Speech of Mr. Jose Ferraris UNFPA
Opening Remarks of Mr. Jose Ferraris
Workshop on Development of National Guidelines on Sexual and Reproductive Health Education
Park Hotel, Jakarta, 16- –18 July 2012
The General Director the Secondary Education, Pak Hamid Muhammad, from the Ministry of Education and Culture for hosting this workshop; Doctor Ratna Kirana, the Head of Sub-Directorate of School Age and
Adolescent Health from the Ministry of Health, for collaborating with UNFPA in organizing this workshop; Ibu Hasna Gasim, representing Dr. Arief Rachman, the Executive Chairman of the National Commission for UNESCO, whom I would like to thank for collaborating with UNFPA and UNESCO in organizing the workshop; and the Representative of UNESCO for Indonesia, Mr. Hubert Gijzin, for co- sponsoring this workshop with UNFPA.
Representatives of Young People’s Networks in Indonesia, particularly Handa from the Independent Youth Alliance (ARI) and Angga from UNFPA’s Youth
Advisory Panel I would like to welcome and thank our international speakers and facilitators for this workshop:
Dr. Josephine Sauvarin, Technical Advisor on HIV & ASRH for UNFPA’s Asia and Pacific Regional Office, and Ms. Justine Sass, Chief of the HIV Prevention and Health Promotion Unit for UNESCO in Bangkok.
Colleagues from the United Nations, Participants from Jakarta and from other parts of Indonesia, Ladies and Gentlemen, Good morning, Selamat Pagi.
There are more than 65 million young people in Indonesia, meaning those between 10 and 24 years old. Young people represent about 28 percent of the population. For the next 15 years or so, they will constitute the main driver of economic growth and social change in Indonesia. Never before has a group of well educated, socially mobile, digitally interconnected and well positioned in an expanding labour market has the potential to change the make-up of the country. However, this group of young people face tremendous challenges as well, including in the area of sexual and reproductive health. For example, the vast majority of Indonesian youths can name one kind of contraception and have heard of AIDS. However, only 20 percent know how to prevent sexual transmission of HIV. And that figure has been declining since previous years. This is reflected in the fact that nearly 40 percent of new, confirmed AIDS cases are between the ages of 20 and 29. This means they were most likely infected with HIV between ages of 15 and 24. Transmission through sex accounts for more than half of all reported HIV infections in this country. There is a large gap between knowledge and use of contraceptives in Indonesia. The majority of sexually active young people do not use any protection. Only 47 percent of married adolescents are currently using any method of contraception, lower than their 20 to 24 year-old counterparts.
And we don’t even know the percentage of sexually active non- married adolescents’ contraceptive use. According to the UN’s 2010 “World Population Prospects,” every year, about half a million Indonesian teenagers give birth. When you look at all women and girls under age 24, 1.7 million of them give birth
—that is 37 percent of all births in Indonesia—annually. Although the overwhelming majority of young people, about 90 percent, think that contraceptive services should be provided to them, none are available due to legal restrictions on the provision of contraception to unmarried people. The same stigmatizing attitudes and beliefs that sadly surround reproductive health services
—namely, that providing them increases promiscuity and the early onset of sexual activity among adolescents —unfortunately attaches to reproductive health education, as well. Reproductive health education is about more than the stigma surrounding sex or the evidence confirming its effectiveness. By
‘reproductive health,’ I mean a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of reproductive disease or infirmity. Well-developed and well-implemented education on reproductive health is essential to young people’s success in the future. It helps them early on establish respect for themselves and their current or future partner, as well as a sense of dignity, autonomy, and confidence to make positive choices toward planning their futures.
Far too often, young people in Indonesia do not access reproductive health services and education. Accessing knowledge and services can be difficult —partly because of availability, and partly because what exists fails to engage young people. Education and services already in place do not comprehensively address the whole of young peop le’s reproductive health needs. Sometimes, teachers and health care providers are not at ease with the legal or moral responsibility of providing education and services to adolescents and youth.
Issues related to reproductive and sexual health are already included in Science and Biology curricula, as well as in Sports and Healthy Living, Social Sciences, and Religion. The scope of topics covered, the factual content, and the normative frame applied varies greatly across current curricula. There is no national policy or standardized guidelines for teachers in delivering reproductive health education. This has contributed to the dearth of high-quality reproductive health education in schools. Decentralization creates an additional challenge to delivering a reproductive health curriculum of the quality that all students deserve. UNFPA, working with its national and international partners, is poised to meet these challenges.
