Dessy Sagita – The limited authority and small budget provided to the national body responsible for family planning and birth control have put the country at risk of a population explosion and a lowering of the general standard of living, an official said on Thursday.

"We don't have the budget to make our programs work and we don't have the ability to reach out to the most important elements in society, teenagers," Sugiri Syarief, head of the National Coordinating Agency for Family Planning (BKKBN), said during a news conference to mark World Contraception Day, which is celebrated every Sept. 26.

Sugiri said his agency had a budget of Rp 1.6 trillion last year, and that figure only rose by Rp 30 billion ($3.2 million) this year. He said the BKKBN ideally needed Rp 3.5 to Rp 4 trillion to effectively implement its programs.

He said that regional autonomy had also hampered the BKKBN's ability to operate effectively.

"Many city mayors have shown a lack of commitment and have only set aside a very small portion of their regional budget for contraception and birth control programs," Sugiri said.

"It's ironic that while general public awareness about birth control is increasing, politicians don't think their districts need a family planning program."

Sugiri said contraceptive use in the country had stagnated. He said that in 2002, 60 percent of sexually active couples used contraceptives, but that figure had only risen to 61 percent in 2007. Meanwhile, he said, there are approximately five million couples who want to postpone having children or space the time between pregnancies but do not have access to contraceptives despite a government ruling that they be made available for free.

Sugiri said the highly successful New Order-era family planning program, known as KB, had been abandoned in the euphoria that followed political reform. "KB was considered a product of the New Order, and therefore people felt it had to be abandoned," he said.

Sugiri said that in order to make its programs work, the BKKBN needed to be able to promote contraceptive use among teenagers and unmarried women.

A 2008 survey by the National AIDS Commission (KPA) found that 62.7 percent of high school students were sexually active, and a 2009 survey by the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) revealed that more than two million abortions were performed annually, 30 percent involving teenagers.

"Whether we like it or not, our teenagers are having sex, and we need to protect them from unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases that could be fatal," Sugiri said.

Farid Alfansyah Moeloek, a former health minister, said many of the problems facing Indonesia, including climate change and illegal logging, were related to the enormous needs of the country's population. "It's too bad we don't have specific laws related to reproductive health," he said.

Farid said the government should consider setting up a program using family doctors to educate the public and increase awareness of birth control.