"The Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Cultural Affairs (PMK) and related ministries and agencies have implemented the integrated assistance program in 12 provinces of priority and held road shows in 34 provinces," PMK Ministry's Expert Staff for Sustainable Development Agus Suprapto noted when contacted in Jakarta, Friday.
Suprapto stated that the 12 prioritized provinces are Aceh, East Nusa Tenggara, West Sulawesi, West Nusa Tenggara, West Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, Southeast Sulawesi, West Java, Central Java, East Java, Banten, and North Sumatra.
The program aims to ensure proper understanding and implementation of Presidential Regulation No. 72 on the acceleration of stunting prevalence reduction, he remarked.
"Furthermore, the assistance program aims to encourage all stakeholders to work in synergy and collaboration in order to implement the existing stunting alleviation program in tandem with the program of extreme poverty eradication," he noted.
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Based on results of the integrated assistance, several districts and cities were found to still face difficulties, both in terms of the governance of the program's implementation and the achievement of specific and sensitive intervention in stunting handling efforts, he pointed out.
Suprapto stated that the difficulties constitute challenges that should be jointly resolved by governments at the central and regional levels in hopes of achieving the stunting alleviation target of 14 percent by 2024.
According to the 2022 Indonesian Nutritional Status Survey (SSGI), the national stunting prevalence was recorded at 21.6 percent, a decline of 2.8 percent as compared to the previous year. The government has set the target to reduce stunting prevalence to 14 percent by 2024.
Efforts to handle stunting problems are of essence to support the program of development of human resources, Suprapto added.
He emphasized that the end goal of the development of sustainable human resources was to create superior, high-quality, virtuous, and competitive generations for the sake of the nation's better future.
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Translator: Tegar Nurfitra Putra Rofian
Editor: Yuni Arisandy Sinaga
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