Jayapura's achievement was better than that of any other region in Papua Province, where the stunting rate could only be lowered by about 1 or 2 percent during the same period, Head of the BKKBN-Papua Office Nerius Auparay pointed out in a press statement received on Friday.
He praised Jayapura's success while speaking at a coordinating meeting on childhood stunting in Sentani, the capital of Jayapura District, on July 13.
Apart from the recorded decrease in Jayapura and the other regions, Papua's childhood stunting rate was recorded at 34.6 percent, exceeding the national target set by the government at 14 percent in 2024, he stated.
He also highlighted the fact that the childhood stunting prevalence in the districts of Supiori and Mamberamo Raya in Papua remained high.
Meanwhile, at the coordinating meeting, the acting head of Jayapura District, Triwarno Purnomo, shared his administration's efforts to push the district's childhood stunting rate down from year to year.
Purnomo called on all related stakeholders to play a role in reducing the number of cases of children with stunted growth.
In February, the Jayapura administration had served those in need of public health services and measured children's length in villages to help detect and deal with childhood stunting cases.
The program implemented last February is expected to help the district government obtain valid data to deal with cases of stunted children in Jayapura and achieve the national target set by the government, he stated.
Due to the fact that the cases of stunted children are closely related to the chronic condition of malnutrition, the district government continues to intensify its stunting prevention and mitigation efforts, he remarked.
The district government, for instance, provides teenage girls with vitamin supplements, improves health services, and conducts public awareness campaigns on stunting prevention measures, he stated.
"We appeal to all stakeholders to work together to tackle childhood stunting," Purnomo remarked.
ANTARA reported earlier that the childhood stunting problem has posed a significant challenge to the government's endeavors to improve the quality of Indonesia's human resources amid strong competition among nations in the digital era.
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Translator: Ardiles L, Rahmad Nasution
Editor: Anton Santoso
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