Orphanages from Reformasi to the present day
Over the past decade, the international non-government community and the UN have contributed to understandings about Indonesia's orphanages. Much of this work has been undertaken in the context of the international campaign to reduce reliance on children’s residential institutions except when all other alternatives have been considered.
Knowledge gaps
Yet, research remains in its infancy in relation to matters such as the number, ownership, funding and management of Indonesia's orphanages. Key matters that remain unclear, for example, are the numbers, ages and health of children residing in institutions. The funding of orphanages, including by official, local community and overseas sources, also requires further study.
Existing research
Below is a list of resources (scholarly and other) about the growth and characteristics of panti asuhan in the period after the fall of President Suharto in 1998 and the present day. Please contact the editor with recommendations for the inclusion of other materials relating to these issues.
Amnesty International 2000, Indonesia. A cycle of violence for Aceh’s children, Amnesty International, London.
Aspinall, E & Fealy, G 2003, Local power and politics in Indonesia: decentralisation & democratisation, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore.
Babington, B 2015, For the benefit of children alone? A discourse analysis of policymaking relating to children’s institutions in Indonesia, 1999-2009.
Booth, A 2005, ‘The evolving role of the central government in economic planning and policy making in Indonesia’, Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, vol. 41, no. 2, pp. 197-219.
Boothby, N & Stark, L 2011, ‘Data surveillance in child protection systems development: an Indonesian case study’, Child abuse and neglect, vol. 35, no. 12, pp. 993-1001.
Brodjonegoro, B & Asanuma, S 2000, ‘Regional autonomy and fiscal decentralization in democratic Indonesia’, Hitotsubashi Journal of Economics, vol. 41, no. 2, pp. 111-22.
Brown, R 2006, ‘Indonesian corporations, cronyism, and corruption’, Modern Asian Studies, vol. 40, no. 4, pp. 953-92.
Buwalda, A 2011, ‘Maluku orphan project: Caleb House kids seek to help others in need’.
Candraningrum, D 2008, The challenge of teaching English in Indonesian’s Muhammadiyah universities: mainstreaming gender, Transaction Publishers Rutgers University, New Jersey.
Central Board of Muhammadiyah 2010, ‘Decisions of the 46th Muhammadiyah Congress on Muhammadiyah programs 2010-2015’.
Central Board of Muhammadiyah 2013, ‘Muhammadiyah: historical events’.
Daly, A & Fane, G 2002, ‘Anti-poverty programs in Indonesia’, Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, vol. 38, no. 3, pp. 309-29.
Fealy, G 2009, ‘Indonesia’s Islamic parties in decline’.
Fealy, G & Barton, G 1996, Nahdlatul Ulama. Traditional Islam and modernity in Indonesia, Monash Asia Institute, Melbourne.
Firman, T 2009, ‘Decentralization reform and local government proliferation in Indonesia: towards a fragmentation of regional development’, Review of Urban and Regional Development Studies, vol. 21, no. 2-3, pp. 143-57.
Hatti, N & Sonawane, S 2010, ‘Power to the people? Decentralization in India and Indonesia’.
He, K 2008, ‘Indonesia’s foreign policy after Soeharto: international pressure, democratization, and policy change’, International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 47-72.
Hefner, R 1993, ‘Islam, State, and civil society: ICMI and the struggle for the Indonesian middle class’, Indonesia, vol. 56, no. 1, pp. 1-35.
Hefner, R 2000, Civil Islam: Muslims and democratization in Indonesia, Princeton University Press, Princeton.
Hicks, J 2011, ‘The missing link: explaining the political mobilisation of Islam in Indonesia’, Journal of Contemporary Asia, vol. 42, no. 1, pp. 39-66.
Hill, H & Shiraishi, T 2007, ‘Indonesia after the Asian crisis’, Asian Economic Policy Review, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 123-41.
