09 March 2020. 
Child stunting affected an estimated 36 percent of children under age 5 in Indonesia in 2013. To address this problem, the Millennium Challenge Corporation and the Government of Indonesia implemented a $120 million project that combined 1) a health and education-focused community-driven development program, 2) intensive training for health providers on infant and young child feeding, 3) training for sanitarians on a local variation of community-led total sanitation, and 4) a national communications campaign related to stunting, breastfeeding, healthy eating, and hygiene. We present the results of a randomized control trial conducted from 2014 to 2019 in three provinces in which the project was implemented. The project had a modest impact on some short- and medium-term outcomes related to maternal and child health, including iron-folic acid receipt and consumption, children receiving the number of recommended meals per day, and exclusive breastfeeding; but no effect on the number of prenatal or postnatal checkups women received, on the share of women delivering babies with a skilled provider, the share of children immunized, on children being appropriately diagnosed for stunting, the incidence of diarrhea, or villages becoming open-defecation free. Most importantly, we find no impacts on most longer-term health outcomes, especially under nutrition outcomes like stunting. We hypothesize that we fail to see impacts on many expected outcomes due to implementation delays and quality challenges and nationwide improvements that also caused positive changes in the control group. This evaluation also demonstrates the challenges in developing a realistic and evidence-based theory of change, as many expected outcomes may have been overambitious given the context and implementation conditions.

For more details, please download the report at the following link:

https://www.mathematica.org/our-publications-and-findings/publications/mcc-indonesia-nutrition-project-impact-evaluation-final-report

The elderly who do social activities or work have a much lower prevalence of dementia compared to the elderly who do not work or engage in any social activities. In addition to working or not working, dementia is also influenced by the type of work.

As many as 43.8 percent of the elderly who work as unpaid family workers or help someone earn without any income have the highest prevalence rate since these jobs provide little stimulation to the brain, while the lowest prevalence occurs in the elderly who are private employees or government employees.

These are the 2018 Bali Dementia Study results conducted in 117 villages spread across all regencies/cities in Bali Province in March – April 2018, with a total of 1,685 elderly respondents.

Another finding is that the proportion of elderly respondents in Bali Province with dementia reached 32% was higher than the proportion of dementia in the Special Region of Yogyakarta reached 20%.

The full report can be downloaded here.

The report on the results of the Kretek Cigarette Rollers Household Survey in Indonesia was released. It was conducted by SurveyMETER in collaboration with the American Cancer Society (ACS) for the World Bank in October-December 2016. It was part of a series of research (3 in 1) with the Survey of Clove Farmers and Survey of Tobacco Farmers in Indonesia.

It was prepared in English by a research team from the three institutions including Bondan S. Sikoki and Firman Witoelar from SurveyMETER under two report titles. The first one is "The economics of tobacco taxation and employment in Indonesia: health population and nutrition global practice." The second one is entitled “The economics of Kretek rolling in Indonesia: health population and nutrition global practice.”

The second report identifies the socio-economic and labor market characteristics of kretek workers and their households from two major kretek districts producers: Kudus and Malang. The analysis is based on data collected from a survey sample of 720 kretek worker households. Details of the survey methodology are provided in Appendix A. The purposive selection of sample districts is driven by the high regional concentration of kretek cigarette factories. Based on the annual Industrial Survey (SI), 40 percent of Indonesian kretek workers are only in three districts, Kudus (21.4 percent), Kediri (10.2 percent), and Malang (8.6 percent) (World Bank, 2017a). It consisted of six sections, including the introduction.

The next section, part two, describes the socio-economic profile of kretek workers and their households. In section three, the labor market characteristics of kretek workers are discussed. The livelihood status of kretek workers is discussed in section four. Section five presents the simulation results of the impact of the cigarette excise policy reform on the livelihoods of kretek workers. Finally, section six concludes with a summary of the findings and policy recommendations.

Download the full report at:

http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/644791507704057981/The-economics-of-Kretek-rolling-in-Indonesia

The report on the results of the Clove Farmers Survey in Indonesia was released. It was conducted by SurveyMETER in collaboration with the American Cancer Society (ACS) for the World Bank in October-November 2016. It is a series of research (3 in 1) with the Household Survey of Kretek Cigarette Rollers in Indonesia and the Survey of Tobacco Farmers in Indonesia.

It was prepared in English by a research team from the three institutions, including Bondan S. Sikoki and Firman Witoelar from SurveyMETER. The title of the report is “The economics of clove farming in Indonesia: health population and nutrition global practice.”

It aims to inform the current discussion on the taxation of kretek cigarettes in Indonesia by examining clove farming livelihoods. It presents the results of a comprehensive, economic-focused household-level survey of 600 clove farmers in the two largest clove-producing regions, Sulawesi and Central Java. The survey examines the role of clove farming in the economic life of the household, among other related topics.

Download the full report at:

https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/166181507538499946/the-economics-of-clove-farming-in-indonesia

The report on the results of the Survey of Tobacco Farmers in Indonesia has been released. The survey was conducted in November 2016-January 2017 in collaboration with SurveyMETER with the American Cancer Society (ACS) for the World Bank. This survey is a series of studies (3 in 1) with the Household Survey of Rolling Cigarette Cigarettes in Indonesia and the Survey of Clove Farmers in Indonesia.

