Monitoring the Effects of COVID-19 in Indonesia through Government Conditional Cash Transfer (PKH) Facilitators & Beneficiaries

Government cash transfer programs — such as Indonesia’s flagship Program Keluarga Harapan (PHK),  which serves 10 million of Indonesia’s poorest individuals — are critical to the wellbeing of poor families and communities as employment dwindles and usual supply chains are disrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In April, the Government of Indonesia announced that it will expand PKH, but lacks the feedback mechanisms necessary to obtain timely information about conditions in beneficiary communities. In collaboration with the National Development Planning Agency of Indonesia (Bappenas), this project will expand the information available on the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on Indonesia’s poorest households and communities, and will inform the government’s response to the crisis. The team will conduct a series of online surveys delivered via SMS to over 200,000 local facilitators and beneficiaries of the PKH conditional cash transfer program. By rapidly collecting information at the grassroots level over three months, the team will assist the Indonesian Government in determining what additional social protections or policies are needed.