is to join the 40 per cent of village men who

offers a sustainable solution to the cycles of flood have migrated to the cities, where their presence makes

and drought they are experiencing. Various the livelihoods of poor urbanites still more precarious.

stakeholder communities in the watershed have to The situation in both village and the city could be

be brought together and offered external technical improved by policies that make agriculture more

assistance to understand and carry out their respective profitable for small farmers and sharecroppers. These

management roles. External logging concessions would include setting harvest procurement prices to

need to be banned from the watershed area so that assure a fair return to producers, publicising prices

the forests can regenerate and communities can to prevent commercial harvesters from capitalising

implement their collective plans. In addition, a return on farmers' ignorance, and structuring agricultural

to more traditional cropping practices, as desired credit facilities to favour sharecroppers and small land

by the community, may well be the strategy for owners over those who are already well off, according

more environmentally sustainable and profitable to local criteria of well being.

agriculture.

79

t ~'. . ... 0x

- tP.- !br

L -~~~3

PT1V his report has presented a summary of thestudy findings organised in terms of the four

components of the SL framework:

Vulnerability Contexts, Assets for Livelihoods,

Transforming Structures and Processes, and Livelihood

Strategies and Outcomes. Categorising peoples' everyday

experiences into a conceptual model has allowed

reconstruction of their reality in terms of macro-policy

issues. For a more holistic presentation of the findings in

each study site, the reader is encouraged to review the

four Site Reports which are available as technical reports

Policy Learn ng in English. Here, we focus on the kinds of polhcy insights

that can be drawn from the experience of this study.

Policy lessons are discussed below in three sub-sections.

The first deals with conceptualising different types and

purposes of anti-poverty interventions and programmes,

the second discusses the perspectives and skills policy

makers need to design effective strategies against poverty,

and the third summarises some of the 'messages' from

poor people to policy makers arising out of this study.

80

Policy Learning Chapter Eight

8.1 Interventions for What-Transformation, of policy and programming approaches and tools, the

Prevention, Alleviation, or Reduction? kind of conditions in which particular types of

interventions work best, and the types of outcomes they

From the perspective of participants in this study, there are likely to produce. They also need to be able to monitor

was little connection between their needs and poverty and challenge policies and programmes that are not

programmes provided by the government Given designed with the livelihoods of poor people in mind,

longstanding problems of inadequate services and but which affect them deeply. Examples encountered in

misused resources, poor people often reported their this study include the past promotion of rice production

impression that the government was not acting in their to reach the goals of self-sufficience and zero imports at

interests This suggests that government policy makers the expense of socially and environmentally sustainable

and programmers have a lot to learn from poor people. methods, or issuing of timber concessions for private

profit, with devastating effects on local resources and

Certainly, findings from this study highlight the need for livelihoods.

policy decision and programme design to be based on

local participation and knowledge. But we also learned Evidence from this study suggests that this sort of expertise

about the importance of a clear conceptual framework and attention to local situations has not usually guided

for policy-related work. Without such a framework, it is programming in poor communities, whether the

difficult to organise micro-level research findings into programmes are specifically targeted for the poor or

conclusions that are relevant and useful for policy-making more general From the point of view of many

at a more macro-level. participants in this study, services and programmes were

often counterproductive to their attempts to secure

It was clear from this study that, from the perspective sustainable livelihoods (e.g. inappropriate agricultural

of poor peoples' experience, the current collection of extension advice). Some worked at cross-purposes with

government poverty programmes lacks this kind of each other or with traditional community mechanisms

coherence. It follows that the government's approach to (e.g. programmes that replaced traditional practices with

anti-poverty policy will be ineffective if it continues to those inappropriate for local environmental conditions)

justify an eclectic assemblage of miscellaneous 'solutions'.

If a strategy does not hang together conceptually, it will 8.1.1 Types of Interventionnot do so in its implementation.

Applying the SL framework for the analysis of poverty

When policy analysts recommend responses to poverty, often reveals the need for interventions of several kinds,

do they know the relative strengths and limitations of at different levels. The emphasis on sustainability in the

the types of interventions they are choosing from? An SL approach clearly highlights the need for long term,

engineer certainly knows that some methods and tools systemic solutions to poverty, which usually implies

for bridge construction work in certain circumstances transforning the social, political and economic practices

and not in others, and will take the trouble to obtain and power distributions that give rise to poverty,

detailed analyses of local conditions over time before addressing its root causes. The SL approach also

proceeding Policy analysts and planners working with recognises the need to build on existing livelihood

poverty issues need to know the strengths and limitations strategies, rather than assuming a 'ground zero', and this

81

Chapter Eight Policy Learning

Box 41: Types of Anti-poverty Programming in Indonesia 20

Empowerment/Governance: aims to improve the functioning of state and social institutions, reform politicaland legal systems, enhance accountability of public administration, foster inclusive decentralisation, communityparticipation and empowerment, strengthen social capital, promote social equity, and tackle discrimination andsocial exclusion These measures act mainly as preventers and reducers of poverty by reforming currentsystems. They have considerable potential to transform systems and power relations.

Pro-poor Growth: aims to create conditions for equitable economic growth and wealth and resource distributionthat benefit the poor, reduce existing poverty, and achieve prosperity for all. These measures act to preventpoverty and reduce it. If equity is a strong component of these measures, they can be transforming (such aswhen they aim to dismantle exploitative economic and fiscal practices), but are reformist at best when the

emphasis is on growth rather than equity. Growth without equity tends to strengthen the status quo, and oftenworks against the interests of the poor.

Social Protection/ Security: interventions to provide protection against sudden shocks and downturns whetherthey are international, national, local, familial or individual. Protection/risk aversion measures include. bettersystems for reducing financial, social and natural risks and major health risks (e.g. HIV/AIDS), and averting andaddressing conflict. In Indonesia, social risks have been typically looked after through traditional communitymechanisms, but there is a growing movement to have government take over responsibility to ensure systematisedsecurity for basic needs (e.g. health care, income, care for the elderly) and protection in times of crisis. These

measures are not exclusively targeted for the poor. They are primarily poverty prevention measures, but theycan also contribute to reduction and alleviation. The more social protection measures are geared toward

strengthening community-based solutions, the more they are aligned with empowerment and transformation.Measures that rely on large, bureaucratic systems tend to promote continuation of the status quo.

Pro-poor Measures or Poverty Mainstreaming: promote analysis of, adjustments and improvements togeneral policies (e.g. rice pricing polices, land-use policies, environmental controls), mass programmes (e.g.

education and health services) and practices (e.g. agricultural extension services, business practices) so that theydo not harm or exclude the poor, but rather operate in the interests of the poor and the elimination of poverty.These interventions can aim to reform or transform underlying structural causes of poverty through social,economic, political and governance practices. They can be effective poverty preventers and reducers. Theyalso enhance the appropriateness of alleviation programmes when the latter supplement, rather than substitute

for, pro-poor measures.

Safety Nets: a set of stop gap, temporary measures and programmes intended to alleviate poverty by targetingthe poor (e.g. nutritional supplements for poor school children, food for work programmes). They provide

essential relief from the worst affects of poverty, especially in times of crisis. They deal with symptoms - and

only superficially and temporarily - not causes, and thus do not disturb the status quo. Since they are aimed onlyat people who are already poor, they do not prevent poverty, but may prevent an intensification of poverty in

the short term. Because they have no sustainability, they are not effective measures for reducing poverty, andthey do not aim to either transform or reform systems or practices.

