The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) will benefit from good practices in reproductive health from Indonesia through a partnership between the Philippines’ Commission on Population (POPCOM) and BKKBN, the national population and family planning board of Indonesia.

The partnership, which was sealed through a ceremonial signing of a Memorandum of Understanding for South-South Cooperation between the two countries, paves the way for the sharing of good practices in family planning, maternal and child health, adolescent reproductive health and gender mainstreaming.

On the part of the Philippines, the bilateral cooperation was particularly designed for the ARMM to assist the region improve critical indicators that affect the reproductive health of women, men and young people.

“The sharing of expertise and best practices of Indonesia on family planning and reproductive health to local government officials and stakeholders in ARMM will enhance the capacities of health service providers and strengthen the participation of Philippine Muslim religious leaders in development agenda,” said Department of Health Assistant Secretary Gerardo Bayugo during the ceremony.

According to POPCOM, in 2009, the overall poverty incidence in ARMM was 38.1 per cent. Maternal deaths in 2006 were also high at 264 deaths per 100,000 live births. The 2003 and 2008 National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) consistently showed that use of modern family planning methods in ARMM was very low at 11.6 per cent and 9.9 per cent, respectively.

- Dr. Sugiri Syarief, BKKBN Chair

BKKBN played a major role in the successful implementation of Indonesia’s family planning programme, which resulted to, among others, a reduction of population growth rate and total fertility rate (the average number of children a woman has in her lifetime), and increase in contraceptive use among married women.

Dr. Sugiri Syarief, chairperson of BKKBN, said one of the key approaches they employed was the engagement of Islamic institutions and Muslim religious and lay leaders to promote family planning.

“The role of religious leaders is very important. Developing Fatwa, involvement of religious leaders and faith based institutions in the campaign and some form of family planning services is the (participation) of Islam religious leaders and institutions in the family planning programme in Indonesia,” he said.

“The result was quite remarkable,” he narrated. “Since the first inception of family planning programme in early 1970s until 2007, the contraceptive prevalence rate increased from 5 per cent to 61 per cent, and the total fertility rate dropped from 5.6 to 2.4 children.”