T

he family planning (KB) program in Karanganyar regency, Central Java, is set to be discussed at the International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP) in Nusa Dua, Bali, from Jan. 25 to 28, and will likely be implemented in 14 countries, an executive has said.

'€œWe will follow up on the discussions and we will help them [ICFP participants] to implement this [program],'€ said Duff Gillespie, director of Advanced Family Planning (AFP), an advocacy group supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Institute for Reproductive Health.

Duff and 23 delegations from 14 countries, namely Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo, Ghana, India, Madagascar, Mali, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Senegal, Uganda, Zambia and Kenya, visited the Tasikmadu community health clinic (puskesmas) on Friday to learn about the KB program and how to make it a success.

Duff said that almost all regions and countries highlighted by the AFP faced the same difficulties in making their KB programs a success. Problems such as the limited supply of contraceptives, the lack of trained personnel and inadequate communication between service providers and prospective KB program participants continued to haunt KB targets.

In spite of that, Duff acknowledged that Indonesia faced a particularly difficult situation because of the fact that it was an archipelagic country with thousands of islands.

Meanwhile, Cipta Cara Padu Foundation (YCCP) executive director Inne Silviane said that her foundation deliberately approached stakeholders so they would be able to develop legal umbrellas to help advocate for communities.

'€œAfter that, we provide advocacy to villages by applying the available regency and gubernatorial regulations,'€ said Inne.

The successful KB program in Karanganyar is largely because of the support given to the regency by the local administration. In 2015, Karanganyar Regent Juliyatmono issued five regency ordinances regulating KB in the regency.

Juliatmono also helped residents join the KB program by offering married men with one or two children up to Rp 5 million (US$370) each if they underwent the permanent KB Male Operation Method.

'€œInitially, I used my own money for the purpose, but as the number of those interested grew and grew, we set aside the allocation from the regency budget,'€ said Juliyatmono.

AFP began advocating for Karanganyar regency in 2012, and since then, the KB program has developed rapidly. Initially, a KB field counselor was only able to serve up to four villages. Now, however, village KB teams are found in the 162 villages throughout Karanganyar. As of December 2015, the number of KB participants stood at 22,988. 5,113 receive non-hormonal treatments and the remaining 17,875 receive hormonal treatments.