Political management in the Indonesian family planning program.

Abstract

Family planning programs are institutions: Globally donors governments and nongovernmental organizations argue over their effectiveness purposes and financing; nationally politicians and interest groups mobilize for and against their establishment; locally administrators encounter social resistance to implementation; and at the household level attempts to influence fertility can be seen as acts as they involve exercising state power to bring about change in individual behavior. Because of the nature of family planning programs their administrators face multiple challenges. Among other tasks they must build bureaucratic alliances neutralize religious opposition and secure social support. Development administration scholars have referred to these challenges as tasks in political and have suggested that administrators anticipate conflict identify potential allies and opponents understand their interests and consider their concerns in program design and implementation. A handful of family planning scholars also have considered these issues; however these dimensions of management have received considerably less attention in the family planning field than those of technical management such as the administration of contraceptive delivery systems. In this article I seek to help redress this imbalance by investigating management in the Indonesian family planning program during the Suharto era from the 1970s through the 1990s. Scholars consider the program to have made a considerable contribution to Indonesias large rise in contraceptive use and decline in fertility. To examine the role of management in agency effectiveness I draw on excerpts from interviews conducted with officials in the National Family Planning Coordinating Board (BKKBN) the government organization responsible for administering the program. In addition I explore how the agency addressed three challenges: defusing religious opposition overcoming a weak human resource base and generating implementation support from the bureaucracy. (excerpt)