TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Govt to accelerate fight against childhood stunting
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.
Change Size
T
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.
Since then, childhood stunting prevalence has decreased from 30.8 percent in 2018 to 24.4 percent last year, according to the 2021 Indonesia Nutrition Status Survey (SSGI).
Despite the decrease, a 2021 World Health Organization study shows that Indonesia's stunting prevalence is still higher than the global average of 21.9 percent. It is also relatively higher than neighboring countries such as Vietnam (23 percent), Malaysia (17 percent), Thailand (16 percent) and Singapore (4 percent).
Last year, Jokowi issued Presidential Decree (Perpres) No. 72/2021 on the acceleration of stunting reduction among children under the age of five, aiming to further reduce stunting prevalence to 14 percent by 2024.
This means that Indonesia needs to reduce stunting prevalence by 10.4 percent in less than 2.5 years, a seemingly difficult target to achieve considering the fact that in the past three years the country only managed to reduce stunting prevalence by an average of 1.6 percent per year.
Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said that he had prepared three strategies to meet this ambitious target: preventing maternal undernutrition and anemia, offering free regular ultrasounds for pregnant women in every community health center (Puskesmas) and distributing high-protein supplementary food for malnourished toddlers.
"We'll focus our intervention efforts on prospective mothers and pregnant women. Maternal undernutrition is one of the main factors that cause stunting in children," Budi said recently.
The ministry is planning to soon kick start a weekly campaign promoting exercise, eating a balanced diet and taking iron supplements to prevent anemia in teenage girls, distribute around 10,000 hemoglobinometers to Puskesmas across the country and offer routine blood screening at schools.
The ministry, according to Budi, is seeking to equip all 10,000 Puskesmas in the country with ultrasound machines, allowing pregnant women to get regular ultrasounds and check-ups for free.
Read also: Government works to improve childhood vaccinations after decline
Earlier this year, the ministry also introduced pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) and rotavirus vaccine to the national childhood immunization program, in a bid to prevent recurrent infections of pneumonia and severe diarrhea – two key contributors to long-term nutritional deficiency complications such as stunting and malnutrition in children.
