Economic growth in the middle-income countries of Southeast Asia over the last few decades is rightly hailed for reducing poverty. Indonesia is a prime example. But while poverty has declined in Indonesia, one of its worst impacts—nutritional insecurity—remains high, particularly in rural areas. Patterns of food poverty persist across Indonesia, despite a fall in poverty rates. What explains this troubling paradox? How does it relate to Indonesia’s enthusiastic embrace of the ‘entitlements revolution’, the use of direct cash transfers as a tool for reducing poverty and building social inclusion?

This book analyses the nature and social consequences of economic development and agrarian change processes in rural Indonesia in relation to the scope and effectiveness of Indonesia’s social protection programs. The findings are based on a series of extensive ‘ground-up’ case studies in Indonesian communities in a variety of eco-agrarian settings, seeking to understand the drivers of insecurity and vulnerability at a household level. The results show that while high value farming, diversification and migration may offer a means of economic progress for poor households, economic growth also creates the conditions for increasing inequality, nutritional insecurity and ecological decline.

This is due to the way class, gender and power work in remote local contexts, and the fact that much surplus income is used for enhanced consumption and changing lifestyles. To understand why nutritional insecurity and stunting patterns persist, we need to appreciate how rural change occurs. In many cases there are few signs of the classical structural transformation of the countryside which is considered the most decisive pathway out of rural poverty.

The authors conclude that, while social assistance softens the experience of poverty, they generate targeting problems, produce new patterns of inclusion and exclusion and provoke a contentious politics of distribution. New strategies are required to address food poverty and nutritional insecurity and provide acceptable ways of assisting the poor.