Since its transition to democracy in 1999, Indonesia has made significant progress in introducing democratic institutions and practices and in moving towards a market economy. As part of this process, the government has begun the substantial reform of the National Social Security System (SJSN), notably with the passage of new legislation in 2004 (law No. 40/2004) which is intended to ensure protection and social welfare for all Indonesians. While the Indonesian Government has made progress in improving social protection over the past few decades by introducing pro-poor programmes such as health insurance for the poor, rice for the poor and conditional cash transfers, major challenges remain, including increasing coverage for informal workers, reducing systemic fragmentation, and increasing systemic performance.
In December, P4H network partner, GIZ, invited the P4H Coordination Desk to participate in an appraisal mission to discuss ways to integrate future GIZ support with the work of other development partners under the P4H umbrella. The mission helped to clarify current support requirements and to facilitate the creation of a country network (Partnership for Universal Health Coverage) thus laying the foundation for the scale-up of joint, harmonised support for Indonesia on its path towards universal health coverage.
