President Jokowi will visit South Central Timor in NTT, considering that NTT is a priority province for stunting handling, with a prevalence of 37.8 percent in 2021. It is the highest average of stunting prevalence rate for all provinces in IndonesiaTimor Tengah Selatan, NTT (ANTARA) - President Joko Widodo's (Jokowi's) visit to Kesetnana Village, South Mollo Sub-district, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), on Thursday, reflected the country's seriousness in tackling stunting in children, the National Population and Family Planning Agency (BKKBN) stated.
"President Jokowi will visit South Central Timor in NTT, considering that NTT is a priority province for stunting handling, with a prevalence of 37.8 percent in 2021. It is the highest average of stunting prevalence rate for all provinces in Indonesia that reaches 24.4 percent," Head of BKKBN Hasto Wardoyo noted in a written statement on Thursday.
Wardoyo remarked that Kesetnana Village, which Jokowi plans to visit on Thursday, is an overview of the 278 villages in South Central Timor District, with a stunting prevalence rate of 48.3 percent based on the 2021 Indonesian Nutritional Status Study (SSGI).
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The village has become the main focus of the visit since stunting in the area was caused by the difficulty in getting access to clean water, poor economic conditions, and low education in addition to the fact that most residents of Kesetnana Village did not have proper toilet facilities and did not understand the importance of health education.
On the other hand, the head of state also highlighted the results of the 2021 SSGI data which stated that NTT had 15 districts were assigned the red status or have a stunting prevalence rate of above 30 percent.
Moreover, seven districts and cities are assigned the yellow status or have a prevalence rate reaching 20 to 30 percent. None of the districts and cities were assigned a green status or have a stunting prevalence of between 10 and 20 percent.
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Wardoyo emphasized that the problem of high prevalence of stunting in NTT is not only about health or malnutrition in children but also about the ability of families to access health care facilities, the impact of poverty factors, and low level of education that are causal to the creation of wrong parenting patterns in families.
He noted that the involvement of partners is important to expand the range of interventions in reducing stunting according to the set targets and the potential of the partners.
Hence, Wardoyo emphasized that cooperation from all parties is deemed necessary to help NTT in reducing the stunting rate.
"As one of the pentahelix elements in the form of convergence to reduce stunting, partners have a role and contribution with the government," Wardoyo remarked.
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Translator: Hreeloita Dharma S, Resinta S
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
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