Despite progress, RI ranks low in human development<\/p>\n
Endy M. Bayuni, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The good news is that Indonesia has been making progress in
\nalmost all facets of human development. The not so good news is
\nthat the country still rates poorly in the fight to improve the
\nlives of its people when compared to other countries, including
\nmost in the region.<\/p>\n
Indonesia ranked 112th in the Human Development Index
\npublished in the Human Development Report 2003 which studied the
\ndevelopment of 175 countries and was published on Monday.<\/p>\n
The report published by the United Nations Development Program
\n(UNDP) said that between 1990 and 2001, Indonesia had
\nsignificantly improved people's access to clean water and
\nsanitation, had moved toward gender equality and increased the
\nnumbers of girls enrolled in school and significantly decreased
\nits child mortality rate.<\/p>\n
The number of those living in poverty had dropped.<\/p>\n
Indonesia's record on students enrolled in primary education
\nhowever has not been good. Between 1990 and 2001 the numbers
\nregressed. While the report does not give a reason for the
\ndecline, it is known that millions of children in Indonesia could
\nnot go to school in the late 1990s because the economic crisis.<\/p>\n
The report looked at the progress of nations around the world
\nin reaching \"Millennium Development Goals\", which almost all
\ncountry leaders, including Indonesia's, had pledged to pursue
\nbefore the turn of the century.<\/p>\n
The eight Millennium Development Goals were:<\/p>\n
* To halve the number of poor people (defined as living on
\nless than US$1 a day) by 2015, and to halve the number of people
\nsuffering from hunger<\/p>\n
* To ensure all boys and girls complete primary schooling<\/p>\n
* To eliminate gender disparity in schools by 2015<\/p>\n
* To reduce by two-thirds the mortality rate of children under
\nfive<\/p>\n
* To halt and reverse the spread of HIV\/AIDS, malaria and
\nother major diseases<\/p>\n
* To promote sustainable development policies<\/p>\n
* To halve the number of people without access to drinking
\nwater<\/p>\n
* To develop global partnerships for development.<\/p>\n
The UNDP report, which quoted data published in 2001, says 7.2
\npercent of the Indonesian population still live in extreme
\npoverty, and 26 percent of children under the age of five are
\nunderweight for their age. The report says 6 percent of the
\npopulation is undernourished, an improvement from 9 percent in
\n1990.<\/p>\n
The number of school-age children enrolled in schools dropped
\nfrom 98 percent to 92 percent, according to the report.<\/p>\n
The report found girls are still struggling to get an
\neducation. The ratio of girls to boys attending primary school
\nremained unchanged at 0.95 between 1990 and 2001; girls also have
\nless access to college education, with the ratio of girls to boys
\nat 0.75.<\/p>\n
Gender equality is still an issue in Indonesia with the female
\nshare of nonagricultural employment improving only slightly to 30
\npercent (from 29 percent); and the proportion of legislative
\nseats held by women declining to 8 percent from 12 percent in
\n1990, (in spite of a woman president since 2001).<\/p>\n
Indonesia made significant progress in the health sector
\ndespite the severe economic crisis of the late 1990s. The
\nmortality rate of under-fives declined from 91 per 1,000 births
\nto 45, and infant mortality rates declined from 60 per 1,000
\nbirths to 33.<\/p>\n
However, the maternal mortality ratio remained high at 470 per
\n100,000 births.<\/p>\n
Indonesia's environmental record continued to be poor with a
\nhigher emission of carbon dioxide and rising consumption of
\nozone-depleting substances in he last 10 years or so.<\/p>\n
But water access and sanitation in Indonesia seemed to depend
\non location. Sixty-nine percent of the rural population had
\nsustainable access to drinking water in 1999, against 62 in 1990;
\nthe ratio for the urban population fell from 92 to 90 percent.<\/p>\n
Indonesia scored 0.682 in the Human Development Index. In the
\nregion, it rated above Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Papua New
\nGuinea but below all other Southeast Asian countries. In
\ncomparison to other large countries, Indonesia ranked below China
\nbut above India.<\/p>\n
\"Indonesia is on track,\" commented Romeo Reyes, program
\ndevelopment advisor at UNDP's office in Jakarta. \"But it needs to
\ndo more to achieve the millennium development goals.\"<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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