Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih Scholarship Program (ERS-SP): An initiative of public health professionals and scientists from The Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia, The Indonesian Public Health Association, Harvard School of Public Health

Dr. Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih was the former health minister of Republic of Indonesia from 2009-2012.On May 2nd, 2012, she passed away after her battle against lung cancer at the age of 57.She is known as a smart, humble, transparent and devoted person with excellent leadership and interpersonal skills. Not only was she a good listener, but was also decisive and an agile thinker, and a hard worker. When the news of her disease was leaked to the media, in breach of medical-ethics, she did not choose to disappear into anonymity as most of us would have done, nor did she opt to concentrate solely on her treatment.Rather, she continued to perform at the highest level, and demonstrated that sick people have a lot to contribute, and that relegating them to isolation or inactive roles is a loss to society.Her commitment to research and public health for the benefit of society, particularly vulnerable groups, has been reflected in the way she lived her professional and personal lives. Her ability to “normalize” cancer while bringing attention to the need of preventing and controlling it is her last tribute to the tenets of public health education and practice, a tribute that will be long-lasting in its effects on improving and saving many lives.After Dr. Endang’s death, colleagues at the Harvard School of Public Health, the IPHA (Indonesian Public Health Association/IAKMI) and the Ministry of Health of Republic of Indonesia, sought to establish the Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih Scholarship Program (ERS-SP) as a tribute to dr. Endang, allowing her legacy to reach even further, and promote her vision and message to all of us to work hard and smart for the health of the Nation and the world.

The goal of the ERS-SP is to support education and research in public health with emphasis on TCAM, NCD, MDGs, Health Financing, Global Health, and Healthy Life Style. The ERS-SP is not tied to any particular school or type of scholarship, and will be administered by a Secretariat established at the IPHA.The ERS-SP is committed to leading-edge public health research, public health workshops, short courses, superb public health education and exceptional public health policy development. The close collaboration between the community of public health professionals and public health scientists will be one of the unique strengths, enabling us to provide support for health policy development with the best evidence and practices available as ERS-SP work to discover more effective strategies to develop health policy and practice to tackle public health issues.

The scholarships from the ERS-SP would be funded by three (3) methods: direct grant programs such as the Higher Education Network Ring Initiative (HENRI) Program at the Harvard School of Public Health; direct donations to the ERS-SP Fund made to IPHA; or proceeds from an endowment fund managed by IPHA.The IPHA will continue to host the fellowship programs on public health issues, and lead the continued fundraising.The Secretariat will be responsible for development of the Program policies and overseeing the implementation of supporting strategies and activities designed by the appointed International Partners in the participating regions such as Harvard University; for seeking out currently funded scholarship programs and matching them to recipients as ERS-SP Scholars; and for being sure an annual report is produced detailing who the Scholars were and their outputs. 

Currently the ERS-SP has begun it activities in July 2012 with eight (8) Indonesian Scholars who have travelled to the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, USA to attend a six (6) week course and workshop for analysis of national health and nutrition data. They are Anna Mauludyani, Bogor Agricultural University; Suparmi, National Institute of Health Research and Development; Christiana Titalay, University of Indonesia; Dwi Gayatri, University of Indonesia; Rina Agustina, SEAMEO Regional Center for Community Nutrition; Lina Rospita, SEAMEO Regional Center for Community Nutrition; Defriman Djafri, Andalas University; and Rizanda Machmud, Andalas University. The 2012 ERS-Scholar are supported by a Cooperative Agreement between USAID-Jakarta and the Harvard School of Public Health through the HENRI Program (a collaboration between Harvard School of Public Health, Seameo-Recfon, University of Indonesia, Andalas University, University of Mataram, Summit Institute of Development and HKI), and with additional contributions from the Ash Center at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.As part of this activity, each Scholar will prepare two (2) manuscripts that will provide evidence for health policy formulation and evaluation in Indonesia. The manuscripts will be reviewed in coordination with the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia and national and international experts. The results and implications of this process for future health policy will be presented in September 2012 during a comprehensive workshop planned to be opened by the President of Republic of Indonesia and under direction of the Minister of Health of the Republic of Indonesia. This event will be attended by national and international leaders and experts in public health, academics, practitioners, researchers, donors and other stakeholders.

The Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia, IPHA, and Harvard School of Public Health foresee that the ERS-SP will be a "breakthrough innovation" and gateway for Indonesia's health policy in the future, and will increase the capacity of human resources for health in order to support health development in Indonesia and globally.