THE IMPACT OF MICROCREDIT ONTHE LIVELIHOOD OF THEBENEFICIARIES
Coastal community in Indonesia has got much attention, especially on the
poverty. Indonesia has abundant resources of marine and fisheries resources
(Dahuri, 2001), unfortunately people whose depend on those resources live in. One
of the effort to help poor coastal people improve their livelihood is through
capital/fund providing. Ministry of marine and Fisheries as the authorize government
unit launched PEMP in 2000 to 2008 for providing funds for coastal people by micro
credit scheme.
This research tried to analyze the impact of PEMP credit for the household
beneficiaries livelihood change. As PEMP goals, the livelihood assets should improve
after the respondents received credit. In the implementation, this study adopted DFID
Livelihood Framework as a basic theory. Livelihood change assets: Natural, human,
physical, financial and social, were analyzed, including the vulnerability context.
Then to know the impact of the credit, it used people who did not accept credit from
PEMP as a control/comparison. As a starting point of the research is a livelihood
condition on 2005 (pre-test0, then livelihood condition in 2011 (post-test) was
analyzed for knowing the change/improvement.
The results from the study show that the livelihood assets of the PEMP
beneficiaries (human capital, physical capital, financial capital, natural capital, and
social capital) have improved better than the control group. Moreover, in the control
group, two of physical assets (work equipment and housing quality) ware decreased
point.
The livelihood improvement of the PEMP beneficiaries was not as good as the
PEMP programme goals. The livelihood changes of the PEMP beneficiaries
varied. Some of them have improved, but others have not. Saving behaviour,
house quality, land ownership, and government relation were achieved
improvements. Meanwhile, work intensity, health, income, work equipment, water
and social relationship have not improved or improved but not significantly.
The declining stocks of natural resources plus fuel hike policy has clogged or
decreased the livelihood improvement of the respondent. A patron-client condition of
fisherman/ farmer to a middleman aggravates the effort of livelihood improvement.
The respondent depends on the middleman because they have debt, in the other side
the middleman does not obligate the client to pay their debt as long as they sell (with
lower price than market) their product to them. While, seasonal work of the majority
respondents affected in household financial management and social relation.
The recommendations proposed four main points. The first, proposes local
government and other stakeholders new mean or methods for enhancing the economy
of poor people such as a new credit system or capital supply. Secondly, The
government should train the people in other expertise besides what they have now.
v
Thirdly, Government should assist the marketing of the product. Fourth, encourage
conservation efforts (especially on control of illegal fishing tools) to ensure natural
the availability of the natural resource today and in the future