Implementation of the Policy of Poverty Alleviation Acceleration Program in Bokat District, Buol Regency, Central Sulawesi Province, Indonesia

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore the implementation of the poverty alleviation acceleration program policy through the regional government's leading programs, especially maize commodity, in Bokat District, Buol Regency.  It relied on a qualitative descriptive approach by revealing the phenomenon encountered by the farmers who received assistance in several villages, Bokat District. Data collection techniques involved interviews with several informants, continuous observations, and documents related to the poverty alleviation policy in Buol Regency. Further, data analysis was performed by data reduction and presentation, along with conclusion drawing. The results show that the policy has been implemented according to the predetermined stages through Regional Regulation Number 7 of 2015, including community outreach, business capital strengthening, empowerment, monitoring, and evaluation. However, it is found out that the policy is yet to be optimal. The community outreach conducted by the government has not been effective since only a few people took part. This stage also provides business capital strengthening by giving them processing fees, seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides. Still, both stages are only carried out in the first year at each location where the poverty alleviation acceleration program is promoted. In addition, an empowerment program that can support the development of maize commodity as the regional government's leading program has not been executed. Monitoring and evaluation of such a policy have not been entirely performed, impacting different levels of success each village reaches. On this ground, the poverty alleviation acceleration program policy needs to be re-evaluated to also detect any problems in the area, increase people's income, and bring success to the policy implementation.