Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Serving as the book’s foundation, the chapter lays out a brief history of Indonesia’s social protection system development since the Asian financial crisis in 1998, up to the end of the Joko Widodo administration in 2024. This chapter also introduces the concept of the social protection system. While the idea of evidence-based policymaking has been in vogue lately, this chapter argues that it is not a straightforward process. In practice, policymaking—even when involving scholars and researchers—is as much a political matter as it is a technical one. In this process, trust is key, and failure in implementing reforms is to be expected as part of the process. As a matter of fact, evidence-based policymaking is also about mitigating setbacks and playing a long game.</jats:p>