MDG 1: Poverty Reduction And Job And Food Security

4.2.1. MDG 1 – Poverty Reduction and Job and Food Security
Many studies on the MDGs have generally agreed that there is a correlation between an improvement in the economic performance (measured by GDP per capita, or PPP in some instance) with an overall increase in improvement of countries in reaching the MDGs. This is self-evident in the MDG 1: Eradicating Extreme Hunger and Poverty (Bourguignon et al. 2008, pp.13–14; Melamed 2010, pp.1–2). It has been noted that poverty reduction in particular is positively correlated with economic growth, due to the fact that growth could release a certain level of budget constraint (both public and private) that could then be used for other purposes (Bourguignon et al. 2008, pp.20–22). Interestingly, the …show more content…
Indonesia faced many challenges, particularly in reducing the number of populations living below the national poverty line especially due to the 1997-1998 Asian Financial Crisis (Wade 1998; Dore 1998), which saw the doubling of the percentage of people living under the national poverty line compared to the pre-crisis level (BAPPENAS 2010, pp.26–27; Sekretariat Negara 2005 Chapter 1 pp.35-36). The government has also made an adjustment in defining the national poverty line, where changes were made by incorporating additional non-food commodities such as improved standard in the access for education , health-care and transportation for the post-1998 national poverty line standard (BAPPENAS 2010, p.26). The update in particular has made the progress in the poverty reduction appears worse because of the increased living standard for the new national poverty line. However, despite all of the aforementioned issues and the overall improvement that is comparatively weaker than China and India, Indonesia has actually successfully managed to make an accelerated improvement in the rate of progress in reaching the MDG 1 post-incorporation period. This is because on top of the government objectives in achieving economic growth through regulatory reforms to stimulate economic growth (Sekretariat Negara 2005 Chapter 1 pp.40-44; Sekretariat Negara 2010 Chapter 2 pp.63-64), pro-poor policies centred …show more content…
This is a very unique phenomenon due to the fact that social institution in Indonesia is highly discriminatory against women (UURI 2004b Chapter 12; Sekretariat Negara 2005 Chapter 12 pp.1-5). Indeed, despite the unconducive social institutions in Indonesia (Samarakoon & Parinduri 2015, p.428), the government has been quite successful in implementing policies such as the Equal Employment Opportunity act in 2005 as well as mandating the increased women participation in political parties as per Indonesian Law No. 2 in 2008 (BAPPENAS 2010, pp.96–97). Furthermore, progress in the gender parity in education enrolment reflects the inclusivity of the government policies in addressing both MDG 2 and 3 in its incorporation into the national development agenda. It has been well established that gender inequality is highly correlated with education enrolment (Easterly 2009, p.30). the success illustrated by the accelerated rate of progress in the MDG 2 and 3 indicators for Indonesia reflects the importance of the government in addressing issues especially in relation to gender inequality, despite the current social institution in Indonesia that is discriminatory against