At the invitation of the Government, the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing undertook an official visit to Indonesia from 31 May to 11 June 2013. The main purpose of the mission was to assess the policies and programmes aimed at promoting, on the basis of the principle of non-discrimination, the right to adequate housing in Indonesia. In addition to Jakarta, the Special Rapporteur visited Makassar, Surabaya and Yogyakarta. During her visit, the Special Rapporteur met with officials and representatives of national and local Government, the judiciary, national human rights institutions, international organizations, donor agencies, the private finance and construction sectors, as well as non-governmental and grassroots organizations. She also met with communities and individuals in urban and rural areas, and heard their concerns with regard to housing issues in Indonesia. The Special Rapporteur expresses her gratitude to the Government of Indonesia for the invitation, the warm welcome, constructive dialogue and openness, its support and provision of relevant information throughout and after the visit.

In the last decade, Indonesia has enjoyed steady economic growth and demonstrated substantial gains in social indicators, with gradual declines in poverty in both urban and rural areas, and is now classified as a middle-income country. Despite these impressive achievements, about 28.6 million people or 11.6 per cent of all households still live below the national poverty line set at US$ 1.25 per day.2 In addition, a significant part of the population (38 per cent) lives below 1.5 times the poverty line and is extremely vulnerable to falling into poverty.3 5. Indonesia is the world’s third most populous country and currently has the largest share and the fastest rate of growth of urban population in Asia. The number of urban poor is expected to rise as the country’s urbanization rate is projected to increase from its current level of 50 per cent to a projected 70 per cent by 2030.The urban poor are concentrated in highly urbanized and densely populated Java, accounting for more than two thirds of the country’s low-income population.6 Internal migration from rural to urban areas is partly caused by the concentration of economic activity in urban centres. Additionally commercial agriculture development and extractive industries in rural areas compete with traditional economic activities for land and natural resources pushing people to migrant to the cities. Although economic decentralization is part of the Government’s general development agenda, the inertia of the historical concentration of economic opportunities in Java7 is still challenging its housing policies.