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n recognition of its poverty reduction program, the Central Sulawesi provincial administration has won the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Award twice in the last five years — first for 2013 and again for 2015.

In 2013, the provincial administration came second in the categories of poverty rate reduction and poverty depth index. In 2015, it earned the second place in the poverty reduction category again.

“We have managed to decrease the province’s poverty rate from 15.83 percent in 2011 to 14.66 percent in 2015. As a result, we were the runner-up in the poverty reduction category of the 2015 Millennium Development Goals Award,” Central Sulawesi Governor Longki Djanggola told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

He said, however, that the province’s 2015 achievement was still below the administration’s target, which had been set at an average 2 percentage point decrease per annum starting 2010.

The governor pointed to a number of factors contributing to the slow decrease in the province’s poverty rate, including the still minimum infrastructure in the province, particularly with regard to road links at the regency level.

He said the provincial administration had taken the necessary steps to increase public welfare, but
added that the above-mentioned factors hampered poverty reduction efforts.

Longki said the provincial administration also attempted to bring down the poverty rate through an integrated, village-based poverty reduction program, known by the local abbreviation as PTPK-BK. The program has been implemented in 200 villages in five regencies of Central Sulawesi. Overall, the province has 12 regencies and one city.

“The provincial administration has allocated Rp 40 billion (US$2.92 million) to the PTPK-BK program,” the governor said.

Meanwhile, the head of the Central Sulawesi office of the Development Planning Board (Bappeda), Patta Tope, said the program mentioned by Governor Longki was essentially a pilot project for empowering low-income families, in which the administration helped poor people renovate uninhabitable houses.

“We use government grants amounting to Rp 40 billion. [Eligible] families in any of the chosen 200 villages will receive Rp 10 million. So, in total 400 families receive the financial assistance,” Patta said.

Local resident Sarah, 51, said the provincial village empowerment program had helped her and her family live in a decent house. The widow with four children, who used to live in an unfloored, wooden house, can now enjoy a permanent house with concrete walls.

“Thank God, I now have a house with two bedrooms, thanks to the government’s program,” said the resident of Donggala regency.

Besides securing financial assistance to have her house refurbished, Sarah also received cash assistance to start a small business, selling basic commodities, with her neighbors as targeted customers.