UNFPA is an international development organization that promotes the right of every woman, man, and child to enjoy a life of health and equal opportunity. In particular, UNFPA has a mandate to support developing countries in building policies and programmes to reduce poverty, and to ensure that every pregnancy is wanted, every birth is safe, and every young person’s potential is fulfilled. UNFPA’s vision for adolescents and youth is a world in which their rights are promoted and protected. The aim of our development work in this area is to bring about a world in which girls and boys have optimal opportunities to develop their full potential, to freely express themselves and have their views respected, and to live free of poverty, discrimination, and violence. Since part of UNFPA’s mandate includes education and services that promote sexual and reproductive health, engaging young people is core to our programme work and policy advocacy. In UNFPA’s previous country programme cycle, from 2006 to 2010, we supported pilot programmes for integrating adolescent reproductive health into curricula in 21 secondary schools across nine districts all over Indonesia. However, the depth and comprehensiveness, mode of delivery, and capacity of teachers to implement the subject varied.
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In our current, 8 country programme cycle, UNFPA is focused on strengthening capacities at the national level to comprehensively address adolescent reproductive health. The Ministry of Education, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, BKKBN, and UNFPA has planned to develop educational guidelines on sexual and reproductive health for school teachers at the elementary and secondary levels. In addition, UNFPA has committed to develop a sexual and reproductive health services
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model specifically for young people in Yogyakarta, Kupang, and Jayapura through its 8 Country Programme. The model will engage youth participation, catalyze the private sector in providing sexual and reproductive health services for young people, and employ non- traditional media strategies and information networks.
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Last April, the 45 Session of the UN Commission on Population and Development, or “CPD,” was held in New York. This meeting was chaired by an Indonesian, Mr. Hasan Kleib, who was the former ambassador of Indonesia to the United Nations. The meeting focused specifically on problems faced by adolescents and youth around the world. The Indonesian delegation to this meeting consisted representatives from BKKBN, the Ministries of Health, Foreign Affairs, and Youth and Sports, as well as NGOs and young people. The result of this conference was the adoption of a landmark resolution reflecting and reaffirming the sentiment of world community: That it is a fundamental human right of adolescents and young people to access sexual and reproductive health services, information, and education. The resolution called upon governments, with the full involvement of young people and support of the international community, to attend young people’s unmet need for evidence-based, comprehensive education on human sexuality, on sexual and reproductive health, and on human rights and gender equality, enabling them to deal in a positive and responsible way with their sexuality. Without access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health education and services, young people, especially girls, face daunting risks: unintended pregnancy, unsafe abortion, maternal morbidity and mortality, violence, and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. In this event, UNFPA and UNESCO would like to introduce the International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education. These guidelines are intended to provide a rights-based sexual and reproductive health curriculum and assist education, health, and other authorities i n developing and implementing school‐based sexuality education materials and programmes. The ITGSE was developed as a multi-agency, collaborative effort involving UNESCO, WHO, UNFPA, UNAIDS, and UNICEF. I would like to thank UNESCO in partnering with UNFPA in the introduction of the ITGSE in Indonesia. UNFPA looks forward to continuing our work with UNESCO and our other partners on this project. 87 countries have used the ITGSE as their reference in providing sexual and reproductive health education. These programmes have contributed to delays in initiation of sex, reduction in the frequency of sex, reduction in number of sexual partners, increased condom use, and determent of other sexual behaviors that can lead to negative health outcomes. The ITGSE also provides an important platform to discuss gender issues. Curricula with this component promote mutually‐respectful, nonviolent relationships and contribute to the development of young people’s social, health, and economic potential. We hope that the ITGSE will be used as a central reference in developing national guidelines for teachers on providing sexual and reproductive health education in Indonesia. By design,the ITGSE anticipates adaptation to the local social and cultural context, and this process will be done by the Ministry of National Education, in collaboration with its national partners, such as the Ministry of Health.
My hope for today’s seminar and the following workshop is that we can all share and discuss our experiences and lessons learned about the importance of comprehensive sexual and reproductive health education.
I understand providing comprehensive sexual and reproductive health education is still a sensitive issue in Indonesia. That is why dialogue and cooperation is important —among ministries, UN agencies, religious and community leaders, NGOs, and youth-led organizations and networks. The perspectives we each bring need to be explored and our working relationships further fostered in order to support the Ministry of National Educat ion’s initiative in leading the development of sexual and reproductive health education in Indonesia —both in schools and beyond their walls.
I hope especially to hear about your ideas and experiences as they relate to the population and development agenda, in particular, this year’s World Population Day theme, universal access to reproductive health services.
UNFPA is committed to working with all of its partners to achieve universal access to sexual and reproductive health, including for young people. Meeting this goal means reducing poverty and social and economic inequality, improving the well-being of all women, men, and young people, and securing the human rights and prosperity of future generations in Indonesia. I wish you a successful and productive workshop. Terima kasih.