T

he Women Deliver 2013 Global Conference in Kuala Lumpur concluded with a united call for continued investment in girls and women at a time when the world critically needs to prioritize girls and women in the lead up to the 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDG) deadline and beyond.

All speakers and panelists at the conference, billed as the biggest in the decade, addressed the importance of placing girls and women at the center of the next development agenda, discussing advocacy strategies to keep girls' and women's needs in focus by prioritizing gender equality and the empowerment of girls and women to make their own decisions on the lives they lead.

During the event, Indonesia was placed in the global spotlight (receiving both praise for its marginal progress and criticism for more than a decade of severe setbacks) on four areas ' a stagnant family planning program, women's and children's health, youth and women's empowerment and ineffective and complex legislation.

Listening to other participating countries' experiences, Indonesia seems to be lagging in a variety of ways ' law enforcement, out-of-date programs, a lack of political will and commitment, as well as insufficient budget allocations.

In family planning, Indonesia was once noted as a pioneer in the developing world and 'one of the developing world's best models', better than many countries in Asia, including Malaysia, which now has the most advanced family program in the region.

The extensive, almost compulsory, community outreach program, combined with a powerful centralized government and huge funding from international donors, including the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) were the keys to Indonesia's success story for more than 30 years.

With the program flourishing in the 1970s and 1980s, Indonesia was able to prevent the birth of 80 million people up to the year 2000 and around 100 million people until 2009.

The highly centralized family planning program entered an austere period with the drastic changes to the country's political landscape, one focus of which was withdrawing the role of the central hierarchy nationwide, and the economic crisis in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

During this time, the family planning program was decentralized to provincial and regional levels, with local leaders responsible for planning, budgeting and implementing the program.

It was unfortunate that not all local leaders shared the same orientation and vision in matters of population and family planning. Decentralization had a tremendous nationwide impact on the implementation of family planning, health and many other programs that were previously highly centralized, including immunization, drug supply, family planning equipment distribution and a sufficiency of professional family planning and health providers.

When Melinda Gates, cofounder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, spoke at the conference and encouraged the government of Indonesia to revive its family planning program and improve its mechanism within the framework of decentralization, she not only acted as a globally influential family planning advocate, but as one of the largest donors of the current family planning program in Indonesia.

One interesting point was the words of a high-ranking National Family Planning Board (BKKBN) official, acting director Dr. Sudibyo Alimuso, who openly admitted the board's shortcomings in dealing with the present family planning program at the national and local levels, a rare occurrence among public officials and politicians.

'We [the board's officials] have to express our tobat nasional ' national atonement, for sugar coating the grim facts in the field ' the big difference between the statistics and the reality. We pledge to open a new chapter,' he said before high-profile participants in a roundtable meeting on Indonesia's family planning at the conference.

Family planning should, and must always, top the priorities of the country's development program. It provides women with reproductive rights ' a basic human right, and creates a healthy, smart generation. In addition, family planning also serves as a way to halt Indonesia's speedy population growth.

The Demographic Institute at the University of Indonesia and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) predict with 1.28 percent population growth, Indonesia's population will skyrocket to 400 million by 2050 ' causing food insecurity, social and environmental problems, water shortages and housing, schooling and unemployment problems that Indonesia can barely face. Today, Indonesia has a population of 240 million despite its limited services.

In the health sector, Health Minister Nafsiah Mboi eloquently underlined the situation in Indonesia. Nafsiah was one of the main speakers at the conference and she admitted Indonesia's lagging health performance, especially on health for women, girls and children, which is the lowest among Southeast Asian nations.

Indonesia sees 5 million pregnancies every year, while more than 20,000 women die each year during pregnancy and delivery. The maternal death rate in Indonesia is 228 per 100,000 live births, one of the highest in Southeast Asia. To meet the MDG targets, this needs to be lowered to 102 per 100,000 births by 2015, which is just one among many sizable health problems Indonesia faces.

Meanwhile, the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan), has identified 154 discriminatory laws limiting the ability of women to exercise their rights. Decentralization is again among factors linked to weak law enforcement, and the enactment of local legislation that curtails women's freedoms and violates human rights.

There has been an uneven implementation of laws aimed at eliminating violence, particularly at the local level, where autonomous decision-making does not acknowledge national legislation and priorities, and women face obstacles to accessing justice.

Indonesian women are more vulnerable to chronic poverty due to persistent gender inequalities in income distribution, access to credit, control over property and natural resources, and access to employment and livelihood opportunities.

At Women Deliver 2013, participating countries renewed commitments, shared lessons learned and listened to those leading the way on women's and girls' health and rights, including young people who will carry this important movement forward for years to come. Perhaps, we cannot expect too much commitment from current public officials and national leaders as we head toward the 2014 elections.  

Therefore, the commitment of new legislators and the new president to these issues will determine the country's future and the people's welfare for the years ahead.

The writer is a recipient of a scholarship from Women Deliver in New York and a staff writer at The Jakarta Post.