OFFICES RESPONSIBLE FOR DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF CHILD WELFARE

THE SITUATION OF CHILDREN AND WOMEN IN INDONESIA 2000-2010 184 THE SITUATION OF CHILDREN AND WOMEN IN INDONESIA 2000-2010 185 access to these facilities directly impacts on health and nutrition. This is reflected, for example, in low attendance by health professionals during delivery see Figure 4.2.13 later in this subsection for the proportion of institution-based deliveries, and see also the detailed examination of this issue nationwide in Section 3 of this document. NTT’s economy is dominated by agriculture, which accounts for 35 per cent of GDP and is based almost entirely on smallholders. 19 The vast majority 89 per cent of NTT’s population are farmers; 79 per cent of them are dryland farmers who cultivate corn as their main crop. These farmers are vulnerable since their income generating activities rely on infertile soil, which is susceptible to draught, placing the entire province at high risk of food insecurity. 20 Agriculture in NTT is largely based on subsistence farming and ground crops, with the majority of farmers cultivating maize, followed by wetland rice, cassava, and dryland rice. Other food crops include dry season vegetables, which grow well in much of NTT. Tree crops are largely grown as cash crops. These consist primarily of coconut, cashew nut, candlenut and coffee. Forests in NTT occupy an extensive 1,800,000 hectares, but this is mainly for conservation purposes, with sparse growth in the dry climate. 21 The average yields per hectare of all food and tree crops are low, and there is great potential for enhanced production 22 . This should certainly be addressed in long- term development projects, and represents a promising opportunity for economic and nutritional improvement. Subsistence agriculture is highly susceptible to the frequent price increases for staple foods and for oil that occur in Indonesia, following national and global market trends. This has had a substantial impact on transportation costs and non-staple food prices during the last decade, deepening the state of poverty of rural people who live in the more remote districts, such as Sumba Barat, Timor Tengah Selatan, Timor Tengah Utara, Lembata and Manggarai. Livestock are also a significant source of income and food, with widespread farming of cattle, pigs, goats and poultry. Cattle are largely farmed for cash and other livestock are kept partly for domestic purposes, partly for income generation. 23 Here too, production eficiency is low, and there is major potential for improvement with obvious implications for improving nutrition in the region, both directly and via economic means. All crops and livestock are sold for cash once domestic needs are met, and key cash crops each have specialised marketing facilities. Not recognised by those living in NTT as nutritious, foods like beans, eggs, fruits and vegetables are often sold, the money being used primarily to purchase rice, adding little nutritional value to the usual existing food stocks of corn and cassava. 24 Programmes to educate communities about the nutritionional value of such products could prove a valuable means of boosting nutrition using existing resources. Crops and livestock are sold in local periodic markets, which are often hard to access. Barter is also common and farmers may, for instance, exchange corn for chickens or vice versa. While competitive pricing often prevails, the potential for raising producers’ market returns are a concern for economic development. 19 Muslimatun, S. and Fanggidae, S. 2009 A brief review on the persistence of food insecurity and malnutrition problems in East Nusa Tenggara province, Indonesia , Oxfam Working Paper No. 12: Kupang, NTT 20 Ibid. 21 Kana Hau, D. et al. 2007 Pengkajian pengembangan teknologi konservasi lahan untuk peningkatan halis usaha tani di lahan kering Kabupaten Ende: Laporan akhir, Balai Besar Pengkajian Dan Penengembangan Teknologi Pertanian, Badan Penelitian dan Pengembangan Pertanian, Departemen Pertanian: Kupang, NTT 22 Barlow, C. and Gondowarsiot, R. 2007 Economic development and poverty alleviation in Nusa Tenggara Timur, Working Paper, Department of Political and Social Change, RSPAS, Australian National University, Canberra and Nusa Tenggara Association: Canberra and Kupang 23 Ibid. 24 Stuttard, J. 2008 Nutrition assessment report: NTT Province, TTS District, Action Contre le Faim Indonesia: Timor Tengah Selatan, NTT 4.2.2.2 Demography The population of NTT province is estimated to be 4,534,319, with the vast majority living in rural areas 83 per cent. 25 As shown in Figure 4.2.2, the population is characterised by a relatively large proportion of people under the age of 30, and in particular is skewed towards the under-15 age group, reflective of the high birth rate in this region, clearly a region in a phase of population growth. For NTT, having a large ‘productive population’ aged between 15 and 50 years to support a relatively small older population is economically beneicial. However, to counter this, the particularly large group of children under age 15 years does put a high burden of care and support on this productive segment of the population. Lots of mouths to feed mean that the limited food stocks are spread thin, often limiting calorie and nutritional intake to such an extent that there are serious health implications, particularly for young, growing bodies. Figure 4.2.2: Population pyramid, NTT 2005 Source: Badan Pusat Statistik BPS - Statistics Indonesia, Intercensal survey 2005 The population of NTT continues to grow year on year. The rate of growth, however, has been decreasing slightly over the past five years, from 1.97 per cent in 2005 to 1.84 per cent in 2009. 