The Impacts of Village Fund Direct Cash Assistance Distribution Implementation during the COVID-19

Direct cash assistance has often been criticized for its limited impact in the long-term community empowerment. However during the Covid-19 pandemic this method of assistance was deemed necessary to help the poor survive. This article discusses the implementation of the Village Fund Direct Cash Assistance ( Bantuan Langsung Tunai-Dana Desa/BLT-DD) policy during COVID-19 pandemic in Sokawera Village, Banyumas Regency. The study aimed to determine the impacts of implementation of the BLT-DD policy in Sokawera Village. A descriptive qualitative method was selected for the study, and the research was conducted in Sokawera Village, Cilongok District, Banyumas Regency, Central Java. Study data were collected through interviews, observations, and documentation. The results showed that target groups felt appropriate benefits of the BLT-DD and are satisfied bottom-up decision making approach of the program. Based on the discussions attended by program implementers, namely village officials, village council (BPD), community unit heads ( Ketua RW ), neighborhood unit heads (Ketua RT) and community leaders, human resource capacity was deemed adequate to implement the policy and there was no influence of power or interests among implementers that affect policy implementation. The strategy adopted in implementing the policy is to conduct an awareness campaign and establish cooperation between the stakeholders. The study discovered several obstacles, namely the misuse of BLT-DD benefits, distribution delays, limited budget resulting in limited distribution, non-compliance of certain implementers, and the emergence of social envy among residents. The implication of this study is that the government can develop an application system that can help identify the target group correctly. In addition, the government must also ensure the availability of a budget for the poor, so that assistance can cover poor families as the overall target group.


INTRODUCTION
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted all sectors of life, including the persistent health threats, the weakening of the economy, and the decline in people's purchasing power marked by increasing unemployment and poverty. As a result, the unemployment rate is estimated to increase by 4 to 5.5 million people (Gusman, 2020), while the number of people living in poverty is predicted to increase from 24.79 million to 28.7 million people (Fauzia, 2020). The Indonesian government attempted pandemic (J. Ali & Khan, 2022;Kurniawan, 2020). BLT-DD is also extremely beneficial in saving people's lives and economy during the pandemic (Pramanik, 2020; Sukmana et al., 2021), and in strengthening household food security (Amrullah et al., 2020). BLT is also deemed significant in maintaining people's purchasing power, ensuring business continuity and minimizing the impact of layoffs (Engka et al., 2021;Iping, 2020  Source: (Sokawera, 2020)  In-depth interviews were conducted by BLT-DD allocation. To achieve a high level of confidence, data triangulation approach was carried out and data verification had been carried out (Tracy, 2013). The validity test of the research data was conducted using data source triangulation techniques by comparing data sourced from interviews, observations, and documentation. An interactive data analysis model was utilized as data analysis technique in this study (Miles et al., 2014).

Target Group'Interests
The as well as plan and result aspect (Sofi, 2021).
Being sensitive to the interests and needs of the community is the key to the development of sustainable development programs (Groulx et al., 2021). BLT-type of assistance has also been shown to significantly reduce poverty rates by four and six percentage points in Zambia (Paul et al., 2021).

Benefit Types
The benefit types aspect indicates that, in a policy, there must be several types of benefits that are contained and produce a positive impact after the policy is implemented (Grindle, 1980). Policies issued by the government must be able to provide City (Febriaty, 2021), and Sumedang Regency (Herdiana et al., 2021).

Decision Making Locations
The decision making locations aspect is related to where the decision making of a policy will be implemented and whether the location of the decision making is correct (Grindle, 1980).  (Marushkevych et al., 2021), the sustainability of higher education funding (Mazon et al., 2020), and regional policy innovation (Bours et al., 2021).

Program Implementers
The program implementer is the implementing organization, namely the bureaucratic organizations with the responsibility to implement the policy. A policy will not run without a policy implementer (Grindle, 1980), and policy implementers are strongly influenced by the environment and policy organization (Marani et al., 2022). The and community leaders were also involved.
Implementers' compliance and competence are unique constructs that can be reliably measured for monitoring and evaluation (Cross & West, 2011). Implementers of policy occasionally have a more critical perception of the change process (Drummond et al., 2017).

Resources
The resources aspect suggests that the implementation of a policy must be supported by adequate resources to ensure successful implementation of the policy. These resources are divided into two categories, namely material resources (financial) and human resources (non-material). Financial resources refer the adequacy of investment capital for a certain program or policy (Edward III, 1984;Indiahono, 2017). The  Source: (Sokawera, 2020(Sokawera, , 2021 Table 3 shows that the total BLT-DD allocation in 2020 is Rp895.8 million. This amount decreased in 2021, with total budget allocation of Rp543.6 million. The allocation amount has to be adjusted to the needs of the community who needs to receive BLT-DD. Due to the limitation, there are residents who did not receive the BLT-DD allocation. Human resources refer the adequacy of both quality and quantity of implementers that can cover the entire target group (Edward III, 1984). The use of this web-based information system shows the adaptive attitude of the village government to changes in the service environment and its public policies. The information system developed will facilitate decision making, and make information more perfect regarding the names of BLT priority recipient villages (Sinaga et al., 2021).

Policy Actors' Power, Interests and Strategies
A policy needs to consider the power, interests and strategies used by the actors involved to facilitate the policy implementation process (Grindle, 1980).

Compliance and Responsiveness
The compliance and responsiveness aspects argue that it is necessary to pay  (Aseh et al., 2021).

Responsiveness in public policy refers
to the response of the public target to the implementation of a policy (Wibawani et al., 2021). The study results showed that the BLT-DD policy in Sokawera Village had caused a certain community turmoil in the form of community conflicts due to social envy between residents since the BLT-DD allocation was only distributed to certain groups of residents.

CONCLUSION
The study shows that the implementation The implication of this study is that the government can develop an application system that can help identify the target group correctly. In addition, the government must also ensure the availability of a budget for the poor, so that assistance can cover poor families as the overall target group.