The report was prepared in English by a team of researchers from the three institutions, including Bondan S Sikoki and Firman Witoelar from SurveyMETER. The title of the report is "The economics of tobacco farming in Indonesia: health population and global nutrition practice."

The report aims to contribute to the policy debate on reform of Indonesia's tobacco excise system by reporting the results of a national representative survey and focus group discussions with small-scale tobacco farmers regarding their livelihoods and how tobacco tax reform might affect these households.

Download the full report at:

https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/161981507529328872/the-economics-of-tobacco-farming-in-indonesia

For more than two decades, female labor force participation (FLFP) in Indonesia has been low, at around 51 percent, compared to an 84 percent labor force participation rate for males. One possible barrier to greater FLFP in cities is urban transport costs. Jakarta has some of the world's worst traffic, and large urban transport or commuting costs increase the time it takes for women to perform daily activities that take place outside the home. If public transport investments reduce commuting costs, they could generate time savings that could increase female labor force participation, expand urban mobility, and make females more productive in their daily lives.

In September 2016, the Australia Indonesia Partnership for Economic Governance (AIPEG) commissioned SurveyMeter and the RAND Corporation to conduct a baseline survey to assess the extent of transport problems currently encountered by women and people with disabilities that may influence their labor market outcomes. When combined with future surveys, these baseline data may enable an impact assessment of future public transport programs on FLFP and other gender and disability-related objectives. This final project report reviews the literature on FLFP and commuting costs, describes SurveyMETER and RAND’s approach to designing the survey, and summarizes major findings from the baseline data.

Full report download here

The report on the results of the Cigarette Rolling Workers Survey in Indonesia was released. It was conducted by SurveyMETER in collaboration with the American Cancer Society (ACS) for the World Bank in October-December 2016. It is also known as the Household Survey of Kretek Cigarette Rollers in Indonesia. It is part of a series of research (3 in 1) with the Survey of Clove Farmers and Survey of Tobacco Farmers in Indonesia.

It was prepared in English by a research team from the three institutions including Bondan S. Sikoki and Firman Witoelar from SurveyMETER under two report titles. The first report is “The economics of tobacco taxation and employment in Indonesia: health population and nutrition global practice.”

The purpose is to analyze recent employment trends in the Indonesian tobacco industry and estimate the potential impact of the cigarette tax increase on employment in the tobacco manufacturing sector. It provides new evidence to contribute to the ongoing debate about the impact of rising cigarette taxes on employment in the tobacco sector.

The structure of this report is as follows: the first section provides an introduction. Part two provides a review of global evidence on the impact of rising cigarette taxes on population and economic health outcomes. The third section provides an overview of the cigarette tax reforms in Indonesia in recent years and discusses the Indonesian government's plans to reform the cigarette tax structure. Section four discusses employment trends in the tobacco industry in Indonesia, analyzes worker characteristics, and compares workers with similar sectors and socio-demographic profiles. The section also discusses the potential impact of the cigarette tax increase on employment by presenting the simulation results. The last chapter of the five discusses the results of the current debate on tobacco tax reform in Indonesia and provide policy recommendations on the employment aspects of the reform.

Download the full report at:

https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/919961507699751298/health-population-and-nutrition-global-practice

From August to September 2015, SurveyMETER collaborated with Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) and The University of Sydney conducted the 2015 Farmer Sustainability Survey (SKPP-KOPI) in Muara Enim Regency, South Sumatra and Lampung Provinces.

There are three main objectives of this study, first, to identify and analyze aspects related to the life of coffee cultivators. Second, to find out and analyze information related to the experience of coffee farmers in managing coffee farming and other farming businesses. Third, to find out and analyze the impact of the coffee certification program on the lives of coffee farmers.

The main respondents interviewed in this study were those who were coffee farmers, both coffee farmers who received assistance from IndoCafco and farmers who were not. Indocafco-assisted farmers in this study are referred to as RCT group coffee farmers, while those not Indocafco-assisted farmers are referred to as PSM (Propensity score matching) coffee farmers.

Please download the English version of the survey report at:: http://www.isealalliance.org/sites/default/files/private/ISEAL%20DIPI%20Indonesia%20baseline%20study%20report.pdf

SurveyMETER and Centre for Aging Studies at the University of Indonesia conducted an assessment of age-friendly city in 2013. Several months later, the dissemination of the result was done in the sample cities including in Jakarta with its ‘NGO’ partnership.

The partnership brings information from the research on age-friendly city assessment to contribute to the policy. It was responded by the emerging of declaration by the Governor of DKI Jakarta that Jakarta would be a dementia-and age-friendly city on September 2015.

How this study can build partnership for designing policy in Jakarta? SurveyMETER investigated it through an episode study. The result can be downloaded here.

SurveyMETER and Centre for Aging Studies at the University of Indonesia conducted an assessment of age-friendly city in 2013. Several months later, the dissemination of the result was done in the sample cities including Denpasar. It was responded by the emerging commitment of Denpasar City in integrating policies of child-friendly city, age-friendly city and open green spaces in a healthy city through a seminar on October 2015.

How this study can strengthen integrative policy in Denpasar? SurveyMETER investigated it through an episode study. The result can be downloaded here.