Indonesia
Quick Facts
- 3-year project
- 4 local strategic partners and support from the Norwegian Embassy
- Locations: North Jakarta, Bandung, Bandar Lampung, Pontianak, Yogyakarta, Semarang, Banyuwangi, Lamongan, Kediri, Jombang, DKI Jakarta, Indramayu.
- 7 new local SRHR curricula for use in state, private or religious schools.
- 10,700 students to receive SRHR education.
- 140 teachers to be trained in the use of local SRHR curricula
- 28 schools: 18 state or private schools; 10 Islamic Boarding School in East Java.
For young people in Indonesia, especially the unmarried, sexuality is an area of uncertainty and confusion about which mixed messages abound. Information on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) is incomplete or absent in educational materials at school, and often misinterpreted or obscured by religious and cultural values in the public sphere.
The SRHR Task Force, consisting of Hivos and four local partners, is developing comprehensive SRHR education for youth in Indonesia to be included in school curricula. Our complementary approach includes SRHR education, awareness raising and advocacy. The project aims to increase young people’s knowledge and enjoyment of sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Since the 1980s, concerns about high rates of teenage pregnancy have led the Indonesian government to include sex education in school curricula. But these materials focused on family planning instead of reproductive health, and recent family planning initiatives reflect an increasingly conservative attitude toward SRHR, in particular regarding youth.
This has made Indonesian SRHR activists aware of how little has been done to meet young people’s real needs. In October 2009, Hivos and local partners conducted a context analysis on SRHR that identified serious deficiencies in SRHR education in Indonesia. This led us to set up the SRHR Task Force composed of ourselves and four Indonesian partners with support from the Norwegian Embassy. Our local partners are: the Rahima Foundation, the Indonesian Planned Parenthood Association (PKBI), the Centre of Gender and Sexuality Studies, University of Indonesia (CGSS UI) and the Women's Journal Foundation (YJP).
The task force members work from their specific areas of expertise toward a common goal of developing comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights educational materials for introduction into the national curriculum through targeted schools. The three-year project (2012 -2014) will scale up SRHR education in local curricula and encourage youth participation SRHR education advocacy initiatives. Establishing compulsory SRHR education in schools is a key result indicator for this project.
