poverty alleviation

poverty is a horrible problem of the planet. many scholar think about how to address this issue for long time. as i know a former UN advisory member namely Jeffry Sachs have once written about this issue. he wrote "the end of poverty' what an interesting and important title. i have copy of the book in my room, but i haven't read it except the cover :D.

poverty is the problem of humanity. it has so many side in human life. so no wonder in politics and also in economy and as well as social issues, poverty is a very challenging problem to address. as i heard in CNN news American election 2008 issues also have highlight the issue of poverty. Obama and Clinton and also McCain use poverty (economy) as one prime issue in their campaign.

moreover in the third world poverty and economic issue is a daily issue in people life. include in Indonesia, some months ago there is a controversy about poverty in number in Indonesia between the vice president Jusuf Kalla and Mr Wiranto general chairman of people heart party (partai hati nurani rakyat). the problem is that Wiranto stated that poverty in Indonesia is about 39 % of the population. this number is equal to world bank data that stated the same number. while in other hand Kalla argue that poverty rate in Indonesia is only about 16 % of the population based on report of Bappenas. pyuuuuh... poverty become a controversy, indeed it is a problem to be solved.

guys let leave this unproductive controversy about number of poverty of our population. we have to confess that poverty still largely exist in our society! no one can argue about it. i just want to share how this problem can be solved! as i know there is some approach to address poverty. one is to increase income of people. so the public policy of this approach is to increase the productivity of people. how people can earn much more money so they can afford their expense. the action could be opening as much as possible job opportunity for people. because one of the mean cause of poverty is joblessness. jobless people couldn't financially help their self. other action is giving them skill to produce something have commercial value. so they can be financially independent and more self reliant.

the other approach to address poverty is by decreasing expenses. it means how public policy give people privilege so they don't spend too much for their basic life needs. subsidy is the action. this approach as i know has prevailed in district pekalongan (kab. pekalongan). the major of the district give the people subsidy in building house and health service access. this is what mrs. Siti Fadilah Supari did in his policy through ASKESKIN (health insurance for poor people). i think this is the only policy that really help poor people to survive.

so i really disagree with what government done through BLT (cash direct subsidy) to poor people. it so destructive for people moral and mental. moreover it is not only uneducative but also make new problem in the society. poor people who didn't get the subsidy will angry to the government and o such a bad things. i agree with what M yunus have done in Bangladesh. he initiate a bank for poor. it means that he give poor people through mother in family a smooth loan without any guarantee. this really work in Bangladesh and could help many poor family to get out from this civiliation trap namely poverty.

so i think beside a good policy from government and good cooperation from civil society poverty couldn't be addressed without any mindset shift. we have to shift people mindset so they can think something right for survival. as i know in indonesia the ratio of entrepreneur in the population is really small, only 0,5 %. it so far if we compare to developed country like USA or europe. indonesian enterpreneur target to increase tha ratio of entrepreneur in Indonesia up to 5%. it will be a very hard work. but we have to strive to achieve this. can we succesfully address this poverty problem from our country? can we make "The End of Poverty" not only as a title of the book but a description from our reality? god bless us!

so, the question is still what we can do to address this poverty?