Establishing Reliable Social Safety Net Programs: Lessons from the Indonesian Crisis Experience

Social protection programs are underway to help assist individuals, households, and communities to better manage risk as well as to provide support to the chronically poor. In pre-crisis Indonesia, formal social protection programs hardly existed and most social protection was achieved through informal arrangements. Hence, when Indonesia sank into a deep crisis in 1988 which had a severe social impact, the government had no choice but to create new social safety nets instead of expanding existing ones. These newly launched social safety net programs provide valuable lessons for the design and implementation of social protection programs in other developing countries context.