"Stunting requires data, treatment, and collaboration between regional organizations (OPDs). Building integrity must start with examples. Now, examples must be consistent to show corruption prevention, not accepting gratuities, maintaining the State Administrator Wealth Report (LHKPN), and others," he said at a workshop on the stunting acceleration strategy at the West Sulawesi Governor's Office Complex.
The workshop, which was organized by the Regional Development Planning Agency (Bappeda) of West Sulawesi, was a follow-up to the cooperation between the West Sulawesi and Central Java provincial governments.
The steps taken by West Sulawesi to eradicate stunting reflect a good form of collaboration in the sharing of experiences on the achievement of reduced stunting rates, Pranowo added.
He was joined by Central Java Bappeda, head of the Central Java Education Service, several micro, small, and medium enterprise (MSME) players, and related OPDs in sharing technical interventions for reducing stunting.
"Central Java is not that great, but we can tell because the conditions are definitely different. We have experiences that the West Sulawesi acting governor Akmal Malik wants us to share regarding stunting and integrity," Pranowo said.
According to him, as a new province, West Sulawesi, with good human resources, must agree on progressive and revolutionary methods and methodologies.
"And it must start from the leader," Pranowo remarked.
Meanwhile, Malik said that the presence of Governor Pranowo and the OPDs was an honor for West Sulawesi Province.
“Hopefully, this event will bring spirit to us. We hope we will gain new comprehensive understanding and knowledge regarding stunting and the system used in the integrity assessment survey," Malik added.
Since West Sulawesi is still relatively a new area, there is a lot it needs to learn, including regarding stunting handling, Malik stated.
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"Based on our spirit to learn new knowledge, we invite experienced parties to inspire us to be better in the future," he added.
He said he hopes that the synergies and collaborations built therein will produce a significant change for his province.
Meanwhile, Bappeda Head for West Sulawesi Province Junda Maulana said that the workshop was special because it was attended by the Central Java Governor.
Stunting has become a national issue and the focus of the government's attention, he noted. Thus, integrated treatment and prevention are needed for each region.
"We hope that from this meeting we will get inputs and recommendations for strategies to accelerate stunting reduction in the future," he added.
Nationally, West Sulawesi is ranked 33 out of 34 provinces in Indonesia in terms of the stunting rate. Therefore, the issue has become a serious concern for the local government.
Stunting prevalence in West Sulawesi stood at 40.3 percent in 2019, which declined by 6.5 percent to 33.8 percent in 2021.
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Translator: Amirullah, Resinta S
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
Copyright © ANTARA 2022
