Over the past 10 years developing countries have been giving greater attention to social protection. It is seen as a necessary part of a country's efforts to address poverty effectively and to protect poor and vulnerable men, women and children from the impacts of shocks and stresses. The need for social protection in Indonesia was dramatically highlighted following the East Asian economic crisis of 1997–98. Before the crisis onefifth of the population was categorised as vulnerable but this increased to more than a third after the crisis (Suryahadi and Sumarto 2003). This shock pushed people into chronic (persistent) poverty, which has severe intergenerational implications.

Indonesia has recognised the importance of social protection as a core part of its strategy to address poverty. The government has introduced many measures, from cash transfer schemes to health insurance, and has indicated its intention to ensure the poor are ‘covered’ by social protection programs. But despite the many programs, there is no overarching social protection strategy. It is not surprising, then, that studies on social assistance are finding significant gaps in coverage among the poor (World Bank 2010a).

The current mix of social assistance programs in Indonesia and their respective targeting approaches and mechanisms mean that: (1) certain risks to poor people are not being covered; (2) certain groups of poor people are not being covered; and (3) some members of target groups do not have access to programs. What is not always so clear is what these gaps mean to poor people. This is the focus of this chapter. Research was undertaken in three locations in Indonesia to look more deeply at how these gaps are being experienced on the ground and whether there are other gaps that are not being recognised at the central level. The other key area of enquiry at the local level is what ‘coverage’ means for the people already deemed to be covered by social assistance programs, in terms of their ability to deal with shocks and stresses. What key vulnerabilities remain? Using qualitative methods, the research seeks insight into the appropriateness of current coverage.

This chapter examines the issue of appropriateness in the context of the current understanding of vulnerability in Indonesia and social assistance needs.