Int'l family planning conference closes
Int'l family planning conference closes
KUTA, Bali (JP): The International Training Program for Family
Planning/Reproductive Health closed here on Thursday with a call
for participants to maintain a critical stance on their country's
implementation of the program developed in Indonesia.
The conference's coordinator, Santoso Hamijoyo, said in his
closing speech that Indonesia was in need of feedback from the
participants to improve the training program, which has been
running for 12 consecutive years.
"We recommend that all participants implement what they have
learned here in their respective countries and closely monitor
how it works," Santoso said, adding that their application of the
program would serve as a form of self-assessment for Indonesia.
This year's training program was attended by 25 participants
who represented 12 countries, and 45 representatives of donor
institutions.
The figure raises the number of international trainees from
the Indonesia program to 3,534 from 89 countries. The number
includes 360 senior officials, presidents, prime ministers,
ministers and ambassadors.
Indonesia has also sent family planning experts to give
technical assistance to at least 17 countries in Asia, the
Pacific region and Africa.
National Family Planning Board (BKKBN) official Santoso
acknowledged that despite the international acclaim, the training
program was pregnant with weaknesses.
As an example he said the program organizers provided
participants with descriptive methodology, but had been unable to
provide analysis in the five years since the program's inception.
Santoso also said the conference recommended that Indonesia
observe the implementation of family planning programs in each
participant's country.
"While other countries learn from us, we also have to learn
from other countries' experiences in running their family
planning programs."
Santoso said that during the one-week program, most
participants acknowledged that Indonesia's experience and methods
had become an important base of knowledge, which could be adopted
to improve the family planning program in their countries.
Another BKKBN official, Pudjo Rahardjo, said that conference
participants were able to improve their knowledge by sharing
information about the different ways used by other countries to
implement the family planning programs .
He said that adapting the Indonesian experience to the
participating countries different cultural values was the clue to
successful implementation of family planning programs in each
country. (zen/04)