Yogyakarta, February 18, 2021. The Master of Science and Doctoral Program of FEB UGM held a Webinar through the Zoom Meeting platform with the title “Finding the Right Size: Options and Challenges of Building Poverty Lines”. In this webinar, the speaker is Mrs. Vivi Alatas, Ph.D., the CEO of Asakreativa and the Former Chief Economist of the World Bank. The event, which is part of the Poverty Economics course, lasts for approximately one and a half hours and is attended by students of the Master of Science in Economics, FEB UGM.
The material given in this short public lecture is substantial and exciting. At the beginning of the event, Mr. Elan Satriawan M.Ec., Ph.D. as a lecturer in the Poverty Economics course, opened the event by providing data related to the level of poverty in Indonesia issued by BPS, showing an increased value compared to the previous year and equaling the rank the last three year.
Discussion of the material begins by showing that Indonesia is committed to eradicating poverty. Furthermore, the material explains how the poverty line (poverty line) is precise; that is, it must describe the poor, consistent and comparable, and be statistically robust. The poverty line is divided into two types, the poverty line and the relative poverty line. The presenter also explained that although the steps in calculating the poverty line (poverty line) are exact, there are problems in each step. Furthermore, Mrs. Vivi Alatas, Ph.D., then explains how solutions can be taken to overcome the issues that arise from measuring the poverty line. Also, there are several implications if the poverty line does not exist; it will become challenging to see the impact of policies, inappropriate poverty strategies, false poverty trends, and budgets’ misallocation.
In the final session, participants were given time to ask questions and also discuss the material that had been given.
