In relation to the development of the curricula and training plan, Health Services Program (HSP) and Women Research Institute (WRI) during the next six-month period will organized 14 workshops in districts namely: 1) Serang; 2) Tangerang; 3) Jakarta Barat; 4) Jember; 5) Malang; 6) Aceh Barat; 7) Aceh Besar; 8) Banda Aceh; 9) Deli Serdang; 10) Medan; 11) Sumedang; 12) Kota Bandung; 13) Bogor; 14) Aceh Jaya and 15) Kediri. HSP and WRI had conducted several workshops on June 2007. This report attempts to picture on the implementation of two workshops that already took place in Serang, June 12 – 14, 2007 and Jember, June 19 – 21, 2007.

 

Achievements

 

This program is a capacity building program in strengthening skills of advocacy aims to assist the Ministry of Health in accelerating the reduction of maternal, newborn, and child (MNC) mortality. One of the strategies is to conduct advocacy at the national, provincial, and district levels, as well as ensure that there will be sufficient resources allocated to reduce MNC mortality. Along with decentralization regulations, this program emphasizes advocacy work at district levels by strengthening District Health Office capacities in advocacy.

In relation to the facilitation of the process in the two workshops in Serang and Jember, it can be said that to some extend the advocacy skills of the participants is strengthened. The participants, who represent people from the parliaments, civil servants, and NGOs, had gained experiences and knowledge in conducting advocacy activities. Compared to the workshop in Serang, the workshop in Jember failed to include people who represent from the Parliament. Moreover, the advocacy at first was planned to meet the parliament (DPRD), unfortunately the parliament of Jember district have to go for study visit to other islands i.e. South Sumatera and South Sulawesi. Thus, PC of East Java changes the setting of the advocacy activity from lobby the DPRD to audience the Head of District of Jember. The participants who then formed an ad hoc advocacy team, i.e. in Serang and Jember, will do the follow up in order to get commitment from the District Parliament (DPRD) in the District of Serang and the Head of District of Jember.

 

Lessons Learned

The two workshops revealed that there were areas that need to be improved for the implementation of the next workshops.

 

Participants

 

The workshop was design to enhance the advocacy skills of the participants. Thus, the participants of the workshop should be people who already have knowledge on issues of maternal and child mortality as well as advocacy. With regards to this aspect, the selection criteria of the participants are people who have knowledge on the issues of maternal and child mortality as well as experience in advocacy. The district of Serang is a good example of good selected participants. Since, the advocacy also links with the needs to influence program planning and budget allocation to reduce maternal and child mortality in each districts. The participants should also represent people who already in the level of mid-career. It is hope that people from this level may have knowledge on the issues and advocacy, as well as have influence to the decision makers at the district level.

The workshops were planned to be implemented in the period of six months, yet most of the PC office hope to conduct the workshop immediately. However, the participants should be informed well in advanced regarding the objectives and term of reference of the workshop. In the past two workshops, there were still several participants who did not aware about the objectives of the workshop.

Based on the sharing of experiences in the workshop, participants realized that network between communities to exchange information about each other‘s works and experiences, and capacity building on advocacy, are crucial. It was important to exchange information on the success of many groups in forging alliances across stakeholders. It is equally important to exchange information regarding the efforts of multi-stakeholders to educate members of the community to adopt critical way of thinking in analyzing problems of maternal and child mortality. The way the multi-stakeholders educate the community base on reliable data, should also be shared as valuable experience.

 

The Organizing Committee

 

The importance of data and advocacy should be evidence based activity. Therefore, back up data it is very important. Serang, is a good example where workshop supported by strong back up data, whereas, the workshop in Jember implemented without strong back up data. The data and evidence based advocacy are the basis, therefore for the next implementation of workshops in the other districts can refer to the implementation of workshop in Serang. The workshop in Serang was a good example on strong data on local budget (APBD) and problems of maternal, newborn and child mortality in Serang district.

The core of the workshop is to strengthen the skills of advocacy of the participants. The workshop itself was designed to help participants gained knowledge and experience of advocacy in the real setting, whether in the setting of hearing to the parliament or dealing with the public in a talk-show program in the radio or television. The workshops were prepared in a very limited time, so based on its experiences the next workshops still have enough (longer) time to prepare the real setting. The PCs still have quite enough time to build rapports to the parliament members, the decision makers at the executive level as well as NGOs and women’s groups who have experiences in conducting advocacy on maternal and child mortality. By doing all the arrangements, it is hope that the preparation, i.e. inviting participants, preparing the real setting of hearing/lobby the parliament, experienced resource persons on the issue of maternal and child mortality and budget as well as policy at each districts and the back up data, well planned and may help to meet the objective as planned. However, Serang and to some extent Jember, may regarded as successful in applying the real setting of advocacy. In Serang, the real setting was published in several local newspapers.

Based on the experienced of the past two workshops, the PCs also should not depend too much on the availability of the District Parliament (DPRD), since the parliament members are people who have hectic schedule. Thus, from now on the PCs are encouraged to make arrangement with the District Planning Office (Bappeda) or the Head of District/ Regent (Bupati) or Meyer (Walikota) for the advocacy activities.

 

The Development of the Draft Module

 

The revision of the draft module is based on the input from HSP the PCs and experiences emerge from the workshops processes. Up till now the draft module that being revised is the 3rd draft. On June 8, 2007 the 3rd draft module also had being discussed with representative from the Ministry of Health (MOH), including the Directorate of Nutrition, Directorate of Health Promotion and Directorate of Mother and Children and enriched by the inputs from the representative from GTZ and DHS.

The comments are very positive and the MOH representative feel that the improvement of the Module very useful for them. Especially, regarding the topic of Budget Analysis and Identifying Local Problems of Maternal and Child Mortality. The MOH also feel that the advocacy tool, i.e. the presentation done by the participants for the substance of their advocacy, is excellent and strong one. The MOH had mentioned that the workshops indeed had equip them to do the lobby and advocacy to reduce Maternal and Child Mortality. The application of the 3rd draft Module in Serang, was a successful experience and may become the best practice among the 10 districts that already being implemented. The participants as well as the Local Parliament (DPRD) feel the use of the workshop and module to equip them in executing steps of Advocacy activities.

 

The co-Facilitators

 

Based on the inputs from the Ministry of Health (MOH), the implementation of the workshop should encourage the role of co-facilitators; this term is actually referring to the local facilitators. The involvement of local facilitators is seen by both the Ministry of Health and HSP to strengthen the work of the ad hoc team that may be formed as a result after the workshop.

In Serang and Jember, the local facilitators showed that they are people who have strong knowledge on advocacy and particularly on budget tracking. Their skills as facilitators are good and able to engage with participants who came from different backgrounds (multi stakeholders). It is seen that the ad hoc team both in Serang and Jember may have good facilitators as well as may achieve the objective of their work plan. ***