JP/4/ICPD

JP/4/ICPD

The Jakarta Post
Jakarta

The country needs to revise legal rulings, allocate funding, and
establish clear organizational structure in implementing
recommendations from the International Conference on Population
and Development (ICPD+5) to address its population problems, a
discussion concluded on Tuesday.

ICPD+5 is the review of the 1994 ICPD recommendations in
Cairo, Egypt which required countries signing the regulations to
implement them in national policies.

Such policies should cover poverty eradication, education
prioritizing girls and women, gender equity and equality, the
reduction of infant and maternal mortality rate, reproductive
health including programs on fighting AIDS epidemic, food
security, human rights protection, and environment preservation.

Suko Bandiyono, demography expert at National Institute of
Sciences (LIPI), said in the seminar that the revision of Law.
No. 10/1992 on the Development of Population and Welfare Family
was needed to accomodate the latest progress in population issues
and to accomodate ICPD+5 recommendations.

"The law does not cover single parent family. The norms of
small family in the law is no longer relevant because we need
family with good quality," he said.

The country also shows each year that some 40 infants die in
every 1,000 live births.

The law also has no articles supporting women empowerment,
children and the handicapped's rights, reproductive rights, and
gender equality and equity.

Currently, Indonesia is the home of some 56 million poor
people and its maternal mortality rate is 373 per 100,000 live
births, ten times higher than Thailand, 11 times higher than
Malaysia, and 75 times higher than Singapore.

The country also shows each year that some 40 infants die in
every 1,000 live births.

Another speaker, Siswanto Agus Wilopo, deputy of Family
Planning and Reproductive Health at the National Family Planning
Board (BKKBN), said that combination between sufficient fund and
clear organizational structure have proven the success of
population programs.

"The presence of both elements prove that government has
political will in addressing the population problems. However, we
don't have a ministry of population right now and the fund source
is also limited. Maybe the issue of population is not attractive
for the government," he said.

Nesim Tumkaya, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
Representative to Indonesia said that the country should make
quick policies to tackle adverse population problems, especially
in fighting the AIDS epidemic.

"This threat is a serious one; there are some estimated
120,000 cases now. You may consider it as low prevalence but it
is rapidly rising. There is possibility of million people will be
infected in the immediate future,"