HARMONY: Revitalizing maternal and mental health support and strengthening the primary care workforce in Indonesia

Maternal and mental health remain critically underserved in Indonesia’s outermost, underdeveloped and frontier regions, with Southwest Sumba facing some of the most acute challenges. Structural barriers like poverty, limited access to care and a shortage of trained providers intersect with cultural practices such as bride price, early or arranged marriages and seasonal labour migration. These norms often limit women’s autonomy and exacerbate psychosocial distress during pregnancy, childbirth and early motherhood. Despite these risks, mental-health services tailored to maternal needs are scarce, underscoring the urgent need for targeted, context-sensitive interventions.

This project aims to address these gaps within primary health-care services and community structures by integrating culturally grounded psychosocial support for expectant and new mothers. With a focus on underserved groups, including adolescent girls and female migrant workers, a community-based intervention will be co-developed and implemented to address various socio-cultural and structural drivers of poor health outcomes. Expected outcomes from the study are strengthened gender-responsive community and health-care capacities; increased awareness of mental health and maternal health among women, adolescents, health-care providers and the broader community; reduced stigma around maternal mental health; and empowerment of women through culturally adapted support mechanisms. The project aims to generate evidence-based, scalable models for inclusive maternal and mental-health systems in marginalized rural contexts, ultimately contributing to long-term policy and practice transformation in Indonesia and beyond.