"Regarding stunting reduction acceleration, regional governments should create a regulation in the form of a regional regulation," KPAI deputy chairperson Jasra Putra said here on Wednesday.
This was one of the recommendations that was agreed upon at the National Coordination Meeting on Exposing Stunting Reduction Acceleration Monitoring.
Another recommendation endorsed at the meeting requires regional governments to allocate regional budgets for supporting optimization programs for stunting reduction acceleration, which refer to the Health Information System as the main database.
Putra also urged provincial governments and district/city governments to issue a circular asking primary and secondary education units to advise female students to consume iron supplement tablets.
"Then the provincial offices of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and the district/city regional offices of the Ministry of Religious Affairs should make a circular to madrasah (Islamic school) education units requiring female students to consume one iron supplement tablet once per week for 52 weeks," he stated.
In addition, regional governments have been asked to optimize the dissemination of information to villages to improve their contribution to stunting reduction acceleration programs.
"Regional governments are encouraged to create community empowerment programs in the form of animal protein sources farming communities at the neighborhood level," he added.
KPAI has also urged regional governments to provide complementary foods made from local animal protein sources.
"We hope that with the presence of several recommendations agreed in the national coordination meeting, mapping of monitoring results in the cluster of the fulfillment of children's rights can soon be realized," he said.
Stunting reduction is a priority program of the Indonesian government. The government is aiming to reduce stunting prevalence to 14 percent by 2024.
Indonesia's stunting prevalence declined by 2.8 percentage points to 21.6 percent in 2022 from 24.4 percent in 2021, as per the 2022 Indonesian Nutritional Status Survey (SSGI).
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Translator: Anita Permata, Raka Adji
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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