Linkages with Government of Indonesia Conditional Cash Transfer (Program Keluarga Harapan)

Overview of project activities related to CCT

Government’s Conditional Cash Transfer Program (CCT).

The Government of Indonesia has begun to implement a programme called “Program Keluarga Harapan”, a major Conditional Cash Transfer programme (CCT). The overall objective of this programme is to reduce poverty. Specific objectives of the CCT are:

  • To improve socio economic conditions of very poor households
  • To improve education level of children from very poor households
  • To improve health and nutritional status of pregnant women, ibu nifas (after childbirth), and children under 6 years in very poor households
  • To increase access to and quality of education and health services, especially for the very poor households.

To increase school participation at elementary and secondary level it has been explicitly stated that the CCT should reach children who are currently not in school, including those in child labour. The reduction of child labor is a key performance indicator of CCT, making it one of the few CCT schemes worldwide that specifically addresses child labor.

The CCT has been rolled out in July 2007 starting with 49 districts in 7 provinces (West Sumatra, Jakarta, West Java, East Java, Gorontalo and North Sulawesi and East Nusa Tenggara) targeting 500 thousands very poor households. It is expected that within 9 years to 2015, the CCT could reach 6.5 million very poor households and each household will be provided with cash transfer for 4 years. The amount transferred is IDR 400,000 (US$45) for elementary school level and IDR 800,000 ($90) for junior high school level per year. The cash received by the household will vary depending on the household composition.

In line with the objective to eliminate child labour, the program requires that the households receive the cash transfer to send their children aged 6 to 15 years (back) to school. On a three monthly basis, the social workers recruited by the Government will monitor and verify children’s attendance in school. The Government in collaboration with relevant stakeholders will provide various services to ensure that children will stay in school such as remedial education and counselling.

IPEC’s Project activities to support CCT – under TBP 2nd phase

An innovative program under the IPEC’s Project will be implemented to support the Government’s new Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program, helping children and building CCT program capacity on child labor. The link with CCT program will allow the project to provide services to 10,000 children below the age of 15. The CCT program is a very important initiative and its focus on addressing child labor reflects the spirit of the TBP process, which aims to have Governments mainstream child labor in key policies and programs. The program in Indonesia is one of a very few CCT programs worldwide that has specifically identified child labor as an issue to be addressed.

The geographical areas identified by the Government for the pilot program are areas with a high incidence of poverty. Whilst the CCT program provides the opportunity for children to enter or re-enter basic education, children from these poorest families still face many challenges. Among the obstacles anticipated are:

a) that children might attend school but then do their work following the school. This could impact on their ability to benefit from the schooling and lead to drop out

b) there are also practical problems of children returning to grade levels below their age, having difficulties in readjusting to school etc. Experience in many countries which have sudden increases in enrolment suggest retention can be a significant problem

The IPEC’s Project will seek to help tackle these and other challenges by providing educational and other complementary services including:

  • Additional services (uniforms, lunch, books, school materials, or other types of incentives that enable the child to stay in education) to very poor families to increase the chances of keeping children in school
  • After school centers that provide activities for children, which help limit the time available for work, and which also help through additional non-formal learning
  • More structured transitional education (bridging and remedial education) to support for returning children
  • Monitoring and counseling to students and their parents (1 year)

In addition to the above services, the Project will:

  • Assist to improve referral system used in CCT especially for education services and trainings on the use of the referral system to CCT staff
  • Provide trainings for CCT staff and management at District and Sub District level to increase their awareness on child labour issue and to introduce Child Labour Monitoring System
  • Trainings for tutors/teachers to deliver quality transitional education
  • To assess the contribution of additional educational and complementary services provided by the project in reducing child labor as well as in increasing school participation rate in CCT, the project will conduct comparison study in CCT areas where the project has operated and in areas where the project did not operate.
  • The project will use the lessons learned for advocacy to mainstream child labour concerns into CCT programming.

For further information on CCT Program in Indonesia (Program Keluarga Harapan), please visit the website.