Gender and Development

Gender and Development
Since 1991 the WATCH project has been involved in the development of a primary
health care model appropriate to the highland regions of Irian Jaya. The project operates
in the Jayawijaya District where health centres and clinics are poorly serviced, and where
maternal and infant mortality is high and life expectancy is low. The project has attempted
to determine and tackle some of the root causes of women and children’s ill- health
through a combination of community development, gender role change, improved
essential clinical services for women and children, and community based preventative
health programs.
During its first two phases the project targeted interventions throughout Jayawijaya District,
a large rugged mountainous area covering 52,916 km2 where many culturally and
linguistically diverse people live in isolated communities. In October 1998 a two year
project extension began. This Kanggime Extension has the goal of consolidating
interventions, and maximising sustainability and project impact. In this phase the project
narrowed its focus to the two Jayawijaya subdistricts of Kanggime and Mamit. In this
region target communities comprise one relatively homogenous ethnolinguistic group
called Lani Barat (also known as Dani Barat). One of the key health issues in eastern Indonesia is the communication of appropriate messages that will influence communities to consider alternative behaviors for promoting health and improving their chances of reducing mortality and morbidity. The objective of the current consultancy is to assist the WATCH staff to develop ways in which the project’s health messages could be communicated effectively. The health education is to include basic medical topics relevant to maternal and child health as well as environmental sanitation, nutrition, and gender issues, all of which are seen as key interventions in the project’s overall strategy for reducing the mortality and morbidity of women and children in Jayawijaya.