Jakarta, 15 November 2022 — Today we are celebrating the Day of 8 Billion, the day where the world hits the 8 billion population milestone. Indonesia’s population of 275,777,000 million contributes 3,45 percent of the 8 billion, making our nation the fourth largest population in the world.
This is a momentous milestone that signifies the progress we have made as humankind and as a nation. This is a day to reflect and celebrate how far we have come and how further we can go in making human rights central to development and our collective efforts to achieve the Golden Indonesia Vision 2045; a sovereign state that is advanced, just, and prosperous.
Eight billion people means eight billion opportunities. There is nothing we cannot achieve in this world of infinite possibilities. What we need to do is to ensure rights and choices for everyone to unlock the unlimited potential of each and every one of us to be the solution to the challenges we face today.
We must empower women, girls, adolescents, and young people to make informed decisions about their body and their future, and to contribute meaningfully to development. Strengthening health systems’ responsiveness to women and young people’s needs by making services available, accessible by ensuring that a health workforce with the right skills and competencies is in place.
We must reap the demographic dividend that our young population gives us by providing them with the education, information, services, and opportunities they need to thrive and realize their potential.
We must address climate change and minimise impact of disasters by improving disaster preparedness and risk reduction, and the resilience of communities affected by disasters, especially for communities in disadvantaged, border, and outer islands areas.
We must improve gender equality and improvement. We must protect the rights of the most vulnerable among us; women and girls, older persons, persons with disability, people living with HIV, and many others so that they live in dignity in this world of infinite possibility.
We must strengthen data on population, maternal health, sexual and reproductive health, youth development, gender equality, and protection of women from gender-based violence and harmful practices across sectors to improve evidence-based policy making to ensure equitable service delivery and accountability.
We must strengthen digital transformation and One Data Indonesia to ensure that public policies are right on target.
We must build demographic resilience to anticipate and respond to the ongoing demographic change, which is one of the five megatrends that the United Nations Secretary General identified, which shape the progress of the Agenda 2030 and towards the Sustainable Development Goals. We must mitigate potentially negative impacts and fully harness the opportunities that the demographic change brings.
We must strengthen the shared commitment to building back better learning opportunities, as well as scaling up various innovations, enhancing networks and collaboration for a sustainable future, where women, girls, and young people are not left behind but are empowered to create Indonesia's Golden Generation in 2045. In the long term, these efforts are in line with the Government's National Medium Term Plan and the Government's National Long Term Plan.
Rights and choices are central to addressing the seismic shifts in climate, demography, inequality and technology currently reshaping the world.
By protecting the rights and choices of all people to live healthy and empowered lives, we can reach the unlimited potential of the Indonesian people. Only then can we address the challenges we face and achieve our goals nationally and globally; to build an inclusive, peaceful, and prosperous future for us all.
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UNFPA Indonesia & Bappenas