20 Based on El7abeth Grrnere, Coniceptual Frameworks ifrAAnt-Poverty Iterventions, 2001 (draft)

82

Policy Learning Chapter Eight

often means working with existing structures and Overall this suggests that selection of interventions for

institutions white attempting to reform them. Finally, SL anti-poverty strategies needs careful weighing, and that

understandings of the negative effects of shocks that transformation and reform are priorities for creating and

destroy or disrupt lives and livelihoods and cause people sustaining an environment in which the poor are

to undertake distress migration, short-run resource empowered to reach their potential, and barriers to their

extraction, or other drastic measures for immediate doing so are removed.

survival suggests the need to alleviate some of the most

serious symptoms of poverty, while working towards But a balanced strategy also requires elements of the other

sustainability in the longer term. measures listed in Box 41. Ongoing prevention measures

are needed to reduce risks and ensure an environment

There are five broad categories of anti-poverty of security, and pro-poor prioritisation of government

programming current in Indonesia, promoted variously efforts is required to steadily redirect and reform policies,

by government, non-government and donor agencies. budgets and services to equitably serve the poor and

The SL framework offers a means of evaluating the reduce the incidence of poverty. As a last resort

different approaches in terms of their capacity to bring emergency measures should be available to allevlate the

about reform, transformation, or alleviation. The results more severe effects of sudden shocks to well being. And,

are summarised in Box 41. as learned from this study, choosing particular measures

and programmes can only be done effectively by

8.1.2 Getting at the Roots understanding local conditions and obtaining input from

poor people themselves.

A key message from the poor as they described their

realities for this study is the need to address root, systemic 8.1.3 Transforming Power Structures and

causes of poverty. Unless these are dealt with Relations

comprelhensively, poverty and vulnerability will be

recreated and will persist. In this study there was ample 'Empowerment' and 'governance' represent welcome

evidence of 'poverty programmes' co-opted into additions to international thinking about poverty22 These

exploitative power operations so that the rich and concepts seem to have 'arrived', as they have been rapidly

powerful gained while the poor did not. Because so many taken up by governments, donors and civil society groups.

of the root causes revealed in this study deal with power Government of Indonesia has adopted empowerment

and exploitation, tackling this requires more than good as one of the pillars of its draft poverty strategy,2 3 and

programmes. It also requires political will to transform has already made commitments to construct institutional

and reform the basis of social and economic relations units to implement it.

that define Indonesian society.2 '

21 Dis w.7s noted in thie in.ugurl speech of Jndo?es.o 's Preoidenit W.71c when he einphissed thedneed to address the bdsis inequities ii Ihdoniesi.i society and itis taken upin

the fiin nXGovernnientpohcydocusneiits the GBHNand the PROPENAS

22 77i5s ivas oe of the three themes ofAttack iiig Poverty World Development Report 2000/2001 The XVorJd Bank 2000

23 Hadisumarto Dr Djunaedi Poverty Reductioni Strateyin Incdonesia. prsentstioi at Conisutative Group fbr hidoniesia iieteniy Toky, October2000 Governnientoflndonesli.

83

Chapter Eight P'olicy [Learnin~g

This emphasis is helping to refocus poverty discussions processes they currently feel repressed by continue as

on people, communities and power. It also serves as a before.

reminder that poverty is not an inevitable and timeless

reality, rather it is repeatedly created and perpetuated by 8.1.4 Holism at the Local Level

inequitable and exclusionary systems and practices. But it

should be noted that the emerging popular discourse on This study highlights thieholistic, dynamic and interconnected

'empowerment' is mainly reformist: it seeks to adjust, nature of community realities It makes sense to seek ways

rather than transform, existing social and economic to bring different types of anti-poverty interventions together

systems and relations, synergistically. However, an eclectic bundle of interventions

is not synergy - in fact these different measures and their

In this study poor people talked a great deal about how different delivery mechanisms can work at odds with one

they were constrained, disempowered and exploited by another unless they are carefully harmonised at the

a social order that facilitates monopolies of power and community level. This would seem to be a more appropriate

information. In Sections Six and Seven of this document challenge for local, rather than central government. More

we discussed the need for anti-poverty efforts to deal accurately, for local govemnance, since devising anti-poverty

with issues of power and power sharing. It is worth measures requires input and wisdom from a broad cross

asking what kind of 'community empowerment' can section of stakeholders: the poor and the better off in

address the ingrained and self-perpetuating imbalances communities, their leaders and civil society organisations, as

of power that characterise the patterns of poverty and well as business, parliament and local government leaders

exploitation observed in this study. This question becomes and officials. Broad consultation does not eliminate thle power

even more germane when applied to so-called dynamics at work in a given situation, but it is an essential

'community empowerment' programmes controlled and step in 'getting it right' that is, formulating workable strategies

administered by the elite themselves, to combat poverty.

WbTile poor people can surely benefit from measures that Developing democratic, consultative processes may sound

help them find their voice and demonstrate their agency, daunting to fledgling local governments, but this kind of

how useful will this be if repressive and exploitative openness and accountability is what is being recommended

practices are not dismantled? Undoubtedly, as fundamental to good governance and service

democratisation and decentralisation hold some potential effectiveness generally. A pro-poor perspective should be

for this. But the people we talked to are deeply suspicious integrated into the routine workings of local government

of government officials and the elite. They are very much (policy, planning, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation): it

aware of how the dealings of the powerful are conducted does not need an elaborate administrative machinery of its

in their communities. Their distrust and cynicism will only own.

deepen if 'community empowerment' reinforces rather

than transforms the relations of power that hold in check All of thils points to the necessity for government, donors

their potential and ability to emerge from poverty, and civil society groups to choose their anti-poverty strategies

Donors are beginning to ask how to operationalise carefully, on the basis of local knowledge and wisdom about

notions of empowerment of the poor. They will need poverty conditions and the measures best suited to address

to ask the poor how empowered they will be if the them.

84

Policy Learning Chapter Eight

8.2 Pm-poor Perspectives, Skills and Tools The SL framework used in this study is one example of

for Policy Makers a useful framework or lens for policy analysts. It proved

helpful in clarifying relational dynamics among social,

In this study, so much of what we saw as standing in the cultural, institutional, economic, environmental and

way of poor people being able to reduce their risks and governance factors, without obscuring their complexity.

move out of poverty had to do with imbalances of This is demonstrated in Figure 17 which summarises the

power and poorly designed and delivered services. The study findings within the SL framework. Such analysis

World Bank report on poverty 24 provides an overview may help policy makers select areas for intervention, and

of some of these problems and suggests a number of prioritise or redirect effort and expenditure.

solutions. It also proposes that transparency and local

accountability will mitigate many of the problems of This kind of visual tool can also be useful for linking

poor service from government systems. macro and micro realities. This study has emphasised

the importance of linking strategic policy decisions to

But what about the role of policy-makers? What changes practical understanding of the dynamics of how poor

in perspectives, skills and tools will those at the centre people manage their assets and risks to obtain their

and those now assuming policy roles in the regions need livelihoods, and how they are actors and decision-makers,

to meet the challenges of a new paradigm of anti- rather than passive recipients of programmes. While

poverty strategies and polices? Some suggestions, based policies may appear balanced and economically

on what was learned in this study, are listed below. convincing at the macro level (e.g. privatisation of state

owned enterprises to increase state revenue) they do not

Policy analysts, decision-makers and planners need to necessarily favour sustainability for poor peoples'

develop a pro-poor perspective. This includes an attitude livelihoods (e.g. when they reduce access by the poor to

ot attentiveness and respect for poor peoples' conditions, common property resources).

