JAKARTA, Indonesia - Amidst the achievements from the last five-year development assistance under the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)’s 6th Country Programme, a central government official calls on provincial officials to further promote programme ownership for sustainable development in their respective regions.

Ideally, the programme ownership needs to be translated into commitment, project replication and fund allocations (from local budget) as UNFPA’s development assistance is temporary and is designed to promote development in your respective provinces,” said Director for Population and Women’s Empowerment from the National Development Planning Agency (BAPPENAS) Ms. Yohandarwati Arifiyatno during a recent Final Programme Review meeting - attended by key partners and government officials from the 4 UNFPA-assisted provinces. The meeting was held to evaluate programme activities during the 6th CP which was executed under the coordination of BAPPENAS.

For the 7th CP implementation, BAPPENAS Deputy for Human Resources and Culture Dedi Masykur Riyadi said participatory approach needs to be strengthened through closer consultation between stakeholders at the central and district level and periodic monitoring should be designed to allow immediate problem identification and solution in order to keep programme implementation on the right track and pace. “This way, the programme mandate can be integrated into the government development agenda and highlighted in the planning process.”

UNFPA Representative Dr. Zahidul Huque further added that fostering programme ownership also means promoting the full involvement of all elements of the population, including youth. Optimizing on all provincial assets and potentials would, in turn, significantly contribute to development programme and secure its sustainability.
The Fund’s support was given to advance the areas of reproductive health, gender and population in West Java, West Kalimantan, East Nusa Tenggara and South Sumatra provinces. It was implemented as the country was entering the decentralization process, which allows provincial governments to take greater role in determining development priorities in their own provinces.

The process of the decentralization itself has been challenging as provincial government agencies are still lacking in technical capacity to carry out the expected role and tasks, often neglecting some crucial aspects in the process. “The bottom-up planning and coordination are indeed not easy and time consuming but these two steps ensure proper programme planning and implementation to achieve the target,” Ms. Yohandarwati said.

Despite this challenge, the Fund’s 5-year assistance has made positive impacts with key achievements are among others:

• establishment of the National RH Committee in 1996 with 60 percent of the 44 assisted districts have set up their own RH Committees, minigrant programme as a part of the mother friendly movement has positively contribute to lowering maternal mortality in 992 villages, 70% of which come up with their own initiatives to ensure the availability of the emergency transportation, childbirth fund, blood transfusion, mapping of pregnant women and community involvement to make pregnancy safer in their villages. The programme has inspired other villages to develop similar scheme.

• establishment of district level database at all 44 assisted-districts to promote the use of population data in local
development planning,

• setting up of the Indonesian Forum of Parliamentarians for Population and Development (IFPPD) and the assisted provinces, except West Java where local counselors are considered open to UNFPA issues, have developed their own forums through which strategic population issues for development have been forwarded to local counselors and decision makers. Aceh followed suit in March 2006. IFPPD contributed to the endorsement of the law on Elimination of Domestic Violence (Law No 22/2004) and is active in advocating the amendment and/or promulgation of laws on population and family development health, child protection, anti-trafficking and migrant workers.

• establishment of a women crisis center under the faith-based prevention of gender-based violence programme, piloted in West Java province where the issue prevails. The center’s activities also contribute to increased awareness among locals, including the religious and community leaders,

• launch of UNFPA’s humanitarian response to 2004 Tsunami in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam province to ensure immediate access to quality reproductive health services, psychosocial supports, including income-generating trainings, personal hygiene kits and immediate GBV prevention and management efforts. This helped contribute to easing the sufferings to Tsunami survivors.

These key achievements also help the assisted-provinces attain a number of substantial development indicators, like the maternal mortality ratio reduced to 307/100,000 live births, infant mortality ratio dropped to 45/100,000 live births and life expectancy increased to 68 years old.

Since some pressing population issues are locally perceived as culturally sensitive, there is a need for intensified efforts to advocate UNFPA key issues to the public, local counselors, decision makers, community and religious leaders down to the village level in order to continuously address maternal mortality, the spread of HIV/AIDS, gender discrimination and gender-based violence in the 7th Country Programme.

The implementation of the decentralization has also resulted in a change of the structure of the National Family Planning Coordinating Board (BKKBN), as an agency in charge of coordination for 6th CP advocacy. This structural change has weakened district BKKBN’s formerly strong role and capability in advocacy, public campaigns and demand creation in many areas, especially where its district office is moved under other institutions like Population Statistics Office or Tourism Office.

We need to intensify the existing advocacy efforts and strengthen the commitment of partner NGOs and other stakeholders, specifically members of the now ineffective, inter agency IEC working group. Their active involvement is necessary to educate the public in a culturally sensitive way on these main issues,” said Deddy Hermawan a staff from BKKBN on his advocacy recommendation.