Dr Setyaningsih is currently Senior Program and Learning Development Manager at SurfAid International, whose health programmes involve education in nutrition, hygiene, healthy environments and disease prevention. SurfAid was founded by New Zealander Dave Jenkins and is dedicated to improving the health, wellbeing, and self-reliance of people living in isolated regions of Indonesia.
SurfAid works in four areas in Indonesia—Mentawai, Nias, Bima, and Sumba. These islands are isolated and difficult to access, and lack basic resources, healthcare and economic opportunities. Poverty and difficulties growing nutritious crops means there is little to no food security.
Dr Setyaningsih’s role sees her designing programmes that are suitable for the community as well as in line with government programme aims.
“I work together with communities and local government to prevent mother and child malnutrition and mortality. At the moment, we are focused on a nutrition-sensitive agriculture approach for people who live in these remote areas, with the aim of preventing malnutrition”.
The child mortality rate in Indonesia is around 22 deaths per 1000 births (World Health Organisation, 2018). In most developed countries, it’s below five. “People living in these areas have poor health outcomes and some of the worst maternal and child mortality rates in Indonesia,” she says.
Born and raised in Jakarta, Dr Setyaningsih gained her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Indonesia and spent several years working in Jakarta before moving to Melbourne, Australia to pursue a Master’s degree in public health at Deakin University.
After receiving her Master’s, she spent nearly four years monitoring health needs and evaluating programmes on Nias, an island 125kms off North Sumatra, for SurfAid.
Then following a decade in public health, research, policy advocacy and programme management, Dr Setyaningsigh decided to pursue post-graduate study overseas and in 2013 she moved to Wellington to begin her PhD in Public Policy at the School of Government.
Her decision to move to New Zealand was based on Te Herenga Waka–Victoria University of Wellington’s research reputation, as well as the University offering the combination of health and policy.
“It meant I could combine these two important areas, which has shaped my understanding about creating good, evidence-based policy in the health sector,” she says.
As part of her PhD programme, Dr Setyaningsih spent 12 months doing field work in West Nusa Tenggara (an island near Lombok in Eastern Indonesia) and conducted over 75 interviews with midwives, community health workers and local and national health officials.
“I wanted to explore the intrinsic and extrinsic motivators that influence midwives’ decisions to work in remote areas of Indonesia,” she says.
“I found that non-financial factors, such as cultural and religious beliefs, often played a significant role in informing midwives’ views of the world, and in turn, their motivation to serve their community.”
After graduating in 2018, Dr Setyaningsih headed back to Indonesia, keen to do further public health research with the hope of supporting decision-makers to craft better and more appropriate policies.
She says her time at the University helped to shape her skills in designing policy and strategy, particularly around key issues on technology and sustainable development in the health sector.
It’s been two years since she left New Zealand, and while she misses it—especially the beautiful scenery, tramping, skiing on Mt Ruapehu, and KC Café & Takeaway on Courtenay Place—she says she’s living her dream.
“Working with the community has always been my passion…through my work I can help the community as well as do advocacy work. It is important to work at the grassroots level as well as have access to local and national authorities, so I can be a bridge between the community and the government.”