"God willing, we can achieve it because several provinces show great performance in stunting handling, including Bali," he said on the sideline of the 2023 ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) Knowledge Forum in Bali on Sunday.
According to the Indonesia Nutrition Status Survey (SSGI), the stunting rate in 2022 experienced a 2.8 percent decline compared to the figure in 2021.
The prevalence of stunting in 2022 has decreased to 21.6 percent from 24.4 percent in the previous year.
He underlined that the stunting issue in Indonesia should be resolved immediately because it became one of the keys in improving the quality of human resources.
This is done so that Indonesia can pass through the demographic bonus period in an optimal manner.
Reducing stunting is a necessary step to fully benefit from the demographic bonus.
"If everyone has it, it will become disastrous," he said.
Effendy said to build a high-quality generation, Indonesia must lower the prevalence of stunting.
"Thus, before we give the skills to enter the working world, the seed must be rescued from stunting," he noted.
The government will strengthen stunting reduction acceleration through intervention steps, including intervention through public health centers (puskesmas), Effendy informed.
The minister called to have all puskesmas be equipped with USG and anthropometry equipment so that stunting prevention efforts can be undertaken optimally.
Puskesmas that do not have USG and anthropometry equipment should make a request to the Ministry of Health, he noted.
Through synergy and improvement of programs by central and regional governments, including non-government institutions, the 2024 stunting figure reduction target can be achieved.
The minister stressed that the handling of stunting will be integrated with the handling of other priority issues such as the issue of poverty, extreme poverty, environmental restoration and clean water sanitation.
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Translator: Zubi Mahrofi, Fadhli Ruhman
Editor: Anton Santoso
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