knowledge and ideas - a willingness to seek out and listen

to their voices at all stages of programme design, Policy measures that remain a central responsibility willimplementation and evaluation. It also implies the need to take into account the impact on the poor of

development of skills and the use of tools to work decentrallsing administrative authority National policy

effectively with poor people - such as consultation skills, standards can ensure sustainability of livelihoods for the

social and gender analysis, and participatory methods of poor in domains that continue to be of national

data collection and analysis. importance, such as natural resources management, health

and education. In this environment the skills of policy

An important set of tools for pro-poor policy analysts analysts to recognise and work through the seeming

are analytical frameworks or 'lenses' which allow them disjunctions that arise between micro and macro analyses

to 'see' the dynamics and interrelationships of poor will be critical.

peoples' struggles and strategies to avoid poverty and

cope with it. Analysts who see communities as grids of Policy makers and programmers require at least some

sectoral needs to which technical responses can be applied theoretical knowledge about the social, economic

have missed - and will continue to miss - entry points for and political dimensions of poverty to effectively

effective interventions. diagnose causes, local conditions and appropriate

24 PoveMlRcduction in IndonesIa Contructing a NewStr;teq, WorldBank, Novenmber2001

85

Chapter Eight Policy Learning

SL FRAMEWORK SUMMARY OF FINDINGS FROM 4 COMMUNITIESPlaced in the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework

* Declining access to natural resources. * Lack of access to credit and other means of production.

* Unaffordability ot health & tamily * Earning opportunities too few, seekers too many.1planning services.

. * ~~~~~~~~~~~~Low education / earning skills and lack of options to develop* Unatiordability of post primary schooling

& skill development opportunities. * Social cohesion strong within rural poor, but capacity for mutual support limited.

* Inability to protect one's livelihood from*Phsclastimrvnforulporintrsfradeetiiyadtasotto.natural disasters, exploitat ion by owners*Phsclastimrvnforuaporintrsfradeetiiyadtasotto.

of lieglaihodnssesadat-orPlce * Increasing conflict and crime, specially among urban poor and youth due to lack of \/ regulations,~~~~~~~~~ employment.

* Cultural norms make womien morevulnerable to poverty than men in some * Environmental degradation-land, sea, forests, rivers, particularly in the past 10 years.regions.

--o

Figure 1 7: The SL Framework Summary of Findings from the 4 communities

86

Policy Learning Chapter Eight

KNTARANsFORMING SUTIRUCTURESC~ * Low, irregular, uncertain

Governance at community level opaque. Works againstr rOING) income. More so in urban

the poor and in favor of the non-poor minority. areas.

Private sector exploits poor governance at * Several * Overexploitation of increasingly smaller * Linle well-being, except

community levels to usurp natural resources policies for quantities of natural resources available for seaaonally in non-urban areaa.

and community assets reducing the access Land use, Food the poor by an increasingly larger number Vulnerabilify continually high,

to the poor to them. import, Agriculture, of competing poor households in any specially higher seasonally in

Natural Resources community. nall rer sed

NGOs assistance successful in / are disempowering and nafur retes.

addressing limitations of access hurting the livelihoods * Large scale cyclic migration from rural to communbes,

on human & financial capital. of the poor. urban areas by men. * Food security needs met by

Some technological advances * Daily lending and borrowing relationship adjusting food intake to

P articipatorypproaches are damaging traditional livelihoods between urban moneylenders and the poor availab ility and materials, e.g.

increasingly used in of the poor-no protection is available enables the poor carry on day-to-day trading Perioda of hunger recur,

development, hel ie from policies/regulations, activities. aceptedas ofhnoermal.ur

voice to the poor /Development programs operate with little * Non-use of health and family planning * Awareness of user - rights

sensitivity to gender issues, sometimes services a) sickness untreated, loss of growing among poor

pushing women further into poverty, income and capacity to earn, b) unplanned communities dependent onfamilies, further impoverishment. local natural resources. They

Community institutions formed by the poor for al natur a tion and

mutual self-help are effective in reducing vulnerability * Non investment in children's education are seeking facilitation and

/ of the poor. Not recognized nor supported by government beyond primary level, perceived lack of job one's right and sustain natural

/ agencies, at times even disrupted by them. skill training in the secondary educational resources.system.

TRANSFORMING STRUCTURES * Overdependence on naturalresource base, but little controlon its unsustainable exploitation

IS % by outsiders.

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Chapter Eight Policy Learning

interventions. In the past, if this analysis happened at all, 8.3.1 'Listen to Us'

it was left to technicians or technocrats with expertise in

economics or engineering, and no knowledge of social How can any programme be relevant to the poor? It

or governance dynamics. Often, diagnosis and decisions must start by programmers talking to poor people, asking

were made by officials who had never set foot in a poor them what can help, listening to what they say and taking

village or city slum. In a field that is increasingly defined action in response.

in terms of socio-political concepts (empowerment,

participation, governance, equity) this suggests a need for With the exception of a few NGO-run efforts,

reskilling. With poverty affecting half of the Indonesian programmes for poverty reduction in Indonesia have

population, it cannot be relegated as a side activity for' ~~~~~~~~~~~not functioned this way. During the SL study and the

policy analysts whose expertise lies elsewhere. World Bank's 1999 Consultations with the Poor In

Indonesia, poor men and women unanimously reportedFinally, the logic of strategies, policy and programmedecisions needs to be made explicit. Box 41 outlined the that government officials never ask their opinion and no

one listens to them. Sometimes this leads to losses ratherparameters and capabilities of typical programme typesin terms of their potential to address root causes of than benefits to the poor. At other times the programmes

poverty: whether they facilitate transformation or reform do not touch their lives at all.

of conditions giving rise to poverty, or act to prevent,

reduce or alleviate poverty. An analysis as simple as this The implication is that

can add considerably to understanding the potentials and

limitations of interventions, and how they can be applied e the capacity and willingness of government systems

synergistically. Of course this kind of theoretical work is and officials to interact with poor people and respond

not much use if it is not integrated with specific to what they say will be one critically important

information and direction from communities, and determinant of programme effectiveness in a

particularly poor people themselves. decentrallsed Indonesia. Seeking out and using

institutions that are trusted by the poor in each region

8.3 Paying Attention to What Poor People for administering poverty alleviation programmes

Want could be the key to improving programme

effectiveness.Our studies in the four sites clearly confirm that poor

people want to be in a situation where the household local women and men should be able to* poorloawoeanmeshudbabetcan earn an adequate livelihood without undue exposure exercise adequate voice and choice in determining

to risk. For most households living in poverty today, the the forms of assistance most relevant for their

priorities are adequate food (especially affordable livelihoods. When provided with adequate

foodstuffs) and sufficient means for basic necessitiesinformation, they can determine whether or not an

including children's education, health care for the family,

and adequate shelter and clothing. In achieving this, poor

people participating in this study would like the following their views and experiences are key to assessing

from their governmcnt, community leaders and the outcomes.

private sector:

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Policy Learning Chapter Eight

8.3.2 'We All Want to Participate' both before and during program implementation

should receive high priority and adequate resource

This study and several others cited in this report provide allocations. One important criterion for judging the

ample evidence that the voices of the poor are stifled in effectiveness of poverty reduction programs should

community fora and decisions are routinely made by the be the extent of awareness of program provisions

community's elite minority in an opaque manner. Also they create among their primary target groups, i.e.

there are gender variations with regard to access to the poor and the more disadvantaged among the

information and opportunities. Women hear last and the poor.

