The United Nations’ third Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 3) focuses on ensuring healthy lives and promoting wellbeing for everyone. This includes initiatives like reducing maternal and child mortality, improving disease prevention and providing universal health coverage.

These ambitions are closely connected to the fight against global poverty and have prompted many low and middle-income countries to take action. Among them, Indonesia stands out for its planning, financing and unique ability to overcome population challenges. These updates on SDG 3 in Indonesia demonstrate how the country is expanding equitable healthcare access.

Poverty in Indonesia 

It’s important to first recognize the state of poverty in Indonesia. While significant growth over the past two decades has allowed the country to achieve middle-income status, 5.4% of citizens remain in extreme poverty. While this figure may not sound daunting on its own, it does when one recognizes that Indonesia is home to nearly 286 million people and that means that 5.4% equal more than 15 million Indonesians living in extreme poverty. This manifests into real-world effects, such as:

• Low wages 
• Job insecurity
• Lack of infrastructure (i.e. electricity, roads, clean water and more) 
• Underfunded education systems
• Poor health and unequal access to healthcare

That last effect is particularly noteworthy. The intersection of extreme poverty and the world’s fourth-largest population has made expanding healthcare access in Indonesia an uphill battle.

Why Population Matters 

How many people live in a country may determine how well the nation’s government is able to respond to the health needs of its citizens. For example, a large population introduces a daunting logistical strain in developing countries with fewer resources. Such nations often lack the infrastructure necessary to provide equitable access to healthcare for their entire population.

India is a key example of a large population impeding the health progress of a developing country. Despite attempts to improve health services, India continues to lack easily accessible healthcare and remains behind on SDG 3 initiatives. A major reason for these gaps is the nation’s status as the most populated country in the world, with more than 1.4 billion citizens.

While having a large population certainly makes it more difficult to improve healthcare access, it does not make it impossible. Indonesia’s recent successes show that the population problem can be overcome through global partnerships, government planning and strategic financing.

How Indonesia is Working Toward SDG 3

Since the Ministry of Health first launched the Health System Transformation Agenda (HSTA) in 2022, Indonesia has undergone sweeping health reforms. This has included efforts to enhance the resilience, workforce and technology of Indonesia’s healthcare system.

Specifically, Indonesia’s government has partnered with organizations like the World Bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the Islamic Development Bank to finance the HSTA’s goals. With these investments, Indonesia has managed to:

• Bring nearly 90% of the population under national health insurance coverage 
• Increase the amount of high-quality, low-cost community health centers in Eastern Indonesia by 60% 
• Invest more than $1 billion in nutrition, early child development, and family planning 
• Expand access to medical equipment in both urban and rural public health facilities 
• Foster innovations in medical procurement and development

Through these initiatives, the government has vastly improved the state of public health in Indonesia. Prior to the HSTA, financial barriers prevented many citizens from seeking care, with catastrophic health expenditure rates as high as 4.5%. Now, these rates have dropped to 2%, and the national insurance plan covered more than 260 million people.

Vertical Hospitals 

Aside from blanket reforms, Indonesia has also created specialized medical facilities to target specific problems that the HSTA seeks to address. These hubs are known as “vertical” hospitals, and have been strategically constructed across the country to address the needs of both urban and rural populations. Programs offered at these facilities are expansive, including cancer treatment, infectious diseases and even mental health.

In addition to immediate improvements in quality of life, making healthcare more accessible and effective has had a sizable impact on reducing poverty by: 

• Decreasing the direct cost of treatment 
• Limiting transportation costs to receive care from distant facilities 
• Preventing debilitating illnesses that impede one’s ability to work and earn a living

Looking Ahead

While more work is necessary to improve healthcare access around the world, updates on SDG 3 in Indonesia show that significant progress is being made. By leveraging international investments towards better infrastructure, upgraded technology and national healthcare coverage, Indonesia has improved access to high-quality medicine and treatment. 

As Indonesia continues to expand these initiatives, better health may enable citizens to save funds that would have previously gone towards expensive and ineffective healthcare. Improved wellbeing may also allow individuals to work more frequently, earn higher wages and improve their socioeconomic status.

– Brogan Jones

Brogan Jones is based in Norman, OK, USA and focuses on Technology and Global Health for The Borgen Project.

Photo: Unsplash