"President Joko Widodo's government's energy and resources should be focused on achieving the National Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMN), especially, in this case, achieving targets in the health sector," she said in a statement released here on Monday.
One of the targets that need to be pursued is resolving stunting cases in Indonesia, which is at risk of not being achieved, she pointed out.
According to her, human development in terms of public health is more important. The government needs to be more serious about improving public health because there are a lot of budgets that can be shifted to improve public health quality.
Mufidayati also underscored that the COVID-19 pandemic should not be cited as the main reason for the failure to achieve the health targets listed in the RPJMN.
This is because the government has substantial resources to mitigate and take advantage of the repositioning of the budget and prevent state budget (APBN) leakage to pursue the health sector targets.
Earlier, National Development Planning Minister Suharso Monoarfa said that the national development plan must become a reference for regional governments so that the targets of RPJMN can be achieved.
"National development targets should become a reference for regional development targets," he said at the Presidential Palace complex, Jakarta, on June 6, 2023.
According to him, every target in the RPJMN must be implemented with synchronized efforts between the central government and regional governments.
He gave the example of the stunting reduction program, under which the government is targeting to bring down stunting prevalence to 14 percent by 2024.
Thus, each region needs to refer to the stunting reduction target at the national level. Regional governments also need to have programs focused on stunting reduction.
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Translator: Imam Budilaksono, Raka Adji
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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