least about everything They are routinely excluded from

community level mechanisms for information * local development programmes should be

dissemination and decision-making. They will continue accountable to all their 'clients' It is the most

to be so excluded unless programmes of all kinds use marginallsed groups who should evaluate

appropriate strategies to reach and empower them, and programme effectiveness and quality. Criteria should

project managers and implementers are accountable for also include whether or not they ensure gender equity

ensuring that gender equity is a routine outcome of and promote sustainability, and the extent to which

programming. the primary target group is aware of programme

provisions. It is the poorer peoples' assessments of

This study showed a concentration of power in the hands performance and quality that should influence

of regional, sub-regional and even hamlet level officials decisions about resources, management and

that will simply be reinforced unless particular measures implementation.

are taken to dismantle these power and information

monopolies in the process of decentralisation. Greater e greater accountability to the poor will need to be

participation of community members, including poor built into administrative mechanisms of local

women and men and other marginalised groups means governments. This will require stakeholder

greater transparency in policy and decision making, and consultations before initiating new projects, involving

real accountability to these groups. So does better publicity local legislators in public debates over proposed

about contents of programmes through multiple channels initiatives, and public audits of ongoing and

before and during programme implementation. These completed projects involving intended beneficiary

measures can be instruments to open up decision-making communities. Adequate budgets will need to be built

and resource allocation to scrutiny, a practice more into programmes for these purposes

important than ever in the context of decentralisation.

8.3.3 'Work with the Institutions We Trust'

The implication is that

The institutions that are trusted sources of information

o Poverty reduction programs should break the line and considered valuable by the poor are usually the

administration's'monopoly on information' practised indigenous ones. Conversely, those not trusted or

during the past regime. Wide publicity through considered unimportant to the lives of the poor include

multiple channels about the contents of programs many government extension workers, government credit

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Chapter Eight Policy Learning

institutions for farmers (KUT), 'groups' formed solely interest loans without collateral, lengthy procedures or

for the purpose of receiving government programme inconvenience

assistance, and the LKMD (village council established

by a government decree). The village or sub-village head The implication is that

may or may not be trusted, depending on the individuals

involved. o micro credit programmes need to be redesigned

with and for the poor so that they really reach the

Indigenous institutions that sustain the livelihoods of the poor and are of relevance to them. Rather than using

poor often represent the most appropriate and workable vertical administrative channels for micro-credit

solutions to their problems. Unfortunately, government- programmes, existing mutual support groups of

run poverty reduction programmes have often ended poor women and men in both rural and urban areas

up damaging useful indigenous institutions by imposing can be built on, with, where necessary, the help of

upon poor communities external models of community trusted social intermediaries and banking institutions.

organisation devised in distant cities and seats of power.Family Planning: In all the study sites, a major factor

The implication is that that keeps people poor and raises the incidence ofpoverty is the constantly growing pressure of population

o local governments need to identify indigenous mutual on resources. Declining access to land is primarily a

support institutions of the poor, understand how consequence of steady population growth, as is

they work and build on their strengths, channelling overcrowding in urban areas, and competition for access

support for poverty reduction through them where to various resources. The poor, more particularly poor

appropriate. This implies a major change in current women, are conscious of the problem, but most are not

systems of channelling funds through administrative using contraception due to (perceived) high costs and

hierarchies, and a need to work through local non- the lack of information or choice about alternative

government intermediaries (e.g. religious methods. For that reason much more serious attention

organisations, NGOs) trusted by the poor. must be given to population control.

8.3.4 'We Know What We Need (and What We The implication is that

Don't Need)'o Family Planning campaigns need to be adapted to

While certain types assistance needed by community local concerns, practices and needs. Free or more

groups were location-specific (e.g. flood prevention in affordable contraceptives for the poor should be

the West Kalimantan study site), a few with policy provided. Information about choices and available

implications were consistently mentioned everywhere. services should be designed for the poor and

distributed at the lowest administrative level. The

Micro credit: Credit policies designed specifically to assist campaign should be placed in the context of general

the poor with daily needs as well as working capital for improvement in family welfare, which includes better

farming and small business undertakings were mentioned health services for all and in particular for poor

frequently. The poor require direct access to small, low- households.

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Policy Learning Chapter Eight

Education and Training: The poor are disadvantaged Land use policies: Existing policies have worked against

by the low quality of education at both primary and the poor both in rural and urban areas. Conversion of

secondary levels. Secondary school students need practical productive agricultural land to other uses, even when

opportunities to learn job skills for the current land is needed for community facilities like schools and

employment market, including the informal sector health centres, inevitably leads to a loss of jobs for the

Earning prospects for school graduates could be poor, as well as loss of a natural resource and its produce.

improved if attention were given to employability of Similarly, timber concessions and large scale plantation

poor students for whom attending secondary school can agriculture displace traditional forest uses and

happen only at great sacrifice on the parents' part. At management regimes, and destroy local livelihoods.

present even those who reach high school do not find

that it equips them with immediate earning skills. . The implication is that

The implication is thatc governments at all levels should enforce a regulation

that has long existed but has been consistently ignore&* curricula and teaching practices in secondary schools loductiv e buturas lan shouly nore

need to include knowledge relevant to peoples' lives productive agricultural land should not be

and needs, and should be able to prepare students converted to other uses.

for employment. They should also equip youth toactively participate in re-shaping their communities. v the status of forest land held under customary (adat)

tenure needs to be resolved within a framework of

* scholarships for poor children should be equity and sustainability.

continued and expanded at both primary and

secondary school levels, together with programmes c the low-cost Land Certification Programme (LAP)

which provide operational funds for poor schools. conducted by the National Land Agency should be

Such programmes need to be designed and managed continued, especially in less prosperous areas, to give

with input from poor people. security of tenure to the poor. This same agency needs

to face the question of 'squatters' in a realistic wayAgricultural Policies: National rice policy has for some that favours the poor.

time been directed toward meeting the needs of urban

consumers to the point where rice producers, in particular * Concepts and decisions about what is actually state

small farmers and sharecroppers, feel their interests have land should be revised. In places where people have

been completely ignored. been living on land of unclear status for more than

The implication is that twenty years, they should earn rights to that land.

New Technologies: Participants in this study related* national agricultural policies need to be reviewed to

ensure that rural producers obtain a fitting return for how the introduction of new technology and new

their labour without neglecting the needs of low- institutions in agriculture and fishing can place the poor

incomie urban consumers, at a disadvantage. Although innovations may lead to a

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Chapter Eight Policy Learning

more efficient use of land and labour, landlessness and This requires not just restitching the former patchwork

unequal access to such technologies mean that jobs for of 'poverty' programmes, but a comprehensive approach

the poor are more likely to be eliminated than created. that overhauls governance and service configuration and

delivery. This will certainly benefit the poor and reduce

The implication is that poverty. But these measures are needed as well for the

other half of Indonesia's population who are not poor,

o central and local governments will need to develop and on whom, as has been demonstrated in this study,

pro-poor policies about the introduction and the livelihoods of the poor largely depend. A sound and

adaptation of new technologies in poor communities. comprehensive strategy for poverty reduction benefits

This would require participatory appraisal in which everyone. Continuous existence of poverty and inequity

the impact of technology on the livelihoods of is a drain on the economy, and will keep Indonesia from

the poor would be analysed. This should include realising its full development potential.

analysis of who owns and uses the technology, who

benefits and who loses out. A comprehensive strategy appropriate to a country with

half its population either poor or highly vulnerable to8.3.5 'But Do You Know What You Are Doing?' poverty, could be one that-

This study demonstrated that it is not obvious to poor o prioritises pro-poor govemance and budgeting as

people at the community level that the government either its primary poverty reduction intervention, urgently

cares about reducing poverty or knows how to do it. and in the medium term.

