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Press ReleaseUNICEF Report: Impact of 1997 financial crisis still widespread in Indonesia, with millions living "on the brink of survival"Wednesday, 14 March 2001: Nearly four years after the onset of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, Indonesia continues to reel from a wide range of social ills, according to a new report from UNICEF. The report, "Beyond Krismon – the social legacy of Indonesia's financial crisis," says millions of Indonesians were pushed into poverty and millions of children still suffer from malnourishment. Indonesia's achievements in alleviating widespread poverty and delivering social services are being jeopardized by the "cascade of crises – climatic and financial, social and political – that have swept the country since mid 1997," according to the UNICEF report. "Millions of people still live on the brink of survival. A similar fragility is evident in other areas – nutrition, health and education." Moreover, although Indonesia has made impressive progress in reducing poverty and increasing access to health and education facilities, there has been less progress made than previously reported, the report says. The report notes the government's efforts to reorganize and improve the formerly centrally-controlled social services. "Even before the crisis people had been deserting the public clinics," the report says, mainly due to declining quality and the cost of treatment in the clinics. The current Indonesian government is instigating a new form of revenue sharing between central and local governments that is designed to provide more autonomy and responsibility at the local level as well as more equitable revenue sharing throughout the country. However, the report warns that the government is now "deep in debt" due to the crisis, and that servicing this debt will absorb around one-quarter of government expenditure in 2001 and 2002. Since 1997/98, the government's health budget has shrunk by 20 per cent while the education budget has fallen by 40 per cent. "A crisis that erupted within the financial sector has thus had severe social consequences. Unless there is a major effort to protect social spending Indonesia's children will be paying for the folly of bankers for years to come," concludes the report. The report outlines the current situation in the following areas: Health: Around 4 million children are born each year in Indonesia. Of these, 300,000 die before their fifth birthday. Infant mortality was more than halved between 1967 and 1997, falling from 124 to 47 deaths per one thousand live births. This was accompanied by an even steeper fall in child mortality – from 172 to 60 per one thousand live births. However, the report notes that these reductions in mortality rates have not been as impressive as the achievements in some of the region's other countries. In Thailand, for example, the infant mortality rate is 30, while in Malaysia it is only nine. There are also wide regional discrepancies in Indonesia's infant mortality rate. While the infant mortality rate is 28 in Jakarta, it rises to 67 in South Kalimantan and 81 in West Nusa Tenggara. Although Indonesia has made gains in the area of immunizing its children against childhood diseases, the progress has been overstated, according to the report. Instead of the 80 per cent immunization coverage widely reported in the 1990s, the actual level of coverage is probably closer to 60 per cent. Education: The report notes that although Indonesia was able to greatly expand the availability of schooling for children, this was not matched by improvements in the quality of education. Between 1973 and 1991, the number of children in primary school increased by around one-third and the government more than doubled the number of primary schools. By 1999, Indonesia had achieved a net primary enrolment ratio of 93 per cent, a notable feature of which was that enrolment levels were the same for both boys and girls. However, the report says that the standard of teaching is poor due to inadequate teacher training and low salaries. Due to low funding levels for education, many schools, particularly in rural areas, lack textbooks and basic equipment. In addition, the enrolment ratio at the junior secondary level is only 30 per cent, much lower than at primary level. The report notes that many children not attending school are engaged in hazardous jobs, working as scavengers or on plantations and construction sites. Nutrition: In the mid-1980s, Indonesia became self-sufficient in the production of rice. However, today it is the world's largest importer of rice, and heavy government subsidies are needed to make it affordable for the poorer segments of the population. These subsidies are now being threatened by the government's need to trim expenditures. The report describes high levels of malnutrition in Indonesia, especially among the young children, and it calls for more effective child feeding and nutrition education programmes. The report says the proportion of severely malnourished children – around 8 per cent in 1990 – remains "stubbornly high." This means that of Indonesia's 23 million children under five years of age, some 1.8 million are severely malnourished. The report, "Beyond Krismon – the social legacy of Indonesia's financial crisis," was published by the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre. For more details on Innocenti publications, please go to the IRC website. * * * For more information, please contact: Mark Thomas, Communication Officer, UNICEF East Asia and Pacific Office,
Bangkok, Tel: (662 356 9407; e-mail mthomas@unicef.org |
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