Household Vulnerability and the Politics of Social Protection in Indonesia
Research summary
Despite rapid economic growth in the middle income countries of Asia, rural populations face multiple shocks and new sources of stress, and significant pockets of chronic poverty remain. While states have instituted new social protection policies to deal with household vulnerability, these programs have had limited effectiveness.
This ARC Discovery project addresses the weaknesses in diagnostic approaches to poverty, food security and vulnerability in Indonesia. Combining case-study analyses of poverty drivers, investigations of social protection practices, and an analysis of the politics of social protection, it will develop a new integrated framework for conceptualizing vulnerability and social protection programs. What processes create and reduce poverty in the Indonesian countryside? Who benefits from the new social protection programs? How effectively are these policies addressing vulnerability and nutritional insecurity, and what alternatives are there?
