"National Directives and Community Empowerment: Public Health in Sleman Regency, Indonesia"
Taylor Purvis (YC Senior. Political Science/Public Health)

Although public health in Indonesia is regulated at the national level, district-level government health authorities are often responsible for shaping and executing specific public health programs. While cooperating with national efforts, the Sleman Regency of Indonesia has come up with innovative solutions to public health crises that have improved upon national recommendations. One way Sleman Regency has done this is through a program of "community empowerment": voluntary AIDS commissions, female-led non-profit organizations and neighborhood health coalitions, volunteer-based home inspections, and local green initiatives. This paper draws on first-hand observations from my recent trip to Yogyakarta, Indonesia, including interviews with public health administrators and medical professionals, site visits, and primary source material from education campaigns and local health clinics.

Sleman Regency's innovative programs have been successful, but may not be universally applicable throughout Indonesia. Part I of this paper will provide a broad overview of the de-centralized structure of the Indonesian public health system. I then examine how Sleman Regency operates under the federalized system; in particular, I focus on its general method of expanding upon national health directives and creating novel, local public health initiatives. Part II of this paper evaluates how successful one such innovation-in this case, their programs of "community empowerment"-has been at reducing disease incidence and promoting healthy behaviors in Sleman Regency. Part III examines whether this program of community engagement can be replicated on a national level. Given Sleman Regency's large student population, numerous medical and graduate schools, top-tier hospitals, and community leaders that promote local support for public health, this model of public health might not be appropriate for all Indonesian communities. I will identify the aspects of Sleman Regency's program that are universal, and those that could be useful innovations only in specific circumstances.

Taylor Purvis is a senior Political Science major at Yale University. She has studied Indonesian language at Yale for three years with Professor Indriyo Sukmono, and recently won the Bates Junior Fellowship and Tristan Perlroth Prize to travel to Yogyakarta, Indonesia, for four weeks. Her current focus is in comparative law and bioethics, and she will examine assisted reproductive law and policy in Indonesia for her senior essay this spring. Taylor is a research assistant at the Yale Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics and also maintains a research position at the Yale Center for Sleep Medicine. On campus, she is a co-coordinator for the Dwight Hall Urban Fellows Program at Yale and volunteers at the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven and the Milford Rape Crisis Center. Taylor has been a regular vocal performer at Indonesian events in the community, including a reception for the Indonesian Ambassador at the Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia in New York.

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