Horowitz, D 2013, Constitutional change and democracy in Indonesia, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Jayasuriya, S & McCawley, P 2010, The Asian tsunami: aid and reconstruction after a disaster, Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham, UK.
Keys, A, Masterman-Smith, H, and Cottle, D 2006, ‘The political economy of a natural disaster: the Boxing Day tsunami, 2004’, Antipode, vol. 38, no. 2, pp. 195-204.
Knudsen, C 2001, Assessment of the situation of separated children and orphans in East Timor, International Rescue Committee, UNICEF East Timor, Dili.
Lewis, B 2010, ‘Indonesian decentralization: accountability deferred’, International Journal of Public Administration, vol. 33, no. 12-13, pp. 648-57.
Mansurnoor, I 2004, ‘Response of southeast Asian Muslims to the increasingly globalized world: discourse and action’, Historia Actual Online, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 103-11.
McLaren H & Qonita, N 2020, ‘Indonesia’s Orphanage Trade: Islamic Philanthropy’s Good Intentions, Some Not So Good Outcomes’, Religions, vol. 11, no. 1.
National NGO Coalition for Children Rights Monitoring & Save the Children 2010, Review report. The implementation of Convention on the Rights of the Children in Indonesia 1997-2009, Save the Children Indonesia, Jakarta.
Online Quranic Project 2013, ‘The Quran’.
Perdana, A 2014, The future of social welfare programs in Indonesia: from fossil-fuel subsidies to better social protection, International Institute for Sustainable Development, Manitoba.
Sakai, M 2012, ‘Building a partnership for social service delivery in Indonesia: state and faith-based organisations’, Australian Journal of Social Issues, vol. 47, no. 3, pp. 373-88.
Save the Children UK, Ministry of Social Affairs, and UNICEF 2006, A rapid assessment of children’s homes in post-tsunami Aceh, Save the Children UK, Jakarta.
Save the Children UK, UNICEF, and Indonesian Ministry of Social Affairs 2007, ‘Someone that matters’. The quality of care in childcare institutions in Indonesia, PT Panji Grafika Jaya, Jakarta.
Save the Children Indonesia 2011, Key achievements of the child protection and care program in moving towards family based care, 2005–2011, Save the Children Indonesia, Jakarta.
Save the Children Indonesia 2013, Changing the paradigm: Save the Children’s work to strengthen the child protection system in Indonesia 2005-2012, Save the Children Indonesia, Jakarta.
Save the Children Indonesia 2014, ‘Indonesia child care institutions’.
Schrӧder-Butterfill, E 2004, ‘Adoption, patronage and charity: arrangements for the elderly without children in east Java’, in P Kreager & E Schrӧder-Butterfill (eds), Ageing without children: European and Asian perspectives, Berghahn Books, New York, pp. 106-46.
Schulze, K 2005, ‘Gerakan Aceh Merdeka: freedom fighters or terrorists?’, in E Hedman (ed.), Aceh under martial law: conflict, violence and displacement. A collection of papers developed in conjunction with a one-day workshop held on 20 May 2004 at St. Anthony’s College, Oxford, Oxford University Oxford, pp. 29-44.
Shie, T & Laurance, E 2003, Disarming for peace in Aceh: lessons learned, Monterey Institute of International Studies Monterey.
Shihab, A 1998, Membendung arus: respon gerakan Muhammadiyah terhadap penetrasi misi Kristen di Indonesia, Mizan, Bandung.
SOS children’s villages Indonesia 2013, ‘SOS children’s villages Indonesia’.
Sudrajat, T 2010, ‘Deinstitutionalization of children’.
Sujudi, A 2002, ‘Statement by H.E. Dr. Achmad Sujudi, Indonesian Minister for Health, at the twenty-seventh Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly on Children’.
Sumarto, S 2006, Social safety nets Indonesia, Overseas Development Institute, UK Department for International Development, London.
