The main purpose of this study is to determine whether remittance-receiving households in Indonesia have truly experienced a measurable increase in their welfare. It focuses on how social capital may enhance the efforts of Indonesia’s female migrant workers to improve their and their family’s welfare at home. Our findings confirm that social capital enhances the impact of remittances by increasing the welfare of the migrant workers and their immediate family members. Remittance-receiving households with strong and wide-ranging social capital tend to use the extra income from remittances more for investment. In turn, this generates future income, which boosts the impacts of their remittances on their overall welfare.

This study is intended to provide general descriptions of the actors involved in the management of remittance sent by Indonesian migrant workers from their working abroad. Data was collected through interviewing 2 actors at the national level, a national NGO and a government institution, and 3 actors at the grassroot level, a local NGO, academic, and a community of women migrant workers. The interview is intended to identify the actors involved, their relative position and function within the remittance flow, bad practices that need to be avoided and best practices that need to be replicated. This study found that there are still needs for: safe and cheap remittance sending mechanism, remittance is still mainly used for consumption, there is a need for capacity building to assist Indonesian migrant workers to start their own business, and the strong influence of patriarchy culture in the management of remittance sent by women migrant workers.

AbstrakPerserikatan Bangsa-Bangsa (PBB) sebagai organisasi internasional mengeluarkan sebuah konvensi internasional yang menjadi instrumen untuk menghapus segala bentuk diskriminasi terhadap perempuan, yang dinamakan Konvensi Internasional CEDAW (Convention on Elimination of All Form of Discrimination Against Women). Sebagai salah satu negara yang meratifikasi konvensi tersebut, Indonesia, mengadopsi pasal yang ada di dalam Konvensi CEDAW menjadi UU RI No. 7 Tahun 1984. Indonesia sepakat untuk mencegah segala tindakan diskriminasi terhadap perempuan dan menjalankan seluruh kebijakan yang telah diatur didalam UU tersebut. Namun melihat realita di lapangan, jumlah partisipasi politik perempuan di Indonesia belum mendekati angka 30% sesuai dengan affirmative action yang berlaku di Indonesia. Pemilu 2009 dan 2014 menunjukkan jumlah keterwakilan perempuan di parlemen yang masih rendah. Keberhasilan dari pelaksanaan Konvensi CEDAW yang dilihat dari jumlah partisipasi politik perempuan Indonesia diukur menggunakan sebuah indikator internasional yang dinamakan GEM (Gender Empowerment Measure). Hasil dari tulisan ini membuktikan implementasi Konvensi CEDAW di bidang partisipasi politik dinilai belum efektif karena jumlah perempuan di parlemen belum seimbang dengan jumlah penduduk perempuan.Kata kunci : affirmative action, gem, konvensi cedaw, partisipasi politik perempuan. Abstract United Nations as international organization issued an international convention to eliminate discrimination towards women, called CEDAW (Convention on Elimination of All Form of Discrimination Against Women). As the one of the nation that ratified the convention, Indonesia

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