Jakarta. The 2022 Mimika Basic Health Survey, commonly referred to as the Riskesdas, becomes a testament to cross-sectoral collaboration in Papua.

The Mimika Health Agency worked on the survey together with mining giant Freeport Indonesia and the health innovation center Yayasan PIKAT, which has affiliations to Udayana University. This survey encompasses multiple health variables that range from health knowledge, habits, environment, clean water supply, environmental diseases, and healthcare access, among others.

“Kudos to this initiative and what the Mimika health agency has done by involving the private sector and the public. Stakeholders’ involvement is pivotal to data collection,” Syarifah Liza, the head of the health development policy agency, was quoted as saying in a recent press statement. 

According to Liza, healthcare policies should be data and evidence-based. The Health Ministry is now working to ramp up its data collection processes.

Commenting on the survey, Mimika’s health agency head Reynold Ubra said: “this Riskesdas can be a role model for cooperation between the government and private sector in addressing health issues. We encourage other districts or cities to be able to conduct the Riskesdas independently as a benchmark for the regional heads’ goals across the archipelago. In line with the Health Ministry’s ‘One Health Data’, we will submit the survey results to help health researchers out there.”

The 2022 Mimika health survey took place starting from Nov. 2021 to June 2022 by referring to the 2018 Riskesdas questionnaire. Respondents had to fill in e-surveys. The biomedical samples came from 10,502 individuals and 3,105 households who live in 30 villages in 18 districts/sub-districts. 

“Hopefully, the data we all have gathered can help Mimika’s development, [and pave the way] for better people’s welfare and health,” Yayasan Pikat chief Pande Putu Januraga said.

Freeport Indonesia helped fund the research, while also providing the necessary manpower for the survey.

“As part of Papua, Freeport Indonesia is delighted to be directly involved in the 2022 Mimika Basic Health Survey. We are ready to help Mimika’s health agency and the sub-national government to address the key issues on the survey results, including other health-related issues,” Claus Wamafma, the director-EVP for sustainable development and community relations at Freeport Indonesia, said.