Sumarto, S & Bazzi, S 2011, ‘Social protection in Indonesia: past experiences and lessons for the future. Paper presented at the 2011 Annual Bank Conference on Development Opportunities jointly organized by the World Bank and OECD, 30 May-1 June 2011’.
Suryahadi, A, Yumna, A, Raya, U, and Marbun, D 2012, ‘Poverty reduction: the track record and way forward’, in H Hill, M Khan, and J Zhuang (eds), Diagnosing the Indonesian economy: toward inclusive and green growth, Anthem Press and Asian Development Bank, London, pp. 341-76.
Tan, N 2007, ‘Impact of the Indian Ocean tsunami on the well-being of children’, Journal of Social Work in Disability & Rehabilitation, vol. 5, no. 3-4, pp. 43-56.
Thorburn, C 2012, ‘Building blocks and stumbling blocks: peacebuilding in Aceh, 2005–2009’, Indonesia, vol. 93, no. 1, pp. 83-122.
van Doorn-Harder, P 2006, Women shaping Islam: Indonesian women reading the Qur’an, University of Illinois Press, Chicago.
van Klinken, H 2012, Making them Indonesians: child transfers out of East Timor, Monash University Publishing, Melbourne.
Wee, V 2002, ‘Social fragmentation in Indonesia: a crisis from Suharto’s New Order’, The Journal of Comparative Asian Development, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 1-24.
Widjaja, M 2012, ‘Indonesia: in search of a placement-support social protection’, ASEAN Economic Bulletin, vol. 29, no. 3, pp. 184-96.
World Bank 2003, Decentralizing Indonesia. A regional public expenditure review overview report, World Bank Jakarta, Jakarta.
World Bank 2010, Indonesia rising. Policy priorities for 2010 and beyond. Completing decentralization, World Bank Indonesia Office, Jakarta.
World Bank 2014, ‘Exchange rate history Indonesia, 2000-07’.
World Bank 2015, ‘Indonesia. Health nutrition and population statistics: population estimates and projections’.
Over the past decade, the international non-government community and the UN have contributed to understandings about Indonesia's orphanages. Much of this work has been undertaken in the context of the international campaign to reduce reliance on children’s residential institutions except when all other alternatives have been considered.
Knowledge gaps
Yet, research remains in its infancy in relation to matters such as the number, ownership, funding and management of Indonesia's orphanages. Key matters that remain unclear, for example, are the numbers, ages and health of children residing in institutions. The funding of orphanages, including by official, local community and overseas sources, also requires further study.
Existing research
Below is a list of resources (scholarly and other) about the growth and characteristics of panti asuhan in the period after the fall of President Suharto in 1998 and the present day. Please contact the editor with recommendations for the inclusion of other materials relating to these issues.
Amnesty International 2000, Indonesia. A cycle of violence for Aceh’s children, Amnesty International, London.
Aspinall, E & Fealy, G 2003, Local power and politics in Indonesia: decentralisation & democratisation, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore.
Babington, B 2015, For the benefit of children alone? A discourse analysis of policymaking relating to children’s institutions in Indonesia, 1999-2009.
Booth, A 2005, ‘The evolving role of the central government in economic planning and policy making in Indonesia’, Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, vol. 41, no. 2, pp. 197-219.
Boothby, N & Stark, L 2011, ‘Data surveillance in child protection systems development: an Indonesian case study’, Child abuse and neglect, vol. 35, no. 12, pp. 993-1001.
Brodjonegoro, B & Asanuma, S 2000, ‘Regional autonomy and fiscal decentralization in democratic Indonesia’, Hitotsubashi Journal of Economics, vol. 41, no. 2, pp. 111-22.
Brown, R 2006, ‘Indonesian corporations, cronyism, and corruption’, Modern Asian Studies, vol. 40, no. 4, pp. 953-92.
Buwalda, A 2011, ‘Maluku orphan project: Caleb House kids seek to help others in need’.
