Haryono Suyono: Village Family Planning Post Develops into Posyandu

Haryono Suyono, former Chairman of BKKBN

GEMARI.ID-JAKARTA. Posyandu, which was launched by the Chairman of BKKBN Haryono Suyono together with the Minister of Health Suwardjono Suryaningrat in 1983, aims to upgrade tens of thousands of Village Family Planning Posts (Pos KB Desa) into Integrated Service Posts or Posyandu. Integrated because the target is the same, namely young mothers, mothers who are pregnant, mothers who have just given birth and breastfeeding mothers, including children under five who are generally owned by young families whose fathers and mothers do not understand how to handle their children's growth and development, explained Prof. Dr. Haryono Suyono in His article entitled Refresh Posyandu to Overcome Malnutrition and Growth and Development of Children under Five was published in the Harian Umum Suara Karya some time ago. Sunday (29/12/2024).

According to him, in the five years between 1973-1978, through a dynamic development program, Haryono and his colleagues within the Deputy for Family Planning Research and Development introduced a community-based family planning approach through the establishment of thousands of Village Family Planning Posts (Pos KB Desa).  This success prompted the government to appoint him as Deputy for Operations at BKKBN and at that time he attempted to expand the community planning approach with village communities and various universities throughout Indonesia.

As a result, Village Family Planning Posts (Pos KB Desa) were formed everywhere as the central point for family planning services in villages. Through the Village Family Planning Post (Pos KB Desa) , family planning services are developed with the help of midwives who also handle pregnant women and toddlers. Then, since the BKKBN was given permission to take part in handling the Nutrition program nationally, through collaboration with the Ministry of Health, the Village Family Planning Post (Pos KB Desa) was involved in handling the Nutrition program for 15,000 villages in Indonesia. In 1983, because of the success of the family planning program in Indonesia, Dr Suwarjono, who was originally the Chairman of the BKKBN, was trusted and appointed Minister of Health. After that, remembering his experience at BKKBN with successful community-based services, he wanted to repeat the success of the Village Family Planning Post (Pos KB Desa) by creating a Village Health Post (Pos Kesehatan Desa), by attracting assistance from midwives from the Village Family Planning Post. The position of Chairman of BKKBN, which has been handed over to Haryono, who has developed the Village Family Planning Post still requires midwives. He objected because the presence of a midwife was very necessary to assist the Village Family Planning Post (Pos KB Desa).

In his writing, Haryono explained that he held rather tough negotiations but in the end it was agreed that the Ministry of Health did not need to start from the beginning to form a Village Health Post (Pos Kesehatan Desa), but to make the Village Family Planning Post (Pos KB Desa) as well as a Village Health Post (Pos Kesehatan Desa) by giving a new name as Integrated Service Post (Pos Pelayanan Terpadu) or Posyandu. This idea was agreed, so that in a short time the Ministry of Health could have tens of thousands of Posyandu without having to go to the trouble of building Village Health Posts from scratch. Finally, the Minister of Health agreed, so on June 29 1983 a collaboration was signed between the BKKBN and the Ministry of Health to foster and develop Posyandu together by providing five tables for each Posyandu, namely tables for administration, weighing babies, information and family planning services, information and health services for pregnant women, breastfeeding and nutrition.

The former Chairman of the BKKBN further said that since then the Posyandu service has been prepared by Family Planning Field Officers (PLKB), as inviting joint targets, namely couples of childbearing age and pregnant and breastfeeding mothers to come and be served at the Posyandu in an integrated manner in family planning and health in the village. After three years of signing an integrated collaboration between the BKKBN and the Ministry of Health, the daily implementation of Posyandu was increased by the participation of PKK mothers through the signing of a collaboration between the BKKBN, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Home Affairs which represents all levels of Regional Government which has the task of fostering mothers of PKK members throughout Indonesia. Through integrated development of three important elements in the village, Posyandu was finally developed by three very strong main institutions, namely the BKKBN, the Ministry of Health, and the PKK Mobilization Team from the central level to the village level in Indonesia.

As a former Chairman of the BKKBN, he felt disappointed, because in recent years, Posyandu development was carried out entirely by the Ministry of Home Affairs, so it seemed as if the Posyandu belonged to the Ministry of Home Affairs and Regional Government officials who served development programs at the village level. However, on the other hand, Haryono was very proud, because this excellent program at the end of 1989 helped elevate the national family planning program to the world stage with an award given by the UN to President Soeharto in the form of the UN Population Awards. The integrated services for mothers and children that were provided helped develop integrated nutrition programs, so that the number of malnutrition sufferers in Indonesia decreased drastically. @mulyono_dp