Rice subsidy transformation to BPNT (non-cash food assistance)
Event details
ACDE Seminar
Date & time
Venue
Speaker
Contacts
Food subsidies are part of social protection in Indonesia. The food subsidy program, Rastra, has allowed eligible households to purchase heavily subsidized rice at designated distribution points, but has suffered from irregularity of delivery and widespread leakage. The government has therefore started to transform Rastra into non-cash food assistance (BPNT, Bantuan Pangan Non-Tunai) hoping to achieve better targeting and delivery of benefits. This reform started in 2017, with an expansion of recipients in 2018 and a target of full transition in 2019. The study examines the effectiveness of the new mechanism compared to Rastra. The number of correctly included households improved under BPNT compared to Rastra in the previous year, but there was also a contemporaneous increase in exclusion error. The parallel delivery of Rastra while BPNT was expanding in 2018 also allowed us to evaluate the effect of BPNT in a treatment-control environment on outcomes such as rice obtained, nutrition diversification, and non-food expenditure.
Updated: 18 April 2024/Responsible Officer: Crawford Engagement/Page Contact: CAP Web Team