Gov’t Seeks to Reduce Stunting to Below 20%

By Office of Assistant to Deputy Cabinet Secretary for State Documents & Translation     Date 4 Juli 2019
Category: News
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The participants take picture during the Technical Meeting for the Acceleration of Stunting Prevention in Jakarta, Wednesday (7/3). Photo by: the Office of Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia.

The participants take picture during the Technical Meeting for Acceleration of Stunting Prevention in Jakarta, Wednesday (7/3). Photo by: the Office of Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia.

The Government aims to reduce stunting rate to below 20% in 2024 through several programs and actions.

“The strategy is by promoting direct actions (nutrition-specific interventions) and indirect actions (nutrition-sensitive interventions),” said Deputy for Equity and Human Development of the Office of Vice President, Bambang Widianto during a technical meeting for the Acceleration of Stunting Prevention in Jakarta, Wednesday (7/3).

According to Bambang, technical capabilities from regional leaders are needed to tackle the problem. “If (the today stunting rate) is 30%, we hope we can reduce it into just 20% in the next 5 years,” he said.

Bambang went on to say that many success stories at district and city levels to prevent stunting can be used as models by other regions, adding that two of those successful regions are Sumenep (East Java) and Banggali (Central Sulawesi) which have succeeded in significantly reducing the prevalence of stunting among children.

For the record, stunting is a condition of impaired growth and development of children due to malnutrition and recurrent diseases. The main factor is inadequate nutritional intake over the long run, especially during the golden period of the first thousand days of life, from the mother’s pregnancy until the age of two.

Stunting poses a threat for Indonesia’s human capital because stunting children’s brain will not develop as mature as those of normal children. Children with stunting are also prone to degenerative diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and other diseases in their adult life.

Based on the study of the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), the high stunting rate has caused the country to lose its potential income of around Rp250-300 trillion or 3% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per year. This is because of reduced productivity of stunting children, who will lose 20% of their income as they become adults. (Setwapres/ES).

Translated by: Ridwan Ibadurrohman
Edited by: Ersan Pamungkas

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