Since government planners have not asked them about

what would help, how could they know what will work? builds up risk reduction and protection measures

In fact, what poor people in this study described as' ~~~~~~~~~~~~~In a way that takes Into account macro-policy and

government polices were usually the things they said made

their lives worse, or were ineffective, or benefited the mi- tices,uades alisticallyagrond in aassessment of resources, and the implications of a

wrong people. decentralising and reforming environment.

How can the government at its various levels convinceo continues direct assistance where necessary and

the poor that it really knows what will make their lives b

better, and that it is committed to doing so? Obviously beneficial (e.g. locally controlled emergency micro-better, andtatitiscomittetodings?Obvouslycredit and school scholarships for the poor); de-

developing trust is a tall order. But a genuine attempt to e

connect with poor people and understand their needs,

and a few more success stories about measures that really centrally-managed; but retains the capacity to inflate

work (from the perspective of the poor) would make a or deflate well-targeted, locally administered

difference. emergency alleviation depending on need.

92

MAIL ie:7

LT t his section has outlined policy lessons

indicated by the findings of the study. Theseinclude suggestions for interventions, but -

perhaps more importantly - they suggest that theconditions in which interventions take place needtransforming. To implement the new anti-poverty

paradigms that put people first, demand accountability,and change relations of power, the perceptions and skillsof policy analysts and decision-makers will needconsiderable reorientation. We hope this study has

Sum m ing Up contributed to the knowledge of the direction this needsto take.

Key messages about poverty reduction learned from this

study

* Consult the poor through carefully designedparticipatory means to understand how povertyaffects their lives, and how they identify its causes

and solutions.

93

Summingup

o Don't waste peoples' time and effort: design education, agricultural extension services) are more

research and consultations so that the findings can important to poor people than poverty programmes.

be used.o Policies affecting poverty include pricing, land laws,

* Input and involvement from poor people is justice, natural resource management, financial

required for effective design and implementation of services, infrastructure and markets. Policy

interventions of any type, whether general or poverty- interventions to reduce poverty must be

focused. correspondingly broad.

* 'Community' consultations must avoid being hi- o The misuse of power is a key cause of poverty: it

jacked by local elites. Attend to the differential effects needs to be understood and addressed.

of gender, and work to include the poorest groups o Empowerment includes dismantling exploitative

and women.systems and practices.

O Income IS only one of the assets required for o Better governance is a key to poverty reduction.sustainable livelihoods.

* Livelihood .strategies are mediated by both the This SL study has demonstrated over and over the urgent

political/ institutional and the natural or physical need for a pro-poor approach. The study documents

environmeht. Outsiders cannot begin to understand how the poor are constrained by inadequate and corrupt

cormiplex risk/asset packages, cycles and trends governance, unfair practices and poor quality services.

without learning from the poor themselves. Fixing this through systemic reforms and appropriateadjustment in budget priorities can have a significant and

o Identifying root causes of poverty and vulnerability lasting effect on reducing poverty. The SL study has also

is within the capability of poor people, and they want shown where key points of entry exist, and has suggested

these causes, not just symptoms, to be addressed. measures - some of them quite simple - that could be

* Anti-poverty approaches and interventions taken to enhance poor peoples' ability to get out of cycles

have specific strengths and limitations: policy makers of poverty and achieve sustainable livelihoods. Many of

need to understand these to devise optimal plans. these points are elaborated in World Bank Indonesia'sPoverty Assessment document 20 0 0 25 into a

* Appropriate and quality services (e.g. health and comprehensive framework that could lead to a strategy.

25 PovertyReduction in Indonesia Constructnga New Strategy, World Bank 2001

94

Appendix:

Methodological Issues and Considerations

T his study demonstrated the SL framework The SL approach provides a consistent framework for

to be highly appropriate for poverty assessment assessing complex factors and relationships across a

in Indonesia. This is primarily because it enables diverse range of sites It also provides a means of

poverty to be examined in a holistic manner along with organising rich qualitative information, and attending to

its causal contexts, rather than through piecemeal the variations in experiences of poverty between

exploration of expenditures and incomes as has communities. It allows patterns to emerge from the data,

traditionally been done by socio-economic surveys. The as livelihoods strategies are compared, while still

SL framework, combined with field techniques that permitting meaningful analysis of the particularities of

encourage participation, especially by the poorer each site. This is because the SL framework is not used

members of the community, enabled a more complete to measure poverty per se, but rather to focus on people's

picture of poverty. This Appendix considers responses to impoverishing forces and the sustainability

methodological issues in the application of the SL of the strategies they adopt. It therefore reveals processes

framework in varying contexts. by which communities periodically move in and out of,

as well as up and down within, the states they label

1 Adapting the SL Framework 'poverty' Applying this approach in the present study,

the researchers became increasingly convinced that a key

The methodology used in the application of the SL to sustainable poverty reduction is understanding these

approach and framework must be appropriate to each very processes and working with them

situation in which poverty is to be assessed, since it is

impossible to devise one methodology that will be equally The SL focus on understanding processes, rather than

suitable throughout a country the size of Indonesia. precise measurement of outcomes, is illustrated by the

Although the SL approach proved effective as a means use of the Livelihoods Assets pentagons (Figures 11-

of assessing poverty in the four sites in Indonesia, further 14). During secondary analysis, the pentagon became a

adaptations should be made to increase its relevance for tool to help the researchers visualise and discuss each

urban contexts. Adaptations are also needed according community in relation to its access to livelihood assets. It

to the purpose of an SL assessment: whether it is intended also helped to reveal the critical limiting factors (the

to help plan for a poverty alleviation program, establish shortest and shortening arms of the pentagon) in each

a new project, monitor the effects of government policies type of community, whlich if not addressed could be

and macro processes on the poor, or some other barriers to sustainable poverty reduction. This form of

purpose visual analysis could be very useful for building staff

95

Appendix Methodological Issues and Considerations

capacity in agencies working with communities in area- and the time needed for introductions to the community.

based development projects. It can deepen understanding The four communities studied ranged in size from 82

of the sustainability challenge that different types of households in West Kalimantan to 330 in Surabaya. A

communities face. It can help identify entry points as well period of 7-10 days for data collection was not long

as strategies for expanding the scope of interventions enough in most sites, particularly since travel time had to

towards longer-term, sustainable development. Such be included in this period and since baseline data were

visualsation can help community facilitators understand available only for the West Kalimantan site At least

how to combine people's expressed immediate priorities, fourteen days, not including travel to the study site, would

which may be one dimensional and focused on short- be needed to obtain detailed information about many

term-gains, with greater sustainability-focused thinking of the complex aspects outlined in the SL framework,

and planning. such as livelihood, vulnerability and coping strategies.

With appropriate adaptation, including some simplification These observations however are made from the external

of terminology, it may be possible to extend this type researchers' perspectives. Convenience of the participating

of analysis into field research, so that community community and the amount of time that they can afford

participants themselves are engaged. This could help to contribute for such a study should be the ultimate

broaden the focus of primary (community) analysis from deciding factors for duration of field work. When there

immediate needs to longer term sustainability concerns. is a possibility of an ongoing relationship with an external

During the training and analysis workshops for this study agency for improving community situations, people may

a number of the field researchers who were drawn from be willing to invest more of their time because

local communities and were not trained in analysis were participatory research can lead to action Fieldwork time

able to understand and relate the concept to their own for the present study was limited to 7-10 days for ethical

community situations with concrete ideas. All researchers, reasons, since there was no significant ongoing benefit

who came from a variety of academic, research and NGO directly accruing to local populations from their

activist backgrounds, found this type of analysis easy to participation.

understand and apply to the data collected. Through the

processes of learning and applying this analytical It makes a significant difference in both time and efficiency

framework, then analysing results in terms of it, they if fieldworkers are already personally acquainted with

developed a shared understanding of what constitutes the community. In the study design it was felt that

the multi-dimensional concept of sustainability. fieldworkers with knowledge of local languages and

traditions would be an advantage in the sites outside Java.

