Policy Adviser (Republic of Indonesia) Sudarno Sumarto: How to Reimagine Social Welfare

As part of the Beyond COVID Speaker Series, CID Director Asim I. Khwaja asked Sudarno "Darno" Sumarto, Policy Adviser at National Team for the Acceleration of Poverty Reduction (TNP2K), Office of the Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia, about the biggest loss in social welfare created by the pandemic, some signs of hope for social welfare in the response efforts, and most importantly, what lessons can we take forward to overcome losses and reimagine a better, more resilient social welfare system.

Speaker Bio:
Sudarno Sumarto is an economist and the first director of The SMERU Research Institute. His current position as a policy adviser at National Team for the Acceleration of Poverty Reduction (TNP2K), Office of the Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia shows his strong linkages to Indonesian policymakers. He holds a Ph.D. and an MA from Vanderbilt University, all in economics. He is a former head of Statistic Society Forum in Indonesia and was a visiting fellow at the Southeast Asia Forum (SEAF) at Stanford University. He has extensive experience in leading large-scale research projects, including A Study on Teacher Absenteeism. His works have been published in international peer-reviewed journals, such as Journal of Political Economy, Journal of Development Economics, and Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization.