Source: FP Board of Empat Lawang District, 201 6

The Head of Family Planning Board of Empat more responsibilities like those civil servants PLKB.” Lawang explains this issue:

(Sulni, July 16 th , 2016)

“This year (2016) we have 118 non-civil servants

PLKB and 9 civil servants PLKB for 156 villages.

4.5. Political issues

However, the performance and competency of these PLKB are still far from enough, because more than 90%

Table 10 summarizes main political issues faced by of them are non civil servants that obviously have a very

Family Planning Board of Empat Lawang District. The limited skills and knowledge of family planning service.

highlight of political issue is the will of the Regent to Our office can only give them an adequate portion of

accomplish the family planning programs. task that appropriate with their capacity, we cannot ask

Table 10 Political issues faced by Family Planning Board of Empat Lawang District No

Source of problems

Impact

1. Frequent changes of the Board  Frequent changes in structure and nomenclature in Family structures and nomenclature

Planning Board of Empat Lawang subsequently followed by the changes of personnel’s task and function routines.

2. The compulsion to coordinate  Every program and policy that came from Central Government every Central government’s

has to be coordinated first with the mayor. This indicates that program and policy with the

Family Planning Board Empat Lawang cannot adopt said Regent

program and policy immediately.

3. The priority and supports from  The priority and supports from mayor that not reflected fiscally Regent and local government

means that generally, Family Planning Board of Empat are not reflected fiscally

Lawang rarely granted enough funds to carry out their community-oriented programs.

4. Family Planning Board of  Without commando relationship as carried out in centralization Empat Lawang is autonomous;

era, Family Planning Board of Empat Lawang have to the relationship with Central

formulate its own programs, adjust its policies and programs BKKBN

with the local government’s regulation and more importantly BKKBN

and

Province

defend its own programs to gain sufficient funds. coordination only.

 The accomplishment of family planning programs in Empat accomplishment of Family

pattern

and

Lawang is not only depends on the performance of Family Planning programs in Empat

Planning Board, but also greatly depend on the support of Lawang is greatly depend on

mayor himself. Even when the performance of Family Regent

Planning Board of Empat Lawang is at its best, without the support from the mayor government, some programs cannot be conducted thus effect the overall accomplishment.

Source: interviews with key informants Political autonomy measures the discretionary

4.6. Other proximate and socio economic determinants power in political decision making awarded to each

within community and families during decentralization district. For Empat Lawang District, as the result of

In order to gain information about other socio- local election, district mayor is the person who had the

economic issues within community and families that most power in policy and decision making in all aspects

influence women fertility in Empat Lawang district of administration including family planning. This is the

during decentralization, five respondents were reason why the accomplishment of family planning

interviewed. All respondents are women in reproductive programs is not only depend on Family Planning Board

age (15-49 years old) with more than five children, as the local government agency responsible for the

indicating high fertility level. Table 11 summarized the matter, but also greatly depend on the mayor and his

result of the interviews.

will.

Table 11. Proximate and social economic determinants of women fertility in Empat Lawang district during decentralization

No Determinants

Explanation

1. Marital Status Women fertility directly influenced by marital status, married women obviously more fertile than unmarried women.

2. Contraception use The use of contraception directly influences women fertility. Qualitative data obtained by interviewing five respondents (women with more than five children) shows that the all respondents were initially use contraception, however, due to various factors, all of them eventually stop using it.

3. Age at first marriage Age of first marriage influence women fertility. Two of respondents with 10 children married at a very young age.

4. Level of education The level of education influence women fertility. All of respondents have low level of education.

5. Employment Employment influences women fertility. All respondents are employed, but the employment is not permanent.

6. Income The amount of income influences women fertility. All of respondent’s income are insufficient to square the household expenses and necessities.

7. Place of residence Place of residence influences women fertility. All of respondents live in rural area.

Source: interviews with key informants

We found that all respondents are married and auton omy” has a major flaw in design and preparation. initially using contraception. However, due to various

The rush preparation and poorly designed laws of factors, all of them eventually stop using it. Interviews

decentralization did not take into account the inequality with two respondents that have 10 children confirm this

of region’s capacity, so they cannot be imposed proposition.

effectively and conversely produce perverse effects, “I used contraception after I gave birth to my especially for poor and less developed regions. Furthermore, they have no clear general framework on

fourth child, but sometimes I forgot to take my pills or I how to carry out the goals of the reform (Alm et.al, could not have the contraception shot (injection method) 2001). Various issues arise during the short right away due to my economic situation. During that implementation period such as unclear division of time I had not use any contraception, I got pregnant

again.” (Rusmanilawati, July 14 authorities among the tiers of government causing a

struggle for authorities among them, inefficient resource “I got married with my first husband when I was

allocation caused by the low capacity and

12 years old, but I have finished my junior high school demoralization of civil servants within the regional despite that. I work as a cleaning service now and I got

governments, widening disparity among regions, and IDR1,000,000 per month as salary.” (Rusmanilawati,

stronger primordial ties based on ethnic and religion. July 14 th 2016)

(Suwondo, 2002; Seymour &Turner, 2002; Yappika, “I have never attended school and I got married 2006).

when I was 14 years old. I and my husband are working The findings of qualitative data also confirm the on our farm to make a living; we cannot predicted our

result of quantitative one. Empat Lawang district is monthly income, maybe around IDR2,000,000.”

facing similar typical problem in implementing (Mursyidah, July 17 th 2016)

decentralization. Fiscally, the intergovernmental transfer Age at first marriage unsurprisingly determine

and grants consist of General Allocation Fund (DAU) fertility, where two of respondents with 10 children

and Special Allocation Fund (DAK) remains to be the married at a very young age. Level of education

most important revenue resource for the family planning apparently also influences high-level fertility, where all

programs in Empat Lawang district. Moreover, the of respondents received low education. The same

absence of local revenue in funding the programs and pattern also applies on employment and income. The

inefficiency in budget allocation means that Empat interviews result shows that even though all of

Lawang ’ s government is lacking in fiscal capacity, respondents are employed, the employment is not

merely depend on the transfer from central government. permanent and the income is insufficient.