2 Duration of Field Work, Local While there is no question about the importance of such

Familiarity, and Report Preparation knowledge, it turned out that the inclusion of people

personally acquainted with the community through

One major lesson learned about the study design was previous activities was a far greater advantage.

the inadequacy of the time allocated for fieldwork. The

length of time needed for studies of this kind is closely By contrast, although three of the fieldworkers for the

related to such factors as the size of the pool of West Java study were fluent in the local language

appropriate researchers, the availability of baseline data, (Sundanese) and two had worked in the wider region in

96

Methodological Issues and Considerations Appendix

projects of a different kind, none of the four had ever . At other sites, especially in Surabaya and West Java

visited the village in which the study hamlet was located. where local people were not included in fieldwork

Much more time was needed there than in West teams, it was more difficult to get people together

Kalimantan for the fieldwork team to meet the lurah for group sessions. People tended to be curious at

and other village-level officials in order to explain the first and then to lose interest after concluding that

purpose of the study. Only then could they introduce there was no immediate advantage in participating.

themselves to the hamlet community that was the subject Some had initially assumed that the presence of

of the study. It therefore took some time for fieldworkers 'outsiders' indicated the possibility of a project of

to establish the relationship of trust needed for research some kind, or at least (as in Surabaya) the resumption

of this kind. In all, the team spent twelve days in this site. of cheap rice distribution.

The writing of site reports of data collection by fieldwork e At the urban site in Surabaya, where sources of

teams proved to take considerably longer than the five livelihood are extremely heterogeneous and people

days allowed in the original design. The rcasons include - have widely differing daily schedules, it was

the scope and complexity of the data collected and the particularly difficult to find suitable times for group

fact that man)' team members were not accustomed to sessions. Bycontrast, the element of seasonality made

writing the type of site report required for the SL poverty it relatively easy to assemble women's groups in West

study. Java: rice planting had been completed and they had

no work. In both areas it was more difficult to get

3 Participatory Methods in Practice men to participate in group sessions, though for

different reasons. At the WestJava site, most men of

Besides factual information, this study required collective productive age had gone to the cities in quest of

analysis of trends, causal relationships and values attached employment.

to choices by community groups. Thus the methodology

combined group analysis with individual interviews to . At some sites very poor people were unavailable

further probe sensitive issues. Both methods had their during the day because they work extremely long

advantages and limitations in specific situations, as hours and were unable to set time aside even at night

explained below It should be pointed out that many of Those available for discussions or interviews tended

these issues have to do more with the participatory nature to be either elderly men and women who no longer

of the study, and would have been the case whether or work, or women who do not work because their

not the SL framework was used. However they are worth husbands have regular salaries. Thus in those cases

noting the voices of the very poor were probably not

sufficiently included.

e In some cases the study proved a popular event in

the community and far too many people turned up * The introductory meeting was usually not sufficient

at group sessions to allow easy discussion. At one to do away with doubts about the reason for the

site the presence of noisy children and babies at all presence of fieldwork teams. Thus in initial group

sessions involving women constrained discussion, sessions people were not willing to make critical

since field team members had to help keep the remarks in public about issues of any significance

children entertained. Rather, they simply repeated either government policy

97

Appendix Methodological Issues and Considerations

statements or very general information that was detail through individual case studies and individual

already well known. This reflected a cultural or 2-3 person interviews. Field research requires

reluctance to express unfavourable or negative constant adjustment of tools and techniques in

comments as well as apprehension about the 'real' response to group dynamics. Failure to adjust,

purpose of the study. These issues were addressed respond, and follow up appropriately can lead to

as the study proceeded and through more in-depth misreporting things people are embarrassed to talk

interviews. about in public, missing sensitive but important issues

about which people do not share common

o As is common in community level discussions, locally experiences, or emphasising less important facts

prominent persons frequently attempted to dominate simply because participants found them easier to talk

group sessions and even manipulate discussion about.

outcomes. In such cases the sensitivity of the

facilitator to the undercurrents is critically important. o These realities also highlight the importance of

Skilled facilitators know which issues are better combining group methods with individual

followed up with selected individuals in a more respondent-based ones. In some group situations

private and less threatening setting The point is well departures by an individual from what is seen by the

illustrated by the following case: group as 'the truth' were challenged. We also observed

that the more articulate and vocal the community

Durmga group session a woman said thatshereceived an members were, the more available they were for

agnculturalwagewellbelowtheaamountstatedbyaprommnent group sessions and interviews. Often they were part

malepartiapant Thelatternotonlytold thewoman thatshe of the elite and powerful minority, who provided

wasmconrmtbutalsolerturedheron thespoton theimpornance an authoritative but distorted version of realities

oftellingthe truth on alloccasions. Cross-checkingwith other experienced by the poorer participants. This is an

women dunngin-depth intemvewslaterrevealedthatshehad important reminder of how group processes can

in factstated the truth. Theman concerned, an informal sometimes play into the hands of the elite, and, if

commnumtyleaderandlandowner, mayhavehadhis reasons not carefully managed and supplemented with other

forpreventzng 'outsides'fromknowingthatwomen labourers methods, can reinforce existing hierarchies, exclusions,

are underpaid in his hamlet and disempowerment.

o This example highlights the importance of careful o This study benefited from having at least one highly

sequencing of topics and settings. It also highlights skilled participatory researcher/facilitator on each

the degree of sensitivity and expertise needed by field team. The close working relationship within teams

researchers. They need, for example, to understand gave them the opportunity to discuss and debrief

that potentially sensitive issues will more likely emerge activities daily, and to identify and follow up on

in socially homogeneous groups, and only after a problems detected in the fieldwork. As well, presence

degree of trust has been built between outsiders and and coaching by the SL researchers kept the quality

a community. Facilitators need to follow up leads of research across the field sites fairly high, by their

that arise from group sessions for verification and own assessments.

