Ibu Titi Memet - Grand Old Lady of UNICEF

by Jesper Morch

I arrived in Jakarta in January 1988 to take up my new assignment as Programme Coordinator for Education, Advocacy, Social Mobilization, Gender and Programme Support Services (i.e. “all the rest” besides health, nutrition, water & sanitation, and area and kampung services). I was immediately introduced to my new colleagues in my section. They were all formidable and professional, as I soon learned, but one person in particular stood out and while she formally reported to me she really became my mentor, teacher and friend throughout the almost 7 years I was to spend in Indonesia.

When we were introduced, Ibu Memet had retired from her international career with UNICEF and was now a consultant with UNICEF Indonesia. According to Mary Racelis in her chapter of “Jim Grant UNICEF Visionary”, Ibu Memet had been recruited to UNICEF in the mid 1970s to develop the family planning aspects of UNICEF’s work on maternal and child health. At the time, UNICEF largely engaged with women in their role as mothers and hardly at all with women in their own right. However, women’s concerns were emerging and tended to end up on her desk for her attention. As Mary Racelis puts it, Ibu Memet found herself in the de facto role as UNICEF’s Adviser on Women, given the exponentially expanding activities around women generated by the 1975 International Women’s Year in Mexico.

In 1979, Ibu Memet relocated from UNICEF NYHQ to Pakistan, ostensibly to become UNICEF Representative in Pakistan. The Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs states in its “Bulletin of Important milestones in the History of Indonesian Diplomacy” that in “1979 Ambassador Titi Memet Tanuwidjaja became the first female Asian to occupy one of the peak [sic] roles (Regional Director for East Asia and Pakistan) in UNICEF”. Ibu Memet was certainly Regional Director when she retired in the mid-1980s and returned to Jakarta.

Here Ibu Memet was instrumental in the conceptualization and design of what was to become UNICEF’s flagship social mobilization programme promoting “Child Survival and Development through Religious Organizations''.

The idea was simple and straightforward. People in the villages of Indonesia’s vast archipelago were not always inclined to heed the encouragement of local government officials to attend available health and education services and embrace the basic principles of healthy living. The one authority whose words were sure to be heeded was that of religious leaders. Those leaders were predominantly Muslim but there was also a strong Protestant, Catholic, Hindu and Buddhist presence in the country.

The religious organizations were not particularly familiar with each other. Could the Ministry of Religious Affairs and UNICEF get them to work together? We could, and much of that feat was achieved thanks to the stature, persuasive powers, diplomacy and vision of Ibu Memet. More than 20 Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Catholic and Protestant organizations partnered with us.

Religious leaders disseminated basic principles of healthy living during Friday prayer in the mosques and Sunday mass in the churches and in the Hindu and Buddhist temples. The Al-Azhar University in Cairo provided guidance, credibility and authority in the production of a collection of 52 sermons, one for each week of the year. It was a huge initiative that covered most of Indonesia’s then 27 provinces and reached 90 million Indonesians on a weekly basis.

Ibu Memet did not do it on her own. The initiative was a priority for the Government, for the leaders of religious NGOs, and for UNICEF. Many people made an enormous investment of time, effort and hard work. However, the initiative was the brain child of Ibu Memet.

It is doubtful if this vast alliance of religious organizations, government agencies and UN officials could have materialized and become a close partnership based on mutual respect and appreciation if it hadn’t been for Ibu Memet. She was smart and wise, she was kind and helpful, and she had a tremendous sense of humour. She was a “larger than life” figure and it was a true privilege to work with her for so many years.




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