Indonesia Mobilizes Village Facilitators to Expand Social Protection

RRI.CO.ID, Jakarta - Indonesia’s Ministry of Villages and Development of Disadvantaged Regions is preparing to support the expansion of the country’s social protection program by mobilizing village facilitators across the country. The facilitators are expected to help communities register for social assistance and update social assistance data to improve the accuracy of government programs.

Minister of Villages and Development of Disadvantaged Regions Yandri Susanto said his ministry would involve 25,380 village facilitators working across 37 provinces as agents of the expanded social protection program. Their involvement is expected to strengthen efforts to identify eligible communities and improve access to government assistance.

“We have village facilitators who are currently active, nearly 26,000 of them, spread across Indonesia,” Yandri said during a ministerial-level meeting on the expansion of social protection and its planned implementation in 2027 at the Ministry of Social Affairs in Jakarta on Wednesday, September 30, 2026. “Their functions are highly relevant to what we are discussing today.”

The Ministry of Villages and Development of Disadvantaged Regions will also provide supporting data to strengthen targeting, intervention design, and the effectiveness of village-based poverty reduction programs. The ministry sees accurate and updated data as an important foundation for ensuring that social protection programs reach the intended beneficiaries.

Yandri outlined six strategic roles for village facilitators in supporting the expanded program, including identifying vulnerable communities and improving the accuracy of social data. They will also help educate communities about social protection programs, facilitate access to social protection services, strengthen participatory monitoring, and support community economic empowerment.

The expansion of social protection has been identified as a national priority to accelerate efforts to reduce poverty and vulnerability while improving the targeting of government assistance. Accurate and up-to-date information is considered essential to make social protection programs more targeted, inclusive, and sustainable.

“We are ready to act and will immediately carry out the necessary technical measures,” Yandri said. “We fully support this effort and will move quickly to expand social protection.”

Meanwhile, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs and National Economic Council Chairman Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan called for government institutions, the military, and the police to work together to support the expansion. He said data collection would continue through the end of 2026 so that social assistance provided in 2027 can be better targeted, while several ministers and heads of relevant institutions attended the meeting in Jakarta.