98

Methodological Issues and Considerations Appendix

4 Limitations of the SL Framework in or urban areas. Although there may not be a

Poverty Assessment categorical answer to this type of question, the SL

framework could provide more guidance here.Findings from the present study indicate that the SL

framework is an excellent means of assessing poverty, * The present research was very much a study ofalthough the researchers found that it had some conditions at a certain point in time, even though

limitations, which need to be addressed. attempts were made through some of the basic

techniques to obtain information about past trendso The SL framework was easier to apply in rural areas and shocks and about the impact of constraints like

where the majority of livelihoods are natural resource- seasonality For many households poverty is a

based, than in dense urban slum areas where natural fluctuating situation, in the sense that they may escape

resources (such as air, water, soil) are either polluted from it for a while but be forced back by

or inaccessible to poor people. Since the SL unanticipatedcircumstanceslikeillness.Withachange

framework was developed with a rural perspective, in circumstances, people may once again be able to

there is a challenge for the SL approach to fine tune move out of poverty. An added value of using the

definitions of assets to take urban situations into SL approach is that it emphasises vulnerability to

account. This problem is exacerbated by conditions poverty, rather than poverty per se.

in Indonesia, where experience with participatory

methods and livelihoods research has been mostly in l While the study proved highly successful in identifying

rural communities Difficulties experienced in this problems related to poverty at the community level,

study suggest more work is needed in the conceptual the use of this kind of study for research alone could

phases to adapt the SL framework to urban studies. be questionable on ethical grounds. Assessing poverty

For example, definitions of 'natural capital' need with communities using the SL framework is an

reorienting to consider services derived (air quality, intensive and time-consuming exercise, involving

waste assimilation, protection from floods and fire), valuable time and knowledge contributed by poor

rather than Just natural resources themselves. men and women. Participatory researchers believe

that it is unfair for external agencies to expect thiso Another issue was the relationality among contribution solely for the purposes of extractive

communities when livelihoods were considered. research without a value-added return This might

Using the SL framework emphasised the need to be some form of activity for the local poor, or a

look beyond location-specific boundaries to analyse commitment from the researchers' side to follow-local livelihoods. For example, in the WestJava study up to help solve local problems and improve the

site 40 percent of households are dependent on quality of lives of the-local poor. This study onlyincome earned in Jakarta by circular migrants Both managed to provide this in the West Kalimantan and

rural and urban communities in a country like Lombok sites, where local NGOs could continue

Indonesia have seasonally mobile populations their focus in these communities. At all sites the study

Researchers were not sure whether seasonal migrants' activities took the form of social events at times and

livelihoods should be included for SL analysis in rural places chosen according to the convenience of the

99

Appendix iVethodologicai Issues and Considerations

community groups', both poor and non-poor and organise the questions asked, as well as the collection

both women and men. People participated by their and analysis of data both by the participating

choice. Researchers provided locally available snacks communities, and later by fieldworkers when they

and beverages to members attending the sessions. made their secondary analyses of the findings.

Specifically, the SL framework enabled a fuller

5 Merits of Combining the SL framework understanding of livelihood outcomes and coping

with Participatory Methodology strategies of the poor in terms of the clearly

articulated assumptions and principles embedded in

In this study, participatory methodologies conducted the framework.

within the SL framework seemed to complement and

add value to each other in strategic ways. o Because an objective of this study was to inform

national policies and strategies, the researchers wanted

o The study team concluded that participatory to ensure that the data and information would be

methodologies are essential in studies where the SL recognised as relevant by planners and policy makers.

framework is used to study poverty. Given the nature It was also important to challenge the notion that

of material sought through the framework, it would 'qualitative participatory methods do not yield

have been impossible to collect appropriate and valid information relevant beyond the local level, are overly

information from government officials or secondary subjective, lack empirical substance, and that the

sources alone. Also, participation by all categories of findings cannot be compared with other data to yield

community members is needed, since livelihoods of policy implications.' In this study, use of the SL

the poor and the non-poor are invariably interlinked framework illustrated the impact of both internal

and interdependent. The use of participatory (micro) and external (macro) forces on the livelihoods

techniques helped ensure that voices of both the poor of the poor and highlighted structures and processes

and the non-poor were adequately heard in this SL relevant to (and recognisable by) policy-makers and

analysis, thus adding to its validity and usefulness. those who design and administer poverty reduction

programmes

o Participatory methods tend to generate large amounts

of diverse, insightful and thought-provoking data o Like many participatory studies, this one did not rely

about single, or a few communities. In this study, a exclusively on one type of data collection technique.

variety of participatory exercises were used to While it relied mainly on participatory group methods,

explore community situations in depth and build up these were supplemented with methods such as

a comprehensive picture of problems and the individual, in-depth-interviews and case studies, as

potential for action within the community itself With well as selected secondary statistical data on market

this degree of specificity and localsation, however, and population trends. Participatory group methods

it can be difficult to see patterns arising from the yielded collective assessments of community

findings that are important for macro-level analysis situations, causal analysis for the situations and the

of institutional and policy issues. In this respect, the foundations for planning collective action. Individual

SL framework added value to this study's use of methods were used to explore, verify and seek

participatory methods. It provided a framework to explanations for anomalies and address issues too

100

Methodological Issues and Considerations Appendix

sensitive for group sessions. Statistical records and men are well suited to this purpose The present

provided macro-level perspectives within the context study found important gender differences in

of which factual information, assessments and the livelihood strategies and outcomes. Also, poverty is

perceptions of individutalsand.groups could be better experienced in different ways by men and women

interpreted. Glaring contradictions-between statistical and strategies to help one do not necessarily help the

records and qualitative data obtafned from other. Without participatory planning and assessment,

participatory analysis in communities revealea-areas poverty reduction programmes often fail to touch

that need to be prioritised for further learning and the lives of half of all the poor, i.e poor women,

action. For example, participants observed the and sometimes reinforce gender inequities inherent

negative impact of large families on economic well- in local cultures.

being, but they themselves have many children. More

attention to household livelihood strategies, returns 6 Further Methodological issuesto children's labour, gender differences in preferred

family size, and the impact of child health and Two further methodological issues warrant

mortality might clarify this apparent discrepancy. consideration. One pertains to the use of participatory

approaches mainly for research purposes such as poverty

* The present study demonstrated that the SL assessments and the drawing of policy lessons. The other

framilework is suitable for research that is not linked relates to the roles of community members and outside

to an ongoing or proposed project. But it also researchers in the SL assessment process.

indicated that some differences in approach are

needed in locations where there are connections with Clarifying the Purpose of the Research:

a project, since different degrees of difficulty are Transparency and Bias

encountered by fieldworkers. We found a tendency

for respondents to be more open, frank and * A study which uses participatory approaches for

enthusiastic if they thought research was connected poverty assessment should, as already noted, link

to a 'project' of some kind. In the West Kalimantan study outcomes to an ongoing project which can

site people were keener to participate than those in respond to them. If this is not possible (as in two of

Surabaya and West Java, perhaps because they had our study sites), participation should minimally

already seen the achievements of the local NGO that provide some form of empowerment or capacity

was involved in the study. A key caution here for building of value to the participants. Since

researchers is the need to ensure that responses are participatory assessments consume substantial

not skewed by unexpressed expectations of possible amounts of time of poor women and men, they

project assistance. should be only be conducted if the community

chooses to participate and some form of culturally

* The SL approach and framework are gender-neutral. acceptable value added returns to them. In this study

Users of the framework need to be conscious of it was felt by the researchers (and voiced by some

the fact and build gender-sensitivity into their tools community members) that the process of discovery,

for research and action. Participatory techniques that analysis, and problem-solving, plus better community

can be conducted separately with groups of women understanding of the dynamics of poverty and

101

Appendix MVethodological Issues and Considerations

institutional responses, had benefited the community. teams of this kind were formed for two of ourBut we also concluded that this may not be enough, sites, to good effect. The relative difficulty of

and a clearer set of principles reflecting an conducting our fieldwork in the two sites in Java,

understanding of the ethics and practicalities of this where none of the team members had prior

issue needed to be worked out at the beginning of interpersonal familiarity, confirms the merit of thethe research. combined approach.

