Socioeconomic Impact of COVID-19 in Indonesia

by Laura Ralston
Premise Health Poverty

Challenge

Although there is a widespread awareness of the pandemic, there is a lack of understanding from citizens’ perspective, especially behaviors it triggers, sentiments towards government as well as rising concerns. Premise survey data along with data from other big data sources such as social media, online news, and other crowdsourcing platforms are analyzed to understand economic and health concerns, and food security. This is a project under the COVID-19 Observatory in partnership with the Poverty GP.

Solution

Premise crowdsourcing data collection phone application was utilized to study COVID-19 related health and economic concerns, in particular to cross-check World Bank Online Survey results against it. The PREMISE questionnaire covered topics such as economics (outlook, business, goods), social aspects (distancing, media, and travel), and health (spread, care, and testing) related to COVID-19, and covered 2,749 Indonesians respondents, while World Bank Online Survey covered 3,375 respondents.

In populations surveyed, there is a high level of knowledge on COVID-19, with most respondents aware of common symptoms and preventative health measures. In particular, use of social media for information is common. However, citizens face challenges in following public health, social distancing, and self-isolation measures.

When compared across different data collection efforts, it is found that the PREMISE survey findings on knowledge and awareness are consistent with the World Bank Online Survey, as well as other surveys such as J-PAL, BPS, Warwick, and YouGov. Moreover, survey results are also confirmed with mobility insights from big data analytics. The mobility of people in hotspot locations has tremendously decreased and people tend to stay at home following travel ban policy and lockdown restrictions.

Impact

Concerns related to COVID-19 have revolved around health care, food access, job loss and government handling. Premise data acts as a useful source of crowdsourced information to understand people’s concerns and behaviour during the pandemic and shows consistency with data collected through other online survey methods.