Targeting imbalance

In one tsunami-devastated area of Aceh, a visitor asked a medical team, "Where are the midwives?" There were none, while only a few weeks after last December's tragedy, an official with the United Nations Population Fund revealed that at least 800 births were at risk. Many of the midwives had of course become victims themselves and apparently no one had told the volunteers of the possibility of a woman approaching her time of labor.

This was an area of unprecedented disaster. But whether in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam or other relatively safer areas, on every national commemoration of Women's Day we are reminded of the huge task ahead of us when it comes to proving that we care for all humans, men and women.

Our maternal mortality rate is still 380 women for every 100,000 live births, mainly due to late access to urgent services needed at time of labor. And compared to the year 2000 when we had barely 63,000 midwives across the nation, or 71 for every 100,000 women of reproductive age, the figure has now dropped to about half that to just under 40,000.

Meanwhile, in Indonesia the number of people living on less than a dollar a day has been estimated at 62 million people.

In such a situation how could the country even begin the task of achieving "the Millenium Development Goals" to, for example, halve the number of those living on less than a dollar a day, or reduce by three quarters the number of women dying in the seemingly mundane act of giving birth, all in the next 10 years?

Apart from "expecting 71 midwives to work day and night", last year's budget at regional levels showed that "regents don't want to pay for midwives" to replace those who have sought work in better paying areas, said Meiwita Budiharsana, an expert in reproductive health. Further, latest official figures put the number of illiterate women over 15-years-old at 45 percent, almost double the figure for men at 23 percent.

To overcome this clear neglect of women one would expect a higher commitment from the government. But with less than 10 percent alloted for education and under 7 percent for health in next year's budget, juggling available funds to reduce discrimination 60 years after independence would be a tall order.

Yet there is a great opportunity in this era of regional autonomy to employ ingenious ways to use what is at hand for those in need. Education in the poor Jembrana regency in Bali, for instance, is free; thus parents need not make the traditional decision to put aside precious funds only for their son's schooling. In the absence of commands from Jakarta and with all the campaigns for good governance and "gender sensitivity", the excuse this time to neglect women's needs would likely be ignorance or greedy willfulness to use and abuse resources.

So who would be in the best position to argue for better allocation of resources? The few figures cited above provide a clue as to the sheer neglect of half of our human population -- thus we naturally support those advocating for more women in decision-making positions.

We could take inspiration from Papua, a province many think of as "backward". While its regional legislatures are 90 percent men, the new Papuan People's Council (MRP) has 15 women out of 42 members -- or more than the 30 percent share campaigned for by advocates of affirmative action.

It's just about making possible realistic ways to prevent the likely waste in terms of futile policies and budget misallocations that result from listening to the wrong people: Put women in strategic positions, in addition to educating both women and men about existing differences in society.

In Aceh, the government and scores of local and foreign Good Samaritans are learning the hard way about preventing the waste of the generous aid that has come from across the globe. Let's not wait for another tragedy of last year's horrific proportions merely to learn how to best use available resources, especially when they are so scarce.