Australia pledges A$14m to RI

Australia pledges A$14m to RI

JAKARTA (JP): The Australian government pledged here yesterday
to give Indonesia a A$12 million (US$8.4 million) grant to help
reduce the high maternal mortality rate and another A$2 million
in an assistance program to the National Commission on Human
Rights.

Ambassador John McCarthy said the $12 million grant would be
spent in three provinces -- Irian Jaya, Maluku and West Java, and
that the fund would be administered by the United Nations
Children's Fund (Unicef) here.

It would be given over three years by the Australian Agency
for International Aid (AusAID).

The $2 million human rights assistance program would be spent
to help the commission train its staff in human rights principles
and law, management, good governance and English language.

One of the priorities of the assistance program will be the
establishment of a computerized complaints database and
standardized complaints handling procedures.

"The project is the culmination of a lot of work and
underlines the fact that Australia is very supportive of the work
of the commission," McCarthy said.

It was the commission's organizational weaknesses as well as
its lack of appropriately trained staff that led the Australian
government to provide the assistance, he said.

The Memorandum of Understanding for the assistance was signed
by McCarthy and the rights commission's secretary-general,
Baharuddin Lopa, here yesterday.

McCarthy, also signed yesterday the memorandum for the $12
million grant with Unicef Indonesia Representative Stephen
Woodhouse and Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Haryono
Suyono.

The grant, the largest given to Indonesia after the World Bank
and Unicef for health programs that target mothers and children,
would be used by Unicef/AusAID to improve health care services to
women in poor villages in the three designated provinces.

According to Haryono, the selection of the three provinces to
receive the assistance was "well-targeted" because the percentage
of poor people in each province was high.

McCarthy said the aid was given to help protect the lives of
Indonesian women during pregnancy and in childbirth.

At present the country's national maternal mortality rate is
390 per 100,000 live births, one of the worst in Asia. (aan)