Rethinking Urban Poverty Alleviation Policies in Indonesia

Worldbank stated that Indonesia is one of the cities with the highest number of poor people, on the same level as China and the Philippines. There is no specific study on the relationship between urban poverty alleviation policies and urban poverty in Indonesia. This paper aims to fill this gap using literature review methods. This study found that urban poverty alleviation programs only initiated after the 1997/1998 Asian financial crisis hit Indonesia. The ongoing poverty eradication efforts rely on social assistance schemes and community empowerment. The success or failure of various kinds of programs in this area relates to various other factors or policies that significantly affect the level of poverty starting from political conditions, domestic and global economic conditions, as well as various other domestic policies. The implication is that poverty alleviation efforts need to prioritize intervention in macroeconomic conditions, rather than developing various poverty alleviation programs.