Indonesia intensifies efforts to eradicate extreme poverty

Millions of hectares of state-repossessed land in Indonesia will be prioritised for extremely poor families in agriculture, where 49% of the extreme poor work.

Jakarta (VNA) – Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Community Empowerment Muhaimin Iskandar has announced new programmes to train and provide land for families categorised as extremely poor, aiming to eradicate extreme poverty in the country by 2026.

The official stressed that Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has approved a four-month training programmes for heads of extremely poor families, helping them learn to work as security guards, agricultural workers or cleaning workers. After training, they will be directly employed by job providers.

In addition to job training, the government plans to allocate land from agrarian reform programmes to extremely poor families, primarily in the agricultural sector. The initiative aims to empower families to manage the land productively and achieve self-sufficiency.

Iskandar added that millions of hectares of state-repossessed land will be prioritised for extremely poor families in agriculture, where 49% of the extreme poor work.

He described the programmes as evidence of a paradigm shift in poverty reduction under President Prabowo’s administration and emphasised the President’s commitment to community empowerment initiatives.

Statistics Indonesia (BPS) reports that 2.38 million people currently live in extreme poverty. The government aims to reduce this number to zero by 2026. The programmes will use the National Socioeconomic Single Data (DTSEN) to ensure that assistance reaches the targeted beneficiaries./.

VNA