Candraningrum, D 2008, The challenge of teaching English in Indonesian’s Muhammadiyah universities: mainstreaming gender, Transaction Publishers Rutgers University, New Jersey.
Central Board of Muhammadiyah 2010, ‘Decisions of the 46th Muhammadiyah Congress on Muhammadiyah programs 2010-2015’.
Central Board of Muhammadiyah 2013, ‘Muhammadiyah: historical events’.
Daly, A & Fane, G 2002, ‘Anti-poverty programs in Indonesia’, Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, vol. 38, no. 3, pp. 309-29.
Fealy, G 2009, ‘Indonesia’s Islamic parties in decline’.
Fealy, G & Barton, G 1996, Nahdlatul Ulama. Traditional Islam and modernity in Indonesia, Monash Asia Institute, Melbourne.
Firman, T 2009, ‘Decentralization reform and local government proliferation in Indonesia: towards a fragmentation of regional development’, Review of Urban and Regional Development Studies, vol. 21, no. 2-3, pp. 143-57.
Hatti, N & Sonawane, S 2010, ‘Power to the people? Decentralization in India and Indonesia’.
He, K 2008, ‘Indonesia’s foreign policy after Soeharto: international pressure, democratization, and policy change’, International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 47-72.
Hefner, R 1993, ‘Islam, State, and civil society: ICMI and the struggle for the Indonesian middle class’, Indonesia, vol. 56, no. 1, pp. 1-35.
Hefner, R 2000, Civil Islam: Muslims and democratization in Indonesia, Princeton University Press, Princeton.
Hicks, J 2011, ‘The missing link: explaining the political mobilisation of Islam in Indonesia’, Journal of Contemporary Asia, vol. 42, no. 1, pp. 39-66.
Hill, H & Shiraishi, T 2007, ‘Indonesia after the Asian crisis’, Asian Economic Policy Review, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 123-41.
Horowitz, D 2013, Constitutional change and democracy in Indonesia, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Jayasuriya, S & McCawley, P 2010, The Asian tsunami: aid and reconstruction after a disaster, Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham, UK.
Keys, A, Masterman-Smith, H, and Cottle, D 2006, ‘The political economy of a natural disaster: the Boxing Day tsunami, 2004’, Antipode, vol. 38, no. 2, pp. 195-204.
Knudsen, C 2001, Assessment of the situation of separated children and orphans in East Timor, International Rescue Committee, UNICEF East Timor, Dili.
Lewis, B 2010, ‘Indonesian decentralization: accountability deferred’, International Journal of Public Administration, vol. 33, no. 12-13, pp. 648-57.
Mansurnoor, I 2004, ‘Response of southeast Asian Muslims to the increasingly globalized world: discourse and action’, Historia Actual Online, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 103-11.
McLaren H & Qonita, N 2020, ‘Indonesia’s Orphanage Trade: Islamic Philanthropy’s Good Intentions, Some Not So Good Outcomes’, Religions, vol. 11, no. 1.
National NGO Coalition for Children Rights Monitoring & Save the Children 2010, Review report. The implementation of Convention on the Rights of the Children in Indonesia 1997-2009, Save the Children Indonesia, Jakarta.
Online Quranic Project 2013, ‘The Quran’.
Perdana, A 2014, The future of social welfare programs in Indonesia: from fossil-fuel subsidies to better social protection, International Institute for Sustainable Development, Manitoba.
Sakai, M 2012, ‘Building a partnership for social service delivery in Indonesia: state and faith-based organisations’, Australian Journal of Social Issues, vol. 47, no. 3, pp. 373-88.
Save the Children UK, Ministry of Social Affairs, and UNICEF 2006, A rapid assessment of children’s homes in post-tsunami Aceh, Save the Children UK, Jakarta.
Save the Children UK, UNICEF, and Indonesian Ministry of Social Affairs 2007, ‘Someone that matters’. The quality of care in childcare institutions in Indonesia, PT Panji Grafika Jaya, Jakarta.
