The Republic of Indonesia, home to over 240 million people, is the world's fourth most populous nation. Ethnically, culturally, and economically diverse, the Indonesian people are broadly dispersed across an archipelago of more than 13,000 islands. Rapid urbanization has given rise to one megacity (Jakarta) and to 10 other major metropolitan areas. And yet about half of Indonesians make their homes in rural areas of the country. Indonesia, a signatory to the United Nations Millennium Declaration, has committed to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). However, recent estimates suggest that Indonesia will not achieve by the target date of 2015 MDG 4 - reduction by two-thirds of the 1990 under - 5 infant mortality rate (number of children under age 5 who die per 1,000 live births) - and MDG 5 - reduction by three-quarters of the 1990 maternal mortality ratio (number of maternal deaths within 28 days of childbirth in a given year per 100,000 live births). Although much has been achieved, complex and indeed difficult challenges will have to be overcome before maternal and infant mortality are brought into the MDG-prescribed range. Reducing Maternal and Neonatal Mortality in Indonesia is a joint study by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the Indonesian Academy of Sciences that evaluates the quality and consistency of the existing data on maternal and neonatal mortality; devises a strategy to achieve the Millennium Development Goals related to maternal mortality, fetal mortality (stillbirths), and neonatal mortality; and identifies the highest priority interventions and proposes steps toward development of an effective implementation plan. According to the UN Human Development Index (HDI), in 2012 Indonesia ranked 121st out of 185 countries in human development. However, over the last 20 years the rate of improvement in Indonesia\'s HDI ranking has exceeded the world average. This progress may be attributable in part to the fact that Indonesia has put considerable effort into meeting the MDGs. This report is intended to be a contribution toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

The book features an analysis of teacher reform in Indonesia, which entailed a doubling of teacher salaries upon certification. It describes the political economy context in which the reform was developed and implemented, and analyzes the impact of the reform on teacher knowledge, skills, and student outcomes.

Since its inception in 1945, the Republic of Indonesia has experienced a series of profound social changes. The spread of schooling, the transformation of the economy, and the consolidation of a unified state have transformed the lives of Indonesian citizens. It is seldom recognized, however, that the most fundamental changes have occurred in the family sphere. Marriages that used to be arranged by parents are now more likely to be determined by couples. Unions occur when the couples are much older. The adoption of birth control practices has reduced fertility from large families to a two-child norm in just over thirty years. These changes have molded the lives of individual women, described here through a series of personal case studies, and shaped the size and structure of the national population, as seen in the statistics produced by the government on a regular basis. The story that emerges gives strong hints about where the Indonesian population will be heading in the next fifty years with a growing proportion of aged citizens. Most importantly People, Population, and Policy in Indonesia shows the importance of collaborations between Indonesian leaders and their foreign colleagues in the efforts to reshape the Indonesian population and improve its social and economic welfare.

Over the past decade, Indonesia has implemented significant health sector reforms that include decentralizing responsibilities for service delivery, designing incentives for health providers, increasing the supply of midwives in remote areas, and analyzing demographic and epidemiological transitions causing changes in the patterns of disease prevalence. Financial protection against catastrophic expenditures has improved substantially, and legislation has been enacted to improve the quality of physician training and patient care.Despite the progress, substantial challenges remain and include comparatively low resources for the health sector, limitations in the supply of providers at the primary and hospital levels, inefficient payment systems, shortcomings in the quality of maternal and child and adult care, lack of oversight and effective licensing in an expanding private health sector, and ineffective planning for and recruitment and retention of health workers.Given the slow pace in improving health outcomes and limited evidence linking health performance and the health workforce, the need to make more information available about past experiences to inform future policy changes is pressing. Few studies have been undertaken to measure the actual impact of the reforms and the remaining challenges. 'New Insights into the Provision of Health Services in Indonesia: A Health Workforce Study' begins the process, providing real time evidence-based inputs to facilitate the Government of Indonesia's comprehensive health sector review. The authors' analysis of panel data from households and health providers will assist the government's assessment of the impact of past health work force policies and its consideration of policy changes.

This book was written with basically two objectives in mind. The first one was to provide a comprehensive description of the Indonesian family planning program during the New Order regime of Suharto. The second to explain the fertility transition that took place in Indonesia during the same period. The rationale behind the first objective is the rather unique character of the Indonesian family planning program as a national program, being part of both the New Orderís development effort-and-rhetoric and peoples everyday life. The extent to which it became part of peoples and especially womens everyday life in various ways, sets the Indonesian family planning program apart from comparable programs in Asia. The second objective is an ambitious one. From all the theoretical and anecdotal literature on fertility transition, particularly in Asia, it is clear that it is a complex phenomenon that cannot be captured in a simple model. Nevertheless, the dramatic fertility decline that took place in Indonesia during 1968-1998 begs for an attempt at explanation. In this book, fertility decline is placed against a background of social, cultural and economic change, and is related to the way the family planning program was designed and implemented. The question of the exact contribution of the family planning program to fertility decline is addressed but can never be fully answered. This is because the impact of the family planning program cannot be isolated from the influence of other factors, such as, for example, cultural change leading to a rise of age at marriage, womens higher levels of educational attainment, increased family income, and so on. As the book shows, Indonesia provides a rich context for studying fertility decline and its determinants. The contributors come from several countries and have different backgrounds. They have in common their professional involvement with family planning, fertility and social change in Indonesia and their love for the country and its people.