26 Related to this, the total fertility rate 27 TFR is also high and has being steadily decreasing, albeit slowly, from 2.99 in 2005 to 2.8 in 2009. 28 These are above the national TFR levels for those years, which were 2.2 and 2.16, respectively. 29 The religious make up of NTT is atypical of Indonesia, with a predominance of Christians living in the province. There are about 56 per cent Catholics, 35 per cent Protestants, 8 per cent Muslim, 0.6 per cent Hindu and Buddhist, and the rest still follow their traditional systems of belief, most notably Marupu. 30 Customary systems and practices strongly influence the way of life of those living in NTT, including customs surrounding nutrition and food, which will be outlined more in the subsection on the contributing factors to malnutrition Section 4.2.3.2. 25 BPS - Statistics Indonesia 2009 Report based on the Intercensal Survey SUPAS 2005: Jakarta 26 Ibid. 27 Children born on average to one woman over the course of her reproductive life 28 BPS - Statistics Indonesia 2009 Intercensal survey 2005 29 Ibid. 30 Ibid. Male Female Age Groups 75+ 0.3 0.2 0.1 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 70-74 65-69 60-64 55-59 50-54 45-49 40-44 35-39 30-34 70-74 25-29 20-24 15-19 10-14 5-9 0-4 Population ’000,000 THE SITUATION OF CHILDREN AND WOMEN IN INDONESIA 2000-2010 186 THE SITUATION OF CHILDREN AND WOMEN IN INDONESIA 2000-2010 187 4.2.2.3 Economic context Malnutrition breeds a poverty cycle by lowering productivity and income in adulthood, in turn feeding back into the likelihood of malnutrition for the next generation. It is not surprising, therefore, that NTT is one of the poorest regions in Indonesia. Based on data from the NTT Provincial Bureau of Statistics BPS 31 , the number of poor people in NTT in March 2009 was 1,010,000 people, or 23.31 per cent of the provincial population, far higher than the national average see the Figure 4.2.3. Poverty was at its most severe during the period 1993-1999 due to the economic crisis affecting Indonesia at that time, and since then the percentage of those living below the poverty line has been decreasing. The trend took a definite turn for the better after 2006 following a recovery from the removal of fuel subsidies and the ban on rice imports. While the percentage of the population living below the poverty line in NTT is considerably higher than the national average, the gap has been closing somewhat over time. 32 Figure 4.2.3: Percentage of population below the poverty line, NTT versus Indonesia 1999-2009 Source: BPS - Statistics Indonesia, Statistical Yearbook 2010, based on the National Socio-Economic Survey 2009 In general, there is a considerable disparity between the relative sizes of rural and urban populations living below the poverty line: 25.35 per cent in rural areas versus 14.01 per cent in urban areas. 33 According to the study by Barlow and Ria 2007 34 , the GDP per capita in NTT varied greatly among districtsmunicipalities, with that in the provincial capital, Kupang, and several other towns being over three times the average of other districts. In general, areas with the largest poor populations are those with high dependency on subsistence farming activities such as cultivation of corn and other basic foods for consumption rather than income. These include Sumba Barat, Kupang, Timor Tengah Selatan and Timor Tengah Utara, Lembata and Manggarai. Development initiatives to relieve poverty and malnutrition should focus on the poorest districts of NTT with the aim of closing this gap. 31 BPS - Statistics Indonesia 2009 Statistical Yearbook 2009 based on the National Socio-Economic Survey, SUSENAS, 2008, BPS: Jakarta 32 Ibid. 33 BPS - Statistics Indonesia 2009, Statistical Yearbook 2009, based on the National Socio-Economic Survey 2008 34 Barlow, C. and Gondowarsiot, R. 2007 Economic development and poverty alleviation in Nusa Tenggara Timur Percent 45.00 40.00 35.00 30.00 25.00 20.00 15.00 10.00 5.00 0.00 50.00 2000 1999 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 Indonesia East Nusa Tenggara 46.73 23.43 18.95 18.40 18.20 17.42 16.66 15.97 17.75 16.58 15.42 14.15 36.52 33.01 30.74 28.63 27.86 28.19 29.34 27.51 25.65 23.31 Figure 4.2.4: Percentage of poor population by district, NTT 2008 Source: BPS - Statistics Indonesia, based on National Socio-Economic Survey 2008 35 4.2.2.4 Human development Figure 4.2.5: Trends in development indices, NTT 1999-2007 Source: HDI from BPSBAPPENASUNDP, Indonesia Human Development Reports 1999-2007; GEM and GDI from BPS - Statistics Indonesia and The Ministry of Women’s Empowerment, Gender Based Human Development 1999-2007 35 BPS - Statistics Indonesia 2009 Data dan Informasi Kemiskinan 2008 Buku 2: KabupatenKota based on National Socio-Economic Survey, SUSENAS, 2008 , BPS: Jakarta Index 70.0 65.0 60.0 55.0 50.0 45.0 40.0 1999 2002 2004 2005 2006 2007 60.4 56.8 56.3 58.6 59.6 61.3 63.1 56.3 46.2 46.4 57.3 59.0 61.0 60.3 62.7 63.6 64.8 65.4 Year HDI GDI GEM Kab. Flores Timur Kab. Nageko Kota Kupang Kab. Ngada Kab. Sikka Kab. Bellu Kab. Ende Kab. Manggarai Barat Kab. Alor East Nusa Tenggara NTT Kab. Kupang Kab. Timor Tengah Utara Kab. Manggarai Kab. Lembata Kab. Timor Tengah Selatan Kab. Sumba Barat Daya Kab. Rote Ndao Kab. Sumba Timur Kab. Sumba Barat Kab. Sumba Tengah 13.2 14.5 14.7 15.5 17.3 19.7 24.9 25.1 25.1 25.7 27.0 27.7 28.6 29.2 33.6 36.5 36.6 37.1 37.9 38.7 0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 Percent