Evidence and the Politics of Reform

Two decades after the fall of authoritarian rule in 1998, Indonesia had social assistance reaching a quarter of its poorest households, universal health insurance, a national welfare database for targeting help, and plans for protection across the whole life cycle. Sudarno Sumarto spent 25 years inside the policymaking that produced this, and his account takes aim at a familiar economist's assumption: that finding the right policy is enough.

His argument is that politics is not an obstacle to evidence-based reform but part of its machinery. Who decides what counts as the right policy, and how does research become action? The answers lie in personalities, relationships, networks and the hard work of coordinating many actors. For anyone in development, social policy or government who suspects good data rarely speaks for itself, this is a grounded and instructive insider's account.