An official iron supplementation programme for pregnant women in Jeneponto, South Sulawesi, Indonesia was assessed for efficiency. Data were collected in a cross-sectional study of 107 women in the second or third trimester of pregnancy from 18 villages. 47.7% of the women were anaemic, although 63.6% stated they had received prenatal care. Of the 68 women who had received prenatal care. 49 had obtained iron tablets. However, 32.7% of the 49 women who received iron admitted that they had not taken all of the tablets. Mean Hb levels of women in the second trimester who had received tablets was 9 g/l higher (P=0.049) than that of women who had not received tablets. To improve the efficiency of the iron supplementation programme there must be an improvement in the coverage of pre-natal care, in the completeness of iron tablet distribution, and in efforts to assure that the pregnant women actually take the tablets given to them.