Indonesia needs to invest more on human development

The Jakarta Post Jakarta

The era of decentralization has actually opened a great possibility for the nation to gradually move its development pattern from natural resources-based to human resources-based development.

Ascobat Gani, a prominent advocate of family planning and human development, said on Saturday that the growth-oriented development in the Soeharto era that continues until now had cost the nation a lot.

The "trilogy of development" during Soeharto's years put too much emphasis on security and economic growth and did not even touch on human development, he said.

"Forests were cleared for the sake of achieving the target of growth figures," Ascobat said.

Surprisingly, the current administration is repeating such mistakes.

What is needed is a paradigm shift from natural wealth "extraction" to "innovation" in human development, Ascobat said.

It is not unusual, he said, for people to overlook human "capital".

East Nusa Tenggara, he said, citing an example, has a population of 3.6 million people but it is often regarded as a poor province.

"People are simply unaware that the large population there is an asset," said Ascobat.

The government, he said, needs to have a kind of "trilogy of development" but with an emphasis on human development.

With a "trilogy of human development", each region would be required to invest significantly in education and health services, two basic elements of human development.

Regencies should allocate at least Rp 25,000 (US$2.80) per capita to provide basic health services, and Rp 1,000,000 per student to give them basic education, Ascobat said.

"Today's figure for health costs is equal to two packets of cigarettes," he said on the sidelines of a discussion on family planning and reproductive health hosted by The Jakarta Post and Johns Hopkins University.

He added that the regency that invests the most in health is Badung on Bali island, which allocates US$2.20 per capita for health services.

Legislator Surya Chandra Surapaty, who was one of the speakers in the discussion, talked about how each region yearned to have a public hospital as if the building was the only prerequisite to health.

"They forget that clean water is also an element for achieving a healthy life," he said, adding that almost all regents had submitted a similar request.

On education, Indonesia only invests about Rp 450,000 per student, less than half of the minimum requirement.

Indonesia invests around 1.4 percent of its gross national product on education, compared with a global average of Rp 4.8 percent.

Indonesia, which is losing out in global competition, will continue to lose out in the global economy unless it starts to invest significantly in human development.

There have been encouraging signs, though, he said, citing the easternmost province of Papua which allocates 30 percent of its yearly budget to education and 15 percent to health.

Other regions, at least the rich ones such as East Kalimantan and Aceh, should follow suit.

As for poor provinces and regencies in terms of natural resources, the central government should give a helping hand to ensure that those local administrations can provide financing for basic health services and education.