Child survival has improved substantially in Indonesia over the past two decades, with under-five and infant mortality rates more than halving between 1990 and 2017
More than half of districts are now free of malaria, and 201 million people have been enrolled in what is currently the world’s largest single payer health insurance programme.
There has also been a five-fold increase in pregnant women tested for HIV since 2014, with a doubling in the numbers of pregnant women initiating antiretroviral treatment.
However, nearly 1 in 30 children dies before reaching the age of five, with figures as high as 1 in 10 in some districts of eastern Indonesia – the least developed region of the country.
Newborn babies are especially vulnerable, making up 50 per cent of all deaths in the first year of life, with three quarters of deaths occurring in the first year of life. Unfortunately, there has been slower progress in lowering neonatal mortality in the last decade