The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #43337

Lutfhi Hasan, BA¹, Sri Kusyuniati, Ms, PhD¹, Subadra Indrawati Molyneaux, MPH¹, and Lucy S. Mize, BSN, MPH². (1) Maternal Neonatal Health Program, JHU-CCP, Gedung Tifa 10th Floor, Suite 1002, Jl. Kunigan Barat 27, Jakarta, Indonesia, (2) Maternal and Neonatal Health Program, JHPIEGO Corporation, Gedung Tifa, 10th Floor, Suite 1002, Jl. Kunigan Barat 26, Jakarta, 12710, Indonesia, 62215201004, lhasan@jhuccp.or.id

In Indonesia, decision-making for health has been devolved to the district and provincial levels. In addition, community-based organizations are becoming more effective and relevant in influencing the community and in obtaining their trust and support. Thus when the MNH Program designed a communication campaign that urged people to use a trained provider (primarily the village midwife), they involved the community and obtained local stakeholder participation from the concept design, through the pre-test and production phases. The objective of campaign was a call to action for the community in the use of local midwives, to improve maternity outcomes. Before the campaign could be launched, the central government intervened and attempted to delay the campaign. They were worried that such a “push” would create an overly demanding community, not only because the community would expect quality and accessibility from government providers but because they would also expect the central government to respond to this community demand by supplying midwives, a government policy currently under review. However, the central government was not able to prevent the launch of the campaign because local governments, professional organizations and community-based groups all had pre-existing ownership of the campaign and were able to lobby for its release. Lessons learned from this process are that involvement and participation of all stakeholders in social-driven programs is a key to ownership and is sufficient to rebut central government strictures in a decentralized society.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will be able to describe how local stakeholders in Indonesia changed the central government ability to influence social campaigns.

Keywords: Community-Based Health Promotion, Communication

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: JHPIEGO MNH Program interventions will be discussed.
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.