International agendas/intimate choices: assessing the reproductive health model in Indonesia

The reproductive health (RH) model is the most recent re-interpretation of population and development policy that was developed at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD)in Cairo. The outcomes of the conference signified a shift in the position of international population control and family planning discourses from an economic development perspective into a human development and health care concern. Developing countries are required to implement RH measures into their existing population policies to obtain funding from the United Nations Fund for Population, and in line with this requirement Indonesia has been in the process of putting the RH model into practice over the past decade. Indonesia has had a comprehensive family planning program in place since the 1970s. This program has been heralded as a major population success by advocates of population control and simultaneously condemned by feminist and third world scholars for its failure to consider women's bodies and their rights. This research seeks to evaluate the ability of the Indonesian government to effectively implement the RH model in Indonesia. I aim to assess the model both as a series of clinical programs as well as a set of values and beliefs about sexual and reproductive health. Secondly my research seeks to discover the way in which cultural, religious and political attitudes towards sexuality, reproduction and gender affect the acceptance of RH values in Indonesia. Finally I ask how appropriate these programs are for the Indonesian cultural context and discuss whether a balance can be found between the different positions in order to improve health and wellbeing while still respecting the importance of cultural and religious norms in Indonesia