4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
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a. January 2nd 2012, Sragen Regency formalized the Integrated Service Unit on Poverty Relief.
b. May 1st 2012, the employees of the unit were assigned by the Regent
c. May 27th 2012, the web based Poverty Relief Management Information System was formed. All government units were given access to the database with various security levels.
d. May 27th 2012, ISUPI’s dedicated office building was inaugurated. The new building is equipped with appropriate infrastructures, operational vehicles, ambulances and computer units with online connectivity. Ambulance is needed to provide free immediate respond for the poor in need of medical attention.
The new office is also equipped with receptionist tables and service counters for four major sections: health, education, social economy and report and complaints data. After all administration requirements are completed, service users are received in one respective table or if they require more information they can come another table.
ISUPI’s Health Section cooperates with Regency Health Service, Public Hospitals and Community Health Center to provide free health care. Education Section cooperates with Regency’s Education Agency to distribute scholarship for all education level.
Social Economy Section of the Unit cooperates with Labor Affairs Agency in an internship programs to Japan. Training Centers provide accommodates them in training and workshops; Industry Affairs Agency and Trade Agency provide business grants; Social Affairs Agency provides housing supports and Funeral Funds; Farming Agency and Husbandry Agency provide seeds and ducklings for farming in household scale.
e. August 12th 2012, we formed Service Standard and Standard Operating Procedure based on a Regent’s decree.
f. November 15th, we started the formulation of single database for poverty related statistic. The sources are the data obtained by The National Team for the Acceleration of Poverty Relief, National Bureau of Statistic, surveys and data validation. With the consolidation of those databases, the classification of poor family will be cleared.
In the past, poverty relief efforts relied on national databases from 2012 and 2011, which excluded a number of poor families. In response, the Unit performs its own survey and hands out identification card to those deemed poor. This survey utilized a set of indicator that are valid and calculated.
Inclusion error in the old database is dealt with in the same fashion as the exclusion errors: those deemed economically abled are excluded from the new database. The steps in this survey are scoring, listing, interviews and consolidation meetings with municipal heads.
g. December 8th 2012, the issuance of Saraswati and Sintawati identification cards. The identification cards eliminate the need for complicated documents filing.
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5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
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The stakeholders are the following:
a. Sragen Regent as the initiator of Integrated Service Unit on Poverty Relief.
b. Focus Group Discussion that consist of Regency Secretary, Secretary Assistant, the Head of Planning and Development Agency, Investment and Integrated Service Agency, Social Affairs Agency, Head of Organization Affairs Division, Head of Legal Affairs Agency, Head of Electronic Data Processing Office and several service unit. Individual ideas are consolidated in this group.
c. The employees of Integrated Service Unit on Poverty Relief that consist of: Unit Head, Head of General Affairs Sub Division, 4 Heads of Sections, and 18 staffs.
d. The related Work Units of Sragen Regency Government which include: 1) Health Affairs Agency, Public Hospital, and Community Health Center execute Health Insurance program; 2) Social Affairs Agency distributes housing supports, funeral funds, and social security; 3) Education Agency delivers scholarships; 4) Labor Affairs Agency coordinates job internship and efforts in alleviation of child labor and school drop outs; 5) Training and Education Agency deals with providing community’s skill; 6) Electronic Data Processing Office provides the online contents of the information system; 7) Society Welfare Division is responsible for university scholarship; 8) Organization Division and Legal Affairs Division provides legal basis for the formation on the Unit.
e. External organizations involved in the initiative are: 1) Corporate Forum for Community Development who channels CSR funds from banks; 2) State Owned Enterprises and Private Enterprise that are committed to relief the poverty; 3) Himaseta, a Non Government Organization that provides supervision and constructive inputs in our service; 4) Society Welfare Partner (MATRA) who gives non-budgeter support; 5) Zakat Amil Agency and other religious institutions.
f. General public that consist of various organizations and individuals.
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6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
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Resources for the operation are from:
a. Sragen Regency Annual Budget (Society’s Welfare Appropriation) for daily operations of the Unit, meetings, surveys and ambulance.
b. National Annual Budget for Society Health Insurance, rice distribution, housing grants and scholarship; Provincial Annual Budget for Local Health Insurance, scholarship, and housing grants; Regency Annual Budget for Local Health Insurance, housing grants, scholarship and funeral funds; Promotional and CSR funds from business enterprises; the money managed by Society Welfare Partner that comes from Sragen Regency’s civil servant’s charity is specially allocated housing grants.
c. Integrated Service Unit on Poverty Relief is also trusted to manage charities from member of the general public, be it organizational or individual that are sometimes not linked to poverty such as clean water, but very essential in helping the poor.
The management of funds is transparent and organized well. The society is given access to monitor its distribution.
As for the human resources, the Unit is run by 23 civil servants. The employees were previously worked in other units specialize in dealing social problems in Sragen Regency, and selected from a range of high performance civil servants. They all have the much-needed competence in their respective field of work and understand the basic principles of service delivery. In the district levels, the parties involved and becomes part of the Unit’s daily operation are District Heads, District Secretary, Section Heads, Society Welfare Teams, municipal heads and social volunteer. Non Government Organizations in Sragen Regency are the integrated part of our workforce in the initiative.
Technical resources consist of data processing devices that rely heavily on web-base software. Beside conventional communication like telephones, we utilize electronic mails to communicate within and between units. Our employees master the basic techniques of surveying and data collection although further training would increase the performance even more. There are a set of government regulations and Standard Operating Procedure and Basic Service Standard to provide legality and certainty of our operations.
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7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
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The outputs of the initiative are:
a. The integration of various poverty relief efforts with simple procedure and free of charge. The key component in the integration is the Poverty Relief Management Information System. It is a useful tool in managing and processing the database, and provides valuable supports in optimizing our service. With the system, the process of relief efforts, from receiving individuals requesting helps, field inspections, printing of the cards and the consolidation of services delivered by other units can be done electronically.
b. Integrated Poverty Single Database. The database is essential in both action planning and execution. It is an important part of Poverty Relief Management Information System.
c. Saraswati Identification Card. The poor use this identification to get free health care and to take part in social economy programs. We have served the treatments for 151.460 poor patients in Community Health Center, 17.590 poor patients in Public Hospital of Sragen, and 3.969 patients in major public hospitals in Surakarta, Semarang, Yogyakarta, Surabaya and Jakarta. With the identification card, we have managed to distribute free medications for 126 kidney failure patients in need of hemodialysis, and for 530 patients of mental illness. All patients are part of the 309.145 recipients of Saraswati Identification Card. For social economy programs, by 2014 we have distributed 6.718 housing grants, 5.062 funeral charities and sent 15 individuals for internship programs in Japan.
d. Sintawati Identification Card. This identification card is used for the identification of poor children in need of education grants. We have recommended 1.041 children for high school scholarships, 102 university scholarships. Through Child Labor and School Drop-outs Reduction Program, we manage to put 301 children back to school. For basic level education, for which the central government has provided a large allocation of its budget, our unit has identified 111 children who, for various reasons, don’t have access to it. Overall, Sintawati identification card has been distributed to 87.810 students from poor families.
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8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
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Key components of modern bureaucratic institution is planning, implementation, funding, monitoring and evaluation. Integrated Service Unit on Poverty Relief conducts monitoring and evaluation in the following aspects:
a. Time and Frequency. Integrated service in poverty relief is a new type of service for which references are hard to come by. Our unit has continuously sought for the best form and here lies the importance of monitoring and evaluation. Internally, monitoring on the service delivery is conducted daily and evaluation meeting is held every Thursday. Such gathering produces valuable ideas for further innovations such as incognito survey method, more practical survey form, etc. Those evaluations are discussed further in Focus Group Discussion.
b. Program. We monitor and evaluate how well the combination of different programs has worked to provide helps for the poor community. Further analysis on the monitoring and evaluation’s report is done in Focus Group Discussion, which should boost the effectiveness of the program because the group consists of high rank government officials in Sragen Regency.
c. Implementation. The monitoring and evaluation for the implementation of the initiative is focused on public surveying. It is done by first analyzing the documents and continued to field surveying. In this survey, our employee is equipped with survey forms that can ensure that the questions asked and its further analysis is standardized. Such forms are filled with number, instead of qualitative description that is prone to surveyor’s subjectivity.
In general, monitoring and evaluation is backed up by Poverty Relief Management Information System, which is web-based and can be monitored online by stakeholders and general public. They can contribute to poverty relief efforts by submitting ideas and information while at the same time; they can monitor its implementation.
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9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
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Poverty database that is currently managed by the Integrated Service Unit on Poverty Relief is not recognized in National Poverty Database. The national database relies on the survey by the National Bureau of Statistics, which poses a risk that inclusion and exclusion errors will keep surfacing. The most recent case related to this problem is on the distribution of the subsidized rice; exclusion error was prevalent and causes major problem. To cope, our unit has been convincing the National Bureau of Statistics to verify and include our data and the data collected by Sragen Regency’s Planning and Development Agency, in their database.
Problems are also raised from the fact that some part of the society is ignorant towards poverty relief efforts. Even some people, due to cultural shift, shamelessly call themselves poor while in fact their lifestyle is extravagant. This people consciously cover their economic capability by for example hiding their motorcycle during field inspection and purposefully wear unattractive clothing. The only solution for this problem is through socialization and enforcing a foolproof surveying system.
Other service units in Sragen Regency sometimes failed to provide their full attention on the efforts. It is mostly due to the fact that those service units have their own distinctive job description. Poverty relief is only part of their work, and because of this, coordination is sometimes very difficult. The solution for this problem is through comprehensive and coordinated reprioritization of works in Sragen Regency Government.
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