Economic Evaluation of Poverty Alleviation by the National Program for Community Empowerment in Western Part of Rural Indonesia

Abstract

This study is aimed to evaluate community empowerment program known as PNPM Mandiri in terms of block grant allocations whether they are proven to impact poverty reduction in Indonesia. It is documented that economic and agriculture allocation play significant role in alleviating poverty as they are deemed as economical investment for rural entities. Another result suggested that transportation, economic, together with agricultural sector have particular relationship as grouped as economic capital that they could not be separated each other which, one treated to be increase, subsequently other sector will tend to increase as well. However, the notion of human capital personified into social, health, and education budget do not show significantly different due to particular reasons comprising elite dominance, poor healthcare delivery, and unequal expenditure of education distribution within family, respectively. The findings is fruitful in order to project more efficient budget allocation either to diversify variety of PNPM program to fasten and optimize poverty eradication.