 Early this month, the Chief of BKKBN, dr Sugiri Syaries, MPA, accompanied by his officers and the Chief of Damandiri Foundation, Prof. Dr. Haryono Suyono and the Damandiri Foundation Director of Entrepreneurship, Drs. Mazwar Noerdin, were in Kampala, Uganda to attend an international event: Partners in Population and Development. The meeting was attended by officers of demography and development from Southern countries or non-block countries and also many philanthropic foundations to discuss integration based people development.
Partners in Population and Development is an international organization whose founding was initiated by former Minister of Demography / 1993-1998Chief of BKKBN and important persons from the nonprofit organization, Rockefeller Foundation. With support from the Chairperson of the Non Block Movement, the late Mr. H. M. Soeharto, this organization has become one of the international organizations that support endeavors to enhance people’s development and alleviate poverty.
The meeting in Kampala, Uganda, talked over the newest development in many developing countries, especially in Asia with successful family planning program and health that push demographic transitions rapidly and change the adult demographic structure. The transition yields more complicated problems than the last demographic problems, such as pregnancy issues, augmentation of birth numbers and also death numbers. Demographic growth in the past was naturally reduced by the high death level so that the struggle to contain both problems was the question. Now the new problems need keener thoughts that have to be worked out more seriously.
In many African countries, that in the last twenty years learned from Asian countries by among others, sending their officers to Indonesia, have now began to harvest their efforts of regulating pregnancy and childbirth. Still the death level that they hoped to be able to reduce, so that their demographic transition could be pushed in no time, has not yet happened, unlike in many Asian countries. Many African countries face high adult death levels, no child and mother death levels anymore, due to various diseases like HIV/AIDS that take so many young productive lives.
Kampala, the capital of Uganda and the biggest city where the convention was held for a week, is beautiful and not yet polluted like many other big cities, and located near Victoria Lake. She has around one million nice and friendly citizens. Uganda with many development issues, including extra ordinary HIV/AIDS problems, receives much international attention and assistance. International assistance is managed by non government organizations and Uganda has many of those kinds of organizations in Kampala.
In that occasion Dr. Sugiri Syarief MPA, the Chief of BKKBN, with support from Damandiri Foundation, presented the Indonesian Family Planning Program and offered several study programs of development that have been run in Indonesia. One of the programs he offered was the Observation Study Tour (OST) that enables participants to see and talk directly to Indonesian village people. In the past this kind of study was very attractive and was supported by international philanthropists.
Yet, in his presentation, he explained that this time the observation study tour will be different from the ones in the past that had concentrated on the introduction of family planning program and its application in villages. The new program will be more interesting by providing them the chance to share the strategies of the MDG’s application management program at the village level. The application of the program has been done in Indonesian villages to solve social problems that are demographics based. This program explicitly provides village people the chance to develop their own institutions and in this matter Indonesia has Family Empowerment Posts - Posdaya.
Mr. Syarief explained the program where through Posdaya village families could talk openly with officers who are invited to their villages over the various facilities provided by the government in development programs. So is in Posdaya programs people may invite experts of various expertise such as religion, education, skills training, health, and environment maintenance. Posdaya opens work opportunities to the people so that they can help their own family and others.
The idea and the program’s strategy that was delivered by the Indonesian delegation headed by Dr. Sugiri Syarief received much positive reaction. They thought that the ideas were not sophisticated so that it could be applied in other developing countries. They also compared it with other ideas that were sponsored by experts from modern countries that needed big capital and was complicated to apply in the villages. Several countries wanted to send their delegations to Indonesia to learn the simple and promising Indonesian strategy.
Our delegation invited them to contact philanthropic communities that will support their visit to Indonesia and to share their own experiences with the Indonesian village people. We have many regencies and town that are ready to share and sell their people based development ideas via Posdaya.
(by Prof. Dr. Haryono Suyono, former Minister of People Welfare and Poverty Alleviation and Chief of BKKBN who loves Indonesian people – www.haryono.com ) |
