Resource Library

Indonesia: Family Planning and Women's Lives

Indonesia has had a strong and pervasive National Family Planning Program for nearly three decades. In the early 1970s , the average Indonesian woman bore six or seven children; today lifetime fertility has dropped to fewer than three children. The family planning program is directed toward women in Indonesia, although the program is set in the context of family welfare. Between 1994 and 1997, researchers undertook four studies to explore the role family planning has played in the lives of women in Indonesia. The four studies were conducted collaboratively between Indonesian scholars and researchers from Family Health International, under the auspices of the Women's Studies Project (WSP), funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).