Administratively, the human resources in Empat

5. Discussion and conclusion

Lawang district are very limited in both quantity and quality. To compensate the highly limited number of

The topic of fertility determinants and its impacts civil servant PLKB, Family Planning Board of Empat to population has become a common topic in social

Lawang district recruited some non-civil servant PLKB, studies both in developed and in developing countries.

with inadequate skills and knowledge. This matter However, the association between fertility with policy

confirms the finding of Seymour and Turner (2002) who factors such as decentralization is rarely being

stated “the capability of human resources, especially discussed.

those at the districts and municipalities are not ready decentralization of Indonesia, this study examines the

association between fiscal, administrative and political decentralization with women fertility. The main results

Politically, the elected Regent holds most power in show that none of those three types of decentralization

the region. The accomplishment of family planning have significant association toward women fertility,

programs in Empat Lawang is not only depend on means that decentralization have no association with

Family Planning Board as the local agency responsible decreasing or increasing women fertility. However, all

to the matter, but also greatly depend on the Regent’s of proximate determinants and socio-economic factors

will. Moreover, there is no citizen’s control over the in both the household level and individual level are

performan ce of the government as there is no ‘recall’ significant.

mechanism provided for the incumbent government if they perform badly. These entire problems combined

This result confirms the findings of previous resulting in weak performance on family planning studies argued that decentralization process in

Indonesia, which commonly known as “regional programs; this is why decentralization that supposedly brings a better condition to the community is not Indonesia, which commonly known as “regional programs; this is why decentralization that supposedly brings a better condition to the community is not

Furthermore, the significant connections between proximate determinants and socio-economic factors with women fertility is unsurprisingly confirm many studies related to the topic. The two proximate determinants used in this study are marital status and the use of contraception. It is broadly demonstrated that these two factors determine the core of exposure to the risk of pregnancy (Bay et.al, 2003). Marriage represents the primary context with where fertility occurs (McDevitt, 1996). There is a consensus that the use of contraception is the most important factor that explains the strong fertility decrease that took place in the last decades in the world, particularly in the last 30 years (Cesare & Vignoli, 2006; Guzman et.al, 2001).

The negative association between poor household and fertility confirm the findings of Schultz (1994, 2005). This is because the wealthier households, where wealth takes the form of income from physical assets and land, tend to have more children. However, having electricity is more likely to increase fertility, contradicts the finding of Grimm et.al (2014) who found evidence that the availability of electricity increases exposure to TV and by this channel reduces fertility. The positive connection between Islam majority populations with fertility suggest that Muslim people tend to have more children than non-Muslim people. However, Jeffery and Jeffery (1997) and Weeks (1988) assert that different fertility rates among Hindus and Muslims in India actually result from the differences in region, residence and schooling. They do not result from the differences in religious matters or autonomy of the women. Moreover, almost every region in Indonesia has Islam majority population, that makes this variable is hard to interpret.

It has been widely discussed that there is a strong relation between women’s education level and fertility

control. Studies of fertility differentials in both developed and developing countries indicate a negative relationship between the level of education attained by women and their fertility (Goldstein, 1972; Hessian, 1970; Jordan, 1976; Rodriguez and Cleland, 1980; Jain, 1980). Women with higher education postpone marriage and have lower fertility levels. Being employed apparently increasing fertility; this contradicts the findings of Brewster and Rindfuss (1996) that show the negative effect of women’s employment on fertility using data from industrialized countries. This result might be contradicted because Indonesia’s women mostly come from agricultural work with less work hours than industrialized countries. It was also found

that women in rural areas are more likely to give birth to more children than those in the urban areas. Women in rural areas may want large families to ensure that someone will help with domestic and agricultural activities and provide financial security in old age. In urban areas, women may begin to limit their fertility because of the costs associated with child breeding. Living in urban areas may change women’s values as they are expected to the modern health sector, family planning, and more western attitudes (Acsadi and Johnson-Acsadi, 1990).

This study was made with a number of limitations that should be taking into consideration. First, because this study only uses one-year data, we cannot illustrate the trends and a meaningful relationship between my dependent and independent variables. The future research could add two or more years to make a trend and find more meaningful relationship between those variables. Second, due to its cross-sectional design, we have to be careful on how to interpret the associations. The estimated coefficient should be viewed as a measure of association rather than of causation. The causal effect of decentralization and fertility is something which future research should investigate further. Third, this study did not take the characteristics of husband into account; therefore, future research may add those characteristics to make the research contextually richer.

Despite these limitations, this study has been able to contribute to the existing literature of decentralization and fertility as well as for demographic policy in a developing country. First, this study used a large sample of districts, household and individuals to capture the association of decentralization and women fertility that generalizable to all districts in Indonesia. By using multilevel analysis, this study able to account simultaneously for household and districts government factors on women fertility. Moreover, the addition of qualitative data from Empat Lawang District is able to give clearer picture of how the implementation of decentralization affected family planning programs in district level.

Second, most of the studies both in developed and developing countries analyze fertility with behavioral and socio-economic factors only. This study contributes to this part by trying to associate fertility with contextual factors such as government policies and reforms. The fact that decentralization is not associated with women fertility may indicate that decentralization may not the best way to decrease women fertility in Indonesia. Therefore, in order to decrease fertility to the universal replacement level of 2.1 TFR, the government of

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Source: FP Board of Empat Lawang District, 201 6