From 21st until 27th of August 2011 EPF took six Members of Parliament from across Europe on a study tour to Indonesia. The focus of the tour was family planning and reproductive health, showcasing Indonesia as having a good track record for a successful family planning policy. The study tour was hosted by Indonesian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (IFPPD) and UNFPA Indonesia, and was made possible through the generous support of the Countdown 2015 Europe and UNFPA Geneva Office. Members of the study tour included Members of Parliament from Austria (Social-Democrat), Belgium (NV-A), Ireland (Fine Gael), Portugal (Socialists), European Parliament (EPP – Cyprus) and the UK (Conservative).
The study tour placed an emphasis on field project visits in urban and rural settings. In Jakarta, study tour participants held meetings with Indonesian Members of Parliament, Government officials, UNFPA and other donor agencies. In Yogyakarta participants then visited integrated community health posts and public health centres. The centres provide free of charge reproductive health services and supplies as well as nutrition to local population. They also visited the temporary shelters for the people affected by the eruption of the Merapi volcano and met with NGOs, such as PKBI (Member of IPPF) and Rifka Annisa, providing services and counselling to young people and women that have experienced domestic violence.
Participants learned that while Indonesia has a successful track record for its family planning policy (including effective state leadership and cooperation with the religious leaders), most of the services are geared towards married couples and not young single people. Additionally due to recent reforms and regionalization, the expertise that the central government used to possess in population matters has often been lost at the regional and local levels. As a result the country is facing fast population growth that can threaten its poverty reduction strategies. They also learned that the rates of maternal mortality in the country are persistently high and that Indonesia still hasn’t adopted coherent guidelines on midwifery. Members of Parliament noted that while Yogyakarta represents one of the best examples in providing family planning services to the population, more efforts will need to be made to scale up the success throughout the country. Additionally, they stressed that advocacy efforts on behalf of civil society need to be ongoing and internationally supported to ensure the continuation of the successful family planning policy after regionalisation and guaranteeing support to the more disadvantaged areas of the country.