Save the Children Indonesia 2011, Key achievements of the child protection and care program in moving towards family based care, 2005–2011, Save the Children Indonesia, Jakarta.
Save the Children Indonesia 2013, Changing the paradigm: Save the Children’s work to strengthen the child protection system in Indonesia 2005-2012, Save the Children Indonesia, Jakarta.
Save the Children Indonesia 2014, ‘Indonesia child care institutions’.
Schrӧder-Butterfill, E 2004, ‘Adoption, patronage and charity: arrangements for the elderly without children in east Java’, in P Kreager & E Schrӧder-Butterfill (eds), Ageing without children: European and Asian perspectives, Berghahn Books, New York, pp. 106-46.
Schulze, K 2005, ‘Gerakan Aceh Merdeka: freedom fighters or terrorists?’, in E Hedman (ed.), Aceh under martial law: conflict, violence and displacement. A collection of papers developed in conjunction with a one-day workshop held on 20 May 2004 at St. Anthony’s College, Oxford, Oxford University Oxford, pp. 29-44.
Shie, T & Laurance, E 2003, Disarming for peace in Aceh: lessons learned, Monterey Institute of International Studies Monterey.
Shihab, A 1998, Membendung arus: respon gerakan Muhammadiyah terhadap penetrasi misi Kristen di Indonesia, Mizan, Bandung.
SOS children’s villages Indonesia 2013, ‘SOS children’s villages Indonesia’.
Sudrajat, T 2010, ‘Deinstitutionalization of children’.
Sujudi, A 2002, ‘Statement by H.E. Dr. Achmad Sujudi, Indonesian Minister for Health, at the twenty-seventh Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly on Children’.
Sumarto, S 2006, Social safety nets Indonesia, Overseas Development Institute, UK Department for International Development, London.
Sumarto, S & Bazzi, S 2011, ‘Social protection in Indonesia: past experiences and lessons for the future. Paper presented at the 2011 Annual Bank Conference on Development Opportunities jointly organized by the World Bank and OECD, 30 May-1 June 2011’.
Suryahadi, A, Yumna, A, Raya, U, and Marbun, D 2012, ‘Poverty reduction: the track record and way forward’, in H Hill, M Khan, and J Zhuang (eds), Diagnosing the Indonesian economy: toward inclusive and green growth, Anthem Press and Asian Development Bank, London, pp. 341-76.
Tan, N 2007, ‘Impact of the Indian Ocean tsunami on the well-being of children’, Journal of Social Work in Disability & Rehabilitation, vol. 5, no. 3-4, pp. 43-56.
Thorburn, C 2012, ‘Building blocks and stumbling blocks: peacebuilding in Aceh, 2005–2009’, Indonesia, vol. 93, no. 1, pp. 83-122.
van Doorn-Harder, P 2006, Women shaping Islam: Indonesian women reading the Qur’an, University of Illinois Press, Chicago.
van Klinken, H 2012, Making them Indonesians: child transfers out of East Timor, Monash University Publishing, Melbourne.
Wee, V 2002, ‘Social fragmentation in Indonesia: a crisis from Suharto’s New Order’, The Journal of Comparative Asian Development, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 1-24.
Widjaja, M 2012, ‘Indonesia: in search of a placement-support social protection’, ASEAN Economic Bulletin, vol. 29, no. 3, pp. 184-96.
World Bank 2003, Decentralizing Indonesia. A regional public expenditure review overview report, World Bank Jakarta, Jakarta.
World Bank 2010, Indonesia rising. Policy priorities for 2010 and beyond. Completing decentralization, World Bank Indonesia Office, Jakarta.
World Bank 2014, ‘Exchange rate history Indonesia, 2000-07’.
World Bank 2015, ‘Indonesia. Health nutrition and population statistics: population estimates and projections’.