o We also felt some discord between the need to be o The four fieldwork teams did not carry with them

transparent concerning the purposes of the study, any sort of official letter from a higher level agency

and the need to have participants not misconstrue such as the National Planning Board (Bappenas)

the meaning of donor sponsorship of the study. In explaining and authorising the fieldwork. Until 1998,

particular, it was felt that association of this study it was mandatory to obtain such a letter of permission

with the World Bank would raise a number of for research in any community in Indonesia. The

problems, ranging from hostility to courting projects researchers requested such a letter but were told by

or funds. These would skew discussions and the government that itwas no longer necessary. Whileresponses. We thought this would also be the case in official letters can be a disadvantage by making people

relation to the less-known donor DFID. To resolve think the research is a 'government initiative', they

this problem, we adopted an uneasy compromise. are extremely useful in places where there is no

In the communities where there were no ongoing previous contact through an ongoing project or the

NGO projects we indicated that the study was activities of an NGO. Some researchers still obtainundertaken by researchers from several Indonesian these letters just for that reason, while this study relied

universities with which a number of the researchers on existing NGOs and local researchers to easewere in fact associated. We grappled with the partial contact.

truth of this, and continue to feel that this issue requires

more discussion and advice from other researchers Role of Community Members and OutsiderResearchers in SL Analysis

o Our research design incorporated the principle that

field teams should include local people familiar with In participatory research of this kind, it is useful to bear inthe communities concerned as well as outside mind whose perceptions are sought. The perceptions of

researchers In this way, we hoped to balance the risk all groups, rich as well as poor, are necessary, even though

of possible bias by local researchers (especially if the research design focused on poverty. The perceptions

they are connected with an existing project) with the of researchers are also important, because their perspectives

advantages their involvement brings in gaining and interpretative frameworks are usually different from

community trust, as well as local sensitivity and those in the communities they study. Researchers collect,

knowledge. The outside researchers contributed select, interpret and analyse information. There is

methodological expertise and research experience. sometimes a tension between insider and outsider

To ensure that each type of researcher understood perspectives, which needs to be handled with care

and valued their counterparts' knowledge, and to

develop team modes of working, we ensured that In preparation for the field work, the SL researchers wereall training was done with the full team. Balanced careful to ensure that team training included exercises to

102

Methodological Issues and Considerations Appendix

bring to the surface the attitudes of the fieldworkers and for researchers in this study helped them recognise

their perceptions about poor communities, which can such contradictions as opportunities for further

greatly influence research outcomes. We emphasised the probing so community groups can explore the

need for them to understand and accept that community underlying reasons for apparent inconsistencies

perspectives may differ from their own. While conducting

participatory exercises, their principal task as fieldworkers c People in the West Java site criticised the impact of

was to understand participants' rationales for the views technology, especially the use of hand-tractors, on

they hold, and to gather community viewpoints. The local labour employment Yet even extremely small

following examples observed during field work illustrate landowners use these tractors and sell their rice

the care that must be taken to prevent the fieldworker/ through pre-harvest purchasers, although they know

facilitator from overstepping their role: that adopting new technology and marketing

practices has reduced employment for their landless

c In the West Kahmantan site discussion with a women's neighbours in the same hamlet. This is because every

group turned to recent logging activities by an outside household has to maximise its own profits. In such

company. The women initially said that the company situations the facilitator refrained from judging who

brought benefits to the community because it paid is 'right', and recorded this situation as an intra-

very good wages to local men to fell trees. But when community conflict of interests that is hurting the

the facilitator/researcher pointed out the livelihoods of the poorest sections of the community.

consequences in terms of permanent loss of forest,

the women tended to modify their opinion. The While fieldworkers must be careful not to lead (or critique)

facilitator's view was that the women then began to participants' responses, productive use of the SL

see the wider significance of the company's activities. framework requires much more than simply the recording

This could be far from the truth. The women may of community perspectives. For outsiders who use SL

have modified their opinion simply because the approaches in working with poor communities, the crucial

facilitator's intervention suggested that they had given skill is to be able to understand and expose the ways in

the wrong answer. The facilitator should only have which macro and micro factors come together to affect

raised questions rather than suggesting answers. the livelihoods of the poor. This kind of analysis needs

to be consistent and ongoing. One cannot begin with a

o When asked about solutions to poverty, people in SL type of poverty assessment and lapse back into

the Surabaya site said, among other things, that in traditional, fragmented and sectorally limited approaches

order to overcome unemployment the government for follow-up work. Adoption of SL approaches for

must provide capital for business undertakings as well working with poor communities means making definite

as more jobs in the public sector and tertiary commitments to work across sectors, with a thorough

education for post-high school students They spoke understanding of what constitutes sustainability of local

of the growing competition for all sources of livelihoods and what promotes or hinders it.

livelihood, but they themselves have large families to

support and educate and on the whole do not practice SL analysis requires a continuous tracking back and forth

family planning. The first reaction of researchers between the micro and macro, between local

might be to conclude that people are stupid or understandings and the structures and processes that

ignorant of family planning. Training and coaching shape patterns of vulnerability Sometimes, these macro

103

Appendix Methodological Issues and Considerations

level factors are so broad in scope, and so deeply of certain government agencies, by NGOs and others,

formative of local situations, that people may take them is needed to draw attention to the question of continuing

for granted, rather than bringing them forward for analysis poverty, and strengthen the will to address it.

and critique. This is where outsider and insider perspectives

can be usefully combined to produce understandings of Broad application of lessons learned from SL approaches

poverty which are grounded in local realities but with requires high level support from the government, political

implications - including implications for policy- that go leaders and the donor community, considerable technical

far beyond the local scene. By an appropriate sequencing assistance from NGOs, civil society organisations and

of participatory techniques, community members may lawmakers, and vigilance from independent third parties

well be capable of both contributing to, and learning such as the mass media.

from, structural analysis of this kind. For example, we

suggested earlier that the asset pentagon, appropriately SL type approaches need to be used with full

adapted, may be used with communities in a participatory understanding of the associated challenges. They tend to

manner. For the moment, however, the reality is that expose patterns of unfair and destructive exploitation

secondary analysis and synthesis is usually conducted, as of local resources by the powerful, who are often

it was in this case, away from the field site by the research outsiders. It is well known that administrative structures

team, as they sift and filter and try to make sense of the in Indonesia have for decades been vulnerable to

field data. corruption and abuse by powers external to communities,

which collude with the powerful within or closer to

Experienced SL researchers would probably concur that communities. Local power structures may feel threatened

the tensions between community and researcher by approaches which have the potential to reveal what

perspectives are both inevitable and productive. they would like to keep hidden and may hurt their incomes

Nevertheless, more explicit discussion of these issues and power bases.

would be helpful.

The heightened risks and opportunities presented by the

7 Looking Forward era of decentralised government and a globalising

economy call for bold new approaches to poverty

Dissemination of the findings of this and related studies reduction. These need to be based on a clear logic and

through conferences and seminars will be very valuable capable of comprehensive implementation to the benefit

in that it offers a chance to exchange ideas on possible of the vast population currently living in poverty, and all

ways of alleviating poverty, while newspaper articles will the others with whom their livelihood struggles are

help to reach the broader public. Further, serious lobbying intertwined.

104

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Livelihoods: Lessons from Early Experience. Vulnerability Framework Reassessing

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105

About the Authors:

Nilanjana Mukherjee is a senior community development specialist in the Energy and

Water Department of the World Bank. She Is cLirrently posted in Jakarta, with the Water

and Sanitation Program - East Asia & the Pacific, and works in countries in the East Asia

Region

Joan Hardjono is a human geographer who has written extensively on environmental

issues and rural conditions in Indonesia, as well as on transmigration, poverty and

employment. She works as a Social Assessment consultant and is based in Bandung,

Indonesia.

Elizabeth Carriere is Social Development Adviser for DFID, currently posted in Indonesia.

The focus of her work Ls poverty reduction and social justice.

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