Fery Ferdiansyah

Fery Ferdiansyah is a policy practitioner and PhD candidate focused on the challenges of social policy in complex governance settings. He holds a Bachelor of Economics with distinction from Diponegoro University and a Master of Public Policy from the Australian National University (ANU).

His professional background comprises almost 15 years in Indonesia’s public sector, during which he was involved in designing, coordinating, and implementing large-scale social policy reforms. His work centred on key national programs, including Universal Health Coverage and employment insurance, requiring him to navigate multi-ministerial coordination, translate policy into operational systems, and adapt to on-the-ground dynamics.

His project, Legibility Gaps in Social Protection: Examining Worker Exclusion in Indonesia’s Informal Economy, aims to understand why millions of people in the informal economy remain unseen and underserved by the state. Situating Indonesia’s experience as a large, post-colonial state in the Global South, the project examines this exclusion in the context of resource constraints, a common governance challenge. Using an interdisciplinary lens that draws from public policy, institutional reform, and the anthropology of development, the research tackles this issue at the critical intersection of administration, equity, and social justice.