Village Head and Village Leadership: Posyandu Cadre Perseption in Mlonggo Subdistrict, Jepara District, Central Java, 2000

The presence of kaders in the integrated health and family planning services (Posyandu) form one of the community based health efforts and was a strategy to ensure child survival as well as their mental and physical development and protection. Secondary research indicates that community participation couldnot rise by itself and that it must be continuously motivated by other parties.These include the government and non-government organizations, as well as from within the communities. Motivations from government and non-government organizations are often temporary, while motivations from the community are often expected to be sustainable. In its implementation, however, the presence of kader in Posyandu often face many barriers and failures, though some have been successful. One of the main failures is reflected in the drop-out rates of the village kader due to the lack of motivation especially from the village heads (kades). The qualitative research was done in stages focusing on characteristics of leadership, while a quantitative analysis through a cross sectional survey was done to show the significance of such leadership. The results both qualitative and quantitative analysis shows a relation between leadership and kaders attitude and a relation between leadership and the presence of kader of Posyandu programs significantly. It means that drop-out rates of kaders are indeed affected by kades leadership which also affects the overall performance of the Posyandu, include the presence of the kaders.&nbsp