"We hope that local governments can develop an action plan to support rights-based maternal and child health programs in order to reduce maternal mortality and under-five mortality in their respective regions," Director General of Regional Development at the ministry Teguh Setyabudi said here on Friday.
The government is fully committed to improving health and reducing maternal and infant mortality, he added.
"As well as efforts to promote family planning by placing rights-based maternal health at the center of the development plan," he said.
In fact, those programs have become a part of the strategic priority projects, as stated in Attachment II to Presidential Regulation Number 18 of 2020 concerning the 2020–2024 National Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMN), he said.
"Achieving maternal and child mortality reduction cannot be done by the government only but must be done jointly with regional governments and the community," he remarked.
He also highlighted the importance of government data accuracy to ensure the success of programs and policies, especially those devised to accelerate the reduction of maternal and child mortality. Moreover, the data could also be utilized by other stakeholders to formulate a policy.
Through advocacy and meetings held by the integrated reproductive health planning and budgeting program, it is hoped that it will become a top priority for regional governments, he added.
More concretely, programs for maternal and child health could be included in regional planning documents, such as the Regional Government Work Plan (RKPD) and the Regional Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMD), he said.
In fact, according to him, the program could be in the form of a regional action plan that includes a financing plan and a regulation that supports it.
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Translator: Boyke Ledy, Raka Adji
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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