"We want a significant increase in the number of beneficiaries for the Cash Transfers for Poor Students (BSM) programme for primary education and up", said Kusumastuti Sri Rahayu, Head Cluster 1 Working Group at the National Team for the Acceleration of Poverty Reduction (TNP2K) in a presentation at a workshop at the Aston Hotel, Bogor. Here, TNP2K facilitated two days of discussions (18-19 March 2014) between the BSM technical teams from the Ministry of Education and Culture, Ministry of Religious Affairs, Ministry of Social Affairs, National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) and the Child Protection Programme team at the Family Hope Programme (PPA PKH) at the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration.

In addition to sharing information on BSM implementation in 2013, the workshop drew on lessons from the programme, the most important of which being improvements for BSM implementation in 2014. As noted by Emmy Widayanti, former Director of Social Assistance at the Ministry of Social Affairs and newly appointed Advisor to the Minister, the BSM and PKH programmes are very important to helping programme beneficiaries achieve a better life.

In the afternoon discussion, it was emphasised that socialisation is very important for supporting the success of programmes. The Ministry of Education and Culture (Kemendikbud) and Ministry of Religious Affairs (MORA) have allocated socialisation budgets for coordination meetings with governments from the local level up to the provincial level. It is hoped that information will filter down from provincial governments to lower levels.

Meanwhile, TNP2K is examining the possibility of re-implementing its 2013 socialisation efforts, which helped boost awareness of the BSM programme to the holders of social assistance cards (KPS).

The BSM programme is a national conditional cash transfers programme for school-aged children/students at all levels of education (SD/MI, SMP/MTs, and SMA/SMK/MA) from poor and vulnerable households, according to pre-determined criteria.

PKH is a social assistance programme that provides cash to very poor households (RTSM) with members who are pregnant/breastfeeding, and/or have young children or children aged 5-7 years old who have not started primary school, and/or have elementary-aged children and/or middle school-aged children and/or those aged 15-18 years who have not completed primary education. PKH participants will receive financial assistance when their children achieve certain levels in school attendance, health checks and/or pay attention to adequate nutrition and healthy lifestyles for children and pregnant women.

These programmes are known globally as conditional cash transfers programmes.