Irrigated field in Indonesia. (Photo courtesy World Bank, Creative Commons)
Shortly after warning that climate change is having a negative impact on his country’s food production, Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono expressed concern on August 16 about the impact of corruption on Indonesia’s future economic success.
Addressing the Indonesian Parliament, Yudhoyono stated that “there are still many perpetrators of corruption even in the government, parliament, regional representatives and among law enforcers.”
During a Ministry of Agriculture meeting earlier in the month, Yudhoyono stressed that global food price increases due to climate change and drought is a serious risk Indonesia must address.
These challenges certainly are not isolated. Private sector innovation and business growth can help Indonesia produce and distribute food more efficiently. However, investments in the food sector, both international and domestic, are sensitive to Indonesia’s degree of corruption.
During recent decades, Indonesia’s reduction in corruption has not been steady, shifting between improving and declining several times during the last 15 years as measured by the GAIN Index. It is also Indonesia’s most serious governance problem; political stability, non-violence, basic freedoms and democratic rights have shown more consistent improvement.
The GAIN Index also supports Yudhoyono’s call for measures to “improve our [Indonesia’s] food security and self-sufficiency.” Food is the country’s most vulnerable sector.
Please view this instructional video “Explore the GAIN Index” to better navigate the information within and many uses of theGAIN Index. The Index provides a data-driven approach to help countries and the private sector invest in adaptation to climate change and other global forces. Please continue to visitgain.orgfor analysis and more videos that show the power of the GAIN Index.
Former President of Costa Rica José María Figueres commended efforts in adaptation and the GAIN Index during a keynote address March 29. Figueres spoke to more than 100 people attending the panel discussion, “A Conversation on the Future of Central America: The Challenges of Climate Change and Natural Disasters,” hosted by The Brookings Institution and the Central American Bank for Economic Integration in Washington, DC.
With the recent news from a U.S. Intelligence report released Thursday of global water stress likely generating unrest in many countries, GAIN welcomes you to look at the complete information available in the Global Adaptation Index (GAIN Index) at index.gain.org. Through assessing a compilation of reliable sources of data for the past 15 years, GAIN provides a look at countries’ vulnerabilities in sectors such as water and readiness to invest in adaptation. There are 161 countries ranked according to their levels of vulnerability and readiness to adapt to the effects of population growth, urbanization and climate change.
GAIN Founding CEO and former Finance Minister of El Salvador, Dr. Juan José Daboub, discusses how his country’s greater resiliency to climate change and other global forces is reflected in the Global Adaptation Index (GAIN Index). He also stresses the need for improvement in key sectors such as healthcare and infrastructure as well as excess government spending and labor losses, which bring down El Salvador’s overall GAIN score.
El Salvador is one of the few countries to move from the “red quadrant” to the “green quadrant” in the GAIN Index Readiness Matrix. This means that the country has moved from a state of low readiness to invest in adaptation and high vulnerability to a condition of possessing an improved investment environment with fewer water, energy and food challenges.
