|
Population has become one of the most
important issues in socio-economic development worldwide. Population
growth directly triggers higher demand for provision of various aspects
of human existence including food, healthcare, housing, jobs,
infrastructure, access to resources and many other issues.
There is no single strategy that can solve population problems either in
developed or developing countries. People in developed countries tend to
arrange a small family unit by rationally taking into consideration
better education, healthcare and future job opportunities for their
offspring.
Very low or even declining population growth has been considered the
weakness of developed countries so there is a need to promote population
growth to boost economic activities.
On the contrary, in many developing countries people’s awareness of
family size is considerably lower. Traditional perceptions about
children’s value as important capital for a family are still prevalent.
As a result, high population growth has been the case in many developing
nations.
The fact that higher population growth causes strains on public services
is to some extent a result of unsupportive traditional norms and
religious values. In addition, local policies under regional autonomy
have also been hampering the implementation of population control and
family planning programs.
Under regional autonomy, policies related to population development
depend heavily on the interests of local leaders, both executive and
legislative. Many reports indicate that population development is not
considered a priority in many regions.
As has been noted by various parties at global and national levels, food
security has attracted huge attention from stakeholders. However the
problems of food security are correlated to population growth.
The strong relation between food and population growth has been advocated
for over two centuries. The Malthus Theory (1798) says the world is under
a constant threat since the capability to produce enough food always lags
behind the speed of population growth.
Revisiting the work of Malthus, a renowned economist Jeffry D. Sach
(2008) raised a big question, have we vanquished the Malthus trap? There
has been no clear answer, but the world is witnessing myriad cases of
food shortage, hunger and malnutrition.
Focusing on the Indonesian case, a population development program was
initiated through family planning in 1968. At the national level,
population growth was reduced from 2.31 percent in the 1970s to 1.49
percent in the 2000s. But problems still linger.
The Central Statistics Agency (2009) said that during the last 40 years,
the Indonesian population grew by 100 million. Indonesia’s current
population of 241 million accounts for 39.6 percent of Southeast Asia’s
population.
The Population Reference Bureau (2012)
shows that births per 1,000 people in Indonesia remain high at 19, equal
to Malaysia and Brunei.
Thailand and Vietnam fare better with 12 and 17 respectively. The natural
population increase level in Indonesia (2012) is 1.3 percent, higher than
Thailand’s 0.5 percent, Vietnam’s 1 percent and Myanmar’s 1.1
percent.
The Indonesian population is predicted to reach 273.2 million people by
2025 and 309.4 million by 2050.
Even though family planning has long been introduced, a growing
population remains a cause for concern.
Without population control, an explosion will take place and as a
consequence, access to the basic needs of human existence will be much
more difficult to obtain. Economic growth will be affected if population
growth goes unchecked.
Population growth has two dimensions: it is as an opportunity to
accelerate economic growth, but also a burden if it is not managed
properly.
Indonesia needs to formulate appropriate policies on population
development. The family planning program that marked a success in
population development two decades ago could be revitalized and reformed
with the support of new policies and management.
In the wake of regional autonomy, population development needs to be
promoted as a national issue that involves multiple government agencies.
Program arrangement, budgeting and implementation can be built as a
collaborative action among major stakeholders under the leadership of the
National Family Planning Coordinating Agency. Local stakeholders at the
levels of province, regency, sub-district and village should be involved
in the advocacy program.
Sociopolitical commitment should be developed among major stakeholders at
all levels, depending on their capability and resources.
Socio-ecological layers of family planning implementation should be
properly identified.
The characteristics of each layer will determine the strategy for
designing the advocacy, communication, information and promotion of
family planning.
The outermost layer consists of government agencies at various levels and
related stakeholders, including state-owned enterprises (SOEs), private
corporations, the media and social and professional organizations. The
middle layer comprises community and civic groups. While the bottom layer
or the core is the individual.
Since individual citizens are the main actor in family planning, major
attention should be given to them. Behavioral change communication should
be properly designed and introduced to support the best behavioral
changes of
individuals.
Segmentation of the core target is also important. Media literacy levels
between rural and urban people are different so that segmentation of
media design should be applied. Adolescents, young couples and urban
people are currently much more familiar with social networking
media.
Information and counseling services through interactive forums on
websites, free direct call and interactive social networking will likely
be more important in the future. In rural areas, full use of local and
traditional institutions such as youth, religious and cultural, rotational
and savings associations, neighborhood and working groups would all be
helpful.
Partnerships and alliances among stakeholders at all levels need
promoting. SOEs and private corporations could be promising partners.
They could allocate part of their profits to support family planning
under corporate social responsibility programs. Universities might also
play an important role by sending their students to rural areas to
promote population development programs under public service courses.
Field workers in family planning, who directly meet and communicate with
various potential targets will need better technical skills, knowledge
and understanding of the programs.
Incentive and proper reward systems should be offered to them. They
deserve adequate facilities to accelerate their job execution. ●
|
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar