Life is Healthy

Jakarta Globe, Ulma Haryanto, March 30, 2010

The government has surrendered all hope of attaining three of the most crucial Millennium Development Goals on schedule, offering the usual excuses of budget constraints and a lack of public participation.

Nina Sardjunani, deputy head of human resources and cultural affairs at the National Development Board (Bappenas), told delegates to a national conference on Tuesday that reducing the maternal mortality ratio, combating HIV/AIDS and reducing the proportion of the population without access to clean drinking water would be impossible to achieve by 2015.

The MDGs set out eight universal goals for 2015. They were drawn from the targets outlined in the Millennium Declaration, which was adopted by 189 nations and signed by 147 heads of state during the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000.

Nina said Indonesia had been “left behind” in three key areas, with continued HIV/AIDS prevalence among the younger generation, a low rate of condom use and only a small proportion of the population possessing a comprehensive knowledge of the disease. She was speaking during the national coordination meeting on health, population and family planning organized by the Coordinating Ministry for People’s Welfare at Grand Sahid Jaya hotel in Jakarta.

One goal — combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases — stated that the objective was to have halted and reversed the spread of HIV/AIDS, particularly among those aged 15-24 years, by 2015.

Nina said that encouragingly, Indonesia was on track to curb malaria and had already succeeded in curbing the spread of tuberculosis, thanks to improved access to basic sanitation facilities.

Sugiri Syarief, head of the renamed National Population and Family Planning Agency (BKKBN), said family planning programs, though not specifically mentioned in the MDGs, could boost the success of the programs, including condom use.

“Effective family planning programs can help cut poverty and improve the quality of human resources, economic development and health,” he said.

He said it was concerning that in the 10 years since the downfall of the New Order regime, family planning programs had been neglected by the central government, which had failed to provide the necessary funding amid reluctance or ignorance of local governments and organizations.

“There is also a misleading stigma in the public,” he explained. “Every time we promote condom use, for example, some groups think that we are promoting promiscuity.”

Sugiri said that several years ago, for example, the BKKBN provided a number of condom vending machines at targeted locations throughout the country, but the move was strongly condemned by some groups and all the of machines were destroyed.

“There are also other stigmas, such as that wearing a condom reduces the satisfaction level, and that men carrying condoms means that he’s adulterous, among many other things,” he said.

According to the results of the five-yearly Indonesian Demographic and Health Survey last undertaken in 2007, the incidence of condom use compared to 2002 had increased from 60.3 percent to 61.4 percent. Nina maternal health targets were also destined for failure. According to the survey, the number of women dying during childbirth per year stood at 228 per 100,000, while the target was 102, though this was an improvement over the 307 deaths per 100,000 births recorded in 2002.