Evaluating the Impact of the Family Hope Program (Program Keluarga Harapan) in Driving Poverty Reduction in North Gorontalo Regency, Indonesia

Poverty in North Gorontalo Regency remains high, at 15.89% of the population (around 17,900 people) in March 2025, even though the Family Hope Program (Program Keluarga Harapan, PKH) has operated there since 2011. Field reports point to suboptimal facilitation, weak validation and updating of recipient data, and inaccurate targeting. This study evaluates the impact of PKH on poverty reduction in North Gorontalo using Stufflebeam’s CIPP model, examining (1) targeting accuracy and its implications for programme effectiveness (context), (2) the validation and updating of recipient data (input), (3) facilitation and behavioural change among beneficiary families (Keluarga Penerima Manfaat, KPM) (process), and (4) changes in the socio-economic conditions of KPM (product). An explanatory qualitative design was applied with 22 informants: the head of the Social Protection and Security Division of the Social Affairs Office, the head of the regency Statistics Office (BPS), a SIKS-NG data operator, eight social facilitators and eleven KPM, selected purposively and through snowball sampling. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, observation, documentation and focus group discussion, analysed with the Miles–Huberman interactive model and checked through triangulation. Most recipients were found to fit poor and vulnerable criteria, yet inclusion and exclusion errors persist. Data accuracy has improved through village deliberation, SIKS-NG, by-name-by-address verification and home visits, but is constrained by unstable networks, civil-registry mismatches, facilitator workload and concealed assets. Facilitation through Family Capacity Building Sessions (P2K2), home visits and routine communication has shifted education, health, parenting and financial behaviour. PKH mainly eases household expenditure and stabilises access to schooling, health care and food rather than raising permanent income. PKH therefore reduces the depth and vulnerability of poverty, but a sustained exit from poverty requires accurate data, intensive facilitation and integration with local economic empowerment.