Members of Indonesia's FP2020 Country Committee met in Jakarta on Tuesday, 30 July 2015.
Indonesia’s FP2020 Country Committee gathered together in Jakarta for its 11th meeting on Tuesday afternoon, to discuss and share strategic issues on family planning in Indonesia.
Speaking at his first committee meeting since he took up the head post of the National Population and Family Planning Board (BKKBN) in May, Dr. Surya Chandra Surapaty used the gathering as an opportunity to highlight the urgent need to revitalize Indonesia’s family planning programme.
“We know that Indonesia has the potential to reap the benefits of a demographic dividend. However, unless the country’s family planning programme is strengthened to achieve fertility reduction, it will not be possible to achieve the full potential,” said Dr. Surya Chandra, who is also the chairperson of Indonesia’s FP2020 Country Committee.
“This is in line with the nine priority agendas ‘Nawa Cita’ of the Jokowi [President Joko Widodo] Government, particularly agenda number five on improving the quality of life of Indonesian people in which the health, as well as the family planning and family development play central roles,” he added.
UNFPA Indonesia Representative Mr. Jose Ferraris co-chaired Tuesday’s meeting alongside Dr. Surya Chandra and Ms. Zohra Balsara, USAID’s Health Office Deputy Director. Mr. Ferraris acknowledged the progress of Indonesia’s FP2020 Country Committee towards meeting its commitment.
“Several important documents have already been produced including a Strategic Framework on Family Planning by the FP Strategy Working Group under the leadership of BKKBN and with technical assistance from UNFPA,” Mr. Ferraris told the room of about 60 participants from civil society organizations, the private sector, academia, and representatives from development partners.
“We are now planning to operationalize the framework into Indonesia’s FP programme and are working through the RENSTRA’s [Strategic Plan] of BKKBN and the Ministry of Health.”
Ninuk Widyantoro, from the Rights and Empowerment Working Group, presented the findings from the study on “The Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices of Family Planning in Jakarta, Denpasar and Mataram – August-November 2014” – which was produced with support from the Ford Foundation.
Ninuk Widyantoro, from the Rights and Empowerment Working Group, speaks during Indonesia's 11th FP2020 Country Committee meeting in Jakarta.
The co-founder of the Women’s Health Foundation (YKP) reiterated to the committee that the objective of the study was to identify what was preventing women from accessing family planning services.
“Overall we found that there is still limited knowledge and understanding of reproductive health (RH) issues and contraception at all levels,” she explained. “The most prominent barrier is the ability of human resources to educate and empower women on RH.”
The Health Ministry’s Director for Maternal Health Dr. GIta Maya suggested in response to Ninuk’s findings that men should also be educated and informed about family planning issues.
The meeting also included presentations from BKKBN’s Ms. Irma Ardiana on the Supply Chain Management (SCM) modelling in East Java and East Nusa Tenggara, which is supported by UNFPA, Track20’s Mr. Robert Magnani and Ms. Dinar Pandan Sari from John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health – Center for Communication Programmes discussed the development of the MyChoice smartphone and tablet application for FP socialization.
Mr. Roberto Ador from the Technical Support Unit (TSU) based at BKKBN, which is supported by UNFPA Indonesia, discussed the technical expertise provided to BKKBN on the operationalization of a rights-based family planning strategy, monitoring implementation of family planning in Universal Health Coverage, the SCM model and the review of the KKB Kencana implementation.
With BKKBN acting as a co-host of the upcoming International Conference on Family Planning in Nusa Dua this November, the agency’s Director for International Collaboration and Training Ms. Siti Fathonah also provided an update during the meeting. She confirmed that at least one session during the three-day event would be on Indonesia and also that a pre-formed panel on the South-South Cooperation – that was proposed by UNFPA Indonesia – had been accepted.
Monique Soesman from Rutgers WPF also presented an update on the support provided for ICFP through the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Alliance related to youth activity.
The session ended with an agreement that the World Health Organization (WHO) Indonesia, together with the Ministry of Health, would host the next FP2020 Country Committee meeting in August.
