President Jokowi Orders BKKBN to Improve Stunting Reduction Program

Head of the National Population and Family Planning Board (BKKBN) delivers press statement at the Presidential Office, Jakarta, Monday (25/1). (Photo: PR/Rahmat)

The Government has set a target to lower stunting rate to 14 percent in 2024.

To that end, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has assigned the National Population and Family Planning Board (BKKBN) to lead the program of stunting reduction acceleration.

According to Head of the National Population and Family Planning Board (BKKBN) Hasto Wardoyo, the board will set up a working structure and a program to implement the President’s order.

He also said that the President has ordered BKKBN to improve management of the existing stunting reduction program.

“We have the budget and the mapping, we only need to improve the management,” he said, adding that target of reducing stunting rate to 14 percent is quite challenging since in the past five years, Indonesia has only been able to reduce 1.6 percent per year.

Therefore, he added, the board has to reduce the rate by 2.7 percent each year to meet the target in 2024.

For the record, in 2019 Indonesia’s stunting prevalence stood at 27.6 percent. If there are 20 millions of newborns in the next four years, 7.2 million of them will suffer from stunting.

With the current target of 14 percent, the BKKBN must maintain the number of stunted children at 3.4 million, meaning that the new stunting cases per year must not exceed 680,000 children. (TGH/UN) (RAS/EP)