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Govt to accelerate fight against childhood stunting
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Nutritious fish: A kindergarten student shows his fish-based food during a love seafood campaign at the Art Center in Ciamis regency, West Java, on March 24. The event was part of efforts to fight stunting in children. (Antara/Adeng Bustomi)
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he government has listed interventions to reduce stunting as one of the spending priorities in the budget allocated for the health sector in 2023, in a bid to achieve the country's target of reducing stunting prevalence to 14 percent in 2024.
Authorities have set aside Rp 169.8 trillion (US$11.3 billion) for non-COVID-19 related programs in the health sector in the 2023 state budget, almost 50 percent higher than those of during pre-pandemic times. This includes stunting-reduction programs, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani said recently, without revealing how much money would go to the campaign.
During his annual speech at the House of Representatives last week, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said that the government would strengthen collaboration across various institutions to accelerate nationwide campaigns on childhood-stunting reduction.
Jokowi has previously appointed the National Population and Planning Agency (BKKBN) to serve as the bridge between government agencies and ministries, with the aim of fast-tracking the implementation of programs on the ground.
Read also: Jokowi urges Indonesians to cut stunting to 14 percent in 2024
Stunting, low height for age, is a physical manifestation of chronic malnutrition that carries long-term development risks. Stunting in early life is linked with impaired cognitive ability, lower future productivity and higher risk of poverty.
To tackle Indonesia’s persistent stunting problem, the government issued in 2017 the National Strategy to Accelerate Stunting Prevention (Stranas Stunting), distributing around $14.6 billion to converge health, nutrition and early-childhood interventions.
