"We appreciate the steps been taken by the regional governments, both the provincial government and the district/city governments in West Papua and Southwest Papua in dealing with extreme poverty and stunting," Effendy noted in his statement in Jakarta, Thursday.
Menko PMK assessed that regional governments in the local area have coordinated and synchronized policies intensively to address these two priority issues.
"Kemenko PMK continues to remind that program coordination and synchronization is the main key in suppressing these two priority issues," he stated.
Effendy called for the need to concurrently handle extreme poverty and stunting, as the two are co-related.
According to the minister, this aims to support the government's target of reducing the prevalence of stunting nationally to 14 percent in 2024 and eliminating extreme poverty, from four percent in 2021 to zero percent in 2024.
Based on reports from the local government, the extreme poverty rate in West Papua Province has decreased, from 10.28 percent in 2021 to 9.43 percent in 2022.
Meanwhile, in Southwest Papua Province, the extreme poverty rate dropped, from 9.05 percent in 2021 to 7.37 percent in 2022.
Sorong District is one of the areas that has experienced a reduction in the extreme poverty rate, from 14.86 percent in 2021 to 12.09 percent in 2022.
Assistant of Government and People's Welfare of Sorong District, Suroso, remarked that the decline was triggered by the partnership program and increased access to basic services and regional connectivity.
"Our efforts to intervene in accelerating the eradication of extreme poverty are to strengthen coordination and synergy with all relevant parties," he remarked.
Related news: Southwest Papua seeks to tackle extreme poverty through Paitua program
Related news: VP Amin presses for advancing poverty eradication planning in Papua
Related news: West Papua government should resolve extreme poverty by 2021-end: Amin
Translator: Wuryanti Puspitasari, Cindy Frishanti Octavia
Editor: Azis Kurmala
Copyright © ANTARA 2023
