"President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) had asked us to immediately implement the models in 12 prioritized provinces to achieve our target of reducing the stunting rate to 14 percent," Sadikin informed after attending a working meeting on the acceleration of efforts to reduce stunting in 12 priority provinces at the Vice President's Palace in Jakarta on Thursday.
The government has identified specific intervention programs, with five programs targeting mothers and five other programs targeting children, he said.
On August 5, 2021, President Widodo issued Presidential Regulation Number 72 of 2021 concerning the acceleration of stunting reduction, which outlined a national strategy for expediting stunting reduction.
"For specific intervention, the most sensitive stunting case is before birth. Babies receiving stunting treatment before birth could have a low stunting possibility," Sadikin said.
He then cited examples of specific interventions that would be provided to young and pregnant women to prevent iron deficiency.
"Don't be malnourished, and later we will measure the iron levels of young women, pregnant women, and nutrition in pregnant women. Only then we will intervene at the level of toddlers and babies," the minister said.
After birth, the government will intervene to mitigate stunting by providing additional food and providing formula milk for underweight babies at community health centers.
“If, after examination, the babies experience stunting, we will refer them to a regional hospital to have high nutritional food. Those efforts are included in our specific interventions program for these 12 provinces," Sadikin informed.
Meanwhile, head of the National Population and Family Planning Agency (BKKBN), Hasto Wardoyo, who also attended the meeting, said the 12 priority provinces cover 68 percent of the national stunted population.
"There are 3.6 million stunted children in those provinces out of the 5.2 million stunted toddlers in Indonesia," he highlighted.
He said that his agency has formulated a stunting reduction program that has been adapted to the conditions of each province.
"For example, NTB stunting is 37 percent, in 2024, we hope the number could reduce to 20 percent. It will contribute to reaching the 14 percent figure nationally. The point from today's meeting is to encourage the regional heads of 12 provinces to achieve the target," he added.
Stunting is a chronic nutritional problem caused by inadequate nutritional intake over a long period of time, generally due to the consumption of food that does not match nutritional needs.
The results of the 2021 Indonesian Nutritional Status Survey (SSGI) conducted by the Ministry of Health put the prevalence of childhood stunting in Indonesia at 24.4 percent in 2021. The government is targeting to reduce the stunting rate to 14 percent by 2024.
The SSGI identified 7 provinces with the highest stunting prevalence—East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) 37.8 percent, West Sulawesi 33.8 percent, Aceh 33.2 percent, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) 31.4 percent, Southeast Sulawesi 30.2 percent, South Kalimantan 30.0 percent, and West Kalimantan 29.8 percent.
Meanwhile, there were five provinces with the largest number of stunted children, namely West Java (971,792), Central Java (651,708), East Java (508,618), North Sumatra (347,437), and Banten (268,158).
The working meeting on Thursday was also attended by Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture, Muhadjir Effendy; Aceh Governor Achmad Marzuki; North Sumatra Governor Edy Rahmayadi; acting governor of Banten, Al Muktabar; and representatives of the regional heads of priority provinces.
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Translator: Desca Lidya N, Resinta S
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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