Intellectual Discussion of Effective Community Empowerment Program
Based on the data from the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) in 2010, the number of poor people in Indonesia reached 31.02 million or 13.33 % of the total Indonesian population. To reduce the poverty, the government has allocated an increasing budget from year to year.
In 2004 the budget was allocated Rp 18 trillion, and in 2009 this figure rose to Rp 66.2 trillion. In 2010 the poverty alleviation budget reached Rp 80.1 trillion and in 2011 it is projected to be Rp 86.1 trillion. However, the magnitude of this budget is considered not worth the reduction of poverty. This was the view of Dr. Irfan Syauqi Beik, a lecturer of the Faculty of Economics and Management (FEM), Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) in the Intellectual Discussion of Zakat at the Baranangsiang Campus of IPB, Bogor, 18 / 7. According to him, Zakat can be one of the efforts to reduce poverty in Indonesia.
Further he said, the poverty reduction strategies must be seen from the will and capacity to do businesses, so he classifies them into several types of the poor. The first type is those who relatively have the ability to do businesses and the will not to be poor. Type 2 is the poor who are actually able to do business but with a lack of will. Type 3 is the individual who want to do business but has a low capacity. Type 4 is those who neither have ability nor will. Each type requires different empowerment, said Dr. Irfan.
He explains that microcredit will be able to accelerate the business development of the poor. The presence of LKMS (Islamic Micro Finance Institutions) in the form of shariah cooperatives and BMT is necessary to mediate between the poor and Islamic (shariah) banking institutions. “The formation of joint venture group above will facilitate the formation of LKMS managed by themselves and for their own interests,” he said.
In this discussion, some models of community empowerment were also presented based on the capital from Islamic charity (zakat), for example by the Director of Indonesia Magnificence of Zakat (IMZ), Ir.Nana Mintarti. (Mtd)
