"Today we
must shift [...] from consumption to investment: Investment in our
infrastructure, investment in our industry, but most importantly investment in
our human capital, the most precious resource of the 21st century"
President Joko Widodo
Budi, a Jakarta boy born today in the Bantar
Gebang slum could reach age 5 with a healthy start in life in 2020 and be a
successful high school student by 2030. Grace, a young girl from rural Papua turning 13 today and coming of age with a
high school diploma in 2020 could head a green technology start-up by 2030 on
her way to becoming one of the future leaders of her country.
This can be the future of a growing number of
children in a prosperous 2030 high-income Indonesia. This reality can endow Indonesia
with its future entrepreneurs, doctors, engineers, teachers, CEOs, religious
leaders and social workers.
Based on current realities, the prospects
of Budi and Grace could look radically different. Both born to poor parents,
they have low chances of evading poverty. Budi faces one chance in 25 to die
before age 5, and one chance in 3 to be stunted
in his first days of life affecting his brain capacity, future skills and earning prospects. Grace has one
chance in 6 to be married before 18 to then drop
out of school and become a teen-mom. Both
children’s exposure to child poverty, malnutrition, poor health, low quality education, and violence have costs to their bodies, brains, and to
Indonesia’s economy now and in the future. In a context of increasing
inequalities, all these drivers also increase the risks of disenfranchisement
and social detachment that could threaten the stability of the Indonesian
society.
