We are experiencing various dynamics to improve nutrition in IndonesiaJakarta (ANTARA) - The Ministry of National Development Planning/National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) has asked ministries/agencies to collaborate on eliminating stunting to ensure the competitiveness of the nation’s children at the global level in the future.
“This is a challenge for nutrition policy in Indonesia. We are experiencing various dynamics to improve nutrition in Indonesia," Director of Public Health and Nutrition at the ministry, Pamungkas Bahjuri Ali, said at the “Policy Reflection Forum on the Acceleration of Nutrition Improvement” in Jakarta on Wednesday.
Globally, nutrition-related problems in children are categorized into under-nutrition and over-nutrition, he noted. They are further classified into micro and macro malnutrition.
The biggest nutrition-related problems in Indonesian children comprise stunting, wasting, and obesity. If these three, especially stunting, are not eradicated, they will become a threat to realizing the 2045 Golden Indonesia target, Ali said.
According to him, with Indonesia ranking 130 out of 199 countries on the human capital index, it will be difficult for the nation's children to compete in the era of digitalization 5.0 or industry 4.0. Therefore, stunting is a big problem for the country.
"If this condition persists, 15 years later from the current generation, these children can only express their potential as much as 59 percent. How can we compete if our human resource capacity is only 59 percent of normal conditions?" he asked.
Ali said that stunting also has the potential to disrupt economic development since it can burden people in the productive age group.
Therefore, he emphasized that this problem must be taken into consideration by all parties since, in 2045, Indonesia will face a population transition.
"We will enter a demographic transition, where the structure of the productive age population aged 15 to 64 years will increase quite high and this can be converted into an economic advantage. But the nutritional problems, namely stunting and wasting, will still haunt (the nation),” he said.
Thus, he emphasized that the government must reflect on policies to accelerate nutrition improvement in order to find the right solution to nutritional problems.
In addition, the programs formed must be balanced by maximizing in-depth research to ensure nutritional improvement.
“Our budget is very limited, so we must maximize research. We hope there will be an ongoing and evidence-based collaboration for policy-making to accelerate nutrition improvement in Indonesia," he added.
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Translator: Hreeloita Dharma S, Resinta S
Editor: Sri Haryati
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