44 Groundbreaking Papers to be Presented at IDF 2017

After a two-month call for papers, 44 entries containing groundbreaking ideas on how to address Indonesia’s inequality problems have been selected to be presented at the Indonesia Development Forum (IDF) in Jakarta on 9-10 August 2017.

The 44 winners were selected from hundreds of entries on 11 sub-themes submitted by students, academics, policymakers, development professionals and other stakeholders from across Indonesia and abroad, including Australia, Malaysia, Japan, Germany, Netherlands and Denmark.

“I am pleased to note that we received a total of 555 papers from a broad cross-section of society, including university students. This indicates that the Indonesian people are also very concerned about reducing inequality in our country,” said Bambang Brodjonegoro, Indonesia’s Minister for National Development Planning.

“We have chosen 44 from these submissions to be presented at the forum. This is how BAPPENAS will engage the Indonesian public so that we can have a diversity of views and perhaps come up with new innovative solutions.”

BAPPENAS is hosting the two-day IDF, which will gather top government officials, development experts, and other key stakeholders to discuss solutions to the increasingly urgent problem of inequality.

Supported by the Knowledge Sector Initiative (KSI), a joint program between the governments of Indonesia and Australia, the forum comes at a crucial time when Southeast Asia’s largest economy is transitioning away from a commodity-based and low-end manufacturing economy towards a higher value-added growth model. Without strong inclusive policies, this transition risks exacerbating inequality, leaving more and more Indonesians behind.

“One of the main goals of the Indonesia Development Forum is to inspire innovations that would create breakthroughs for Indonesia, and we believe these papers will be significant contributions to that,” said Petrarca Karetji, KSI Team Leader.

He added that each year the forum will discuss and raise critical issues that could disrupt the ideal vision of Indonesia 2045. “The first is inequality and next year the theme will be Regional Disparity. This is a process towards strengthening the fabric of the nation.”

The list of winners for each of the 11 subthemes are as follows:

1 Ending the Vicious Cycle of Corruption and Inequality
2 The Impact of Financial Inclusion and Social Entrepreneurship on Income Inequality
3 The Future of Smallholder Farmers: Feeding the World and Sustaining Income
4 Inequality Traps in Urban Dynamics
5 Technology and Inequality: Where Are We and Where Will We Be?
6 Inclusive Economic Growth: How Should Indonesia Adapt to It?
7 Social Security: Ways to Improve
8 Look to the East: The Future of Indonesia
9 Inequality and its Context
10 Affirmative Fiscal and Investment Policy to Reduce Income Inequality
11 Combating Poverty and Inequality through Provision of Basic Services