The condition of failure to thrive in children under five due to chronic malnutrition or stunting in Indonesia is still quite high. The stunting prevalence rate in 2021 is still recorded at 24.4 percent. For this reason, the Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia, Ma’ruf Amin, is committed to reducing this number in 12 priority provinces.
Ma’ruf continued, that the priority program for the acceleration of stunting reduction is targeted for a reduction of up to 14 percent by 2024.
Meanwhile, the seven provinces with the highest prevalence of stunting are East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), West Sulawesi, Aceh, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), West Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, and Southeast Sulawesi.
Meanwhile, the five provinces with the highest number of stunting toddlers, are West Java, East Java, Banten, and North Sumatra (North Sumatra).
“This means that we [the government] must reduce stunting by 10.4 percent in the remaining time. This is a challenge for us together,” he said while chairing the Working Meeting for the Acceleration of Stunting Reduction for 12 Provinces, at the Vice President’s Palace, Thursday (4/8/2022). ).
According to him, the intervention carried out in accelerating the reduction of stunting will target more than 60 percent of children under five.
As a result, the Vice President asked the Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture (Menko PMK) Muhadjir Effendy, who is also the deputy chairman of the steering committee for the implementation of the central Stunting Reduction Acceleration Team (TPPS) to submit reports on strengthening coordination and synchronization as well as program integration of ministries, institutions, and local governments.
“After that, it was continued by the Head of BKKN who became the head of the TPPS to submit reports on stunting acceleration in 12 provinces and the results of assistance by the PKK family team,” he said.
Furthermore, the Vice President also asked the Minister of Home Affairs (Mendagri) Tito Karnavian to convey the sharpening of priorities for handling stunting in the regions, while the Minister of National Development Planning/Head of Bappenas Suharso Monoarfa and Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani to submit reports at the ministry and agency level.
“Later, the Minister of Health [Budi Gunadi Sadikin] will continue, specifically strengthening specific interventions in 12 priority provinces,” he explained.
On the other hand, he continued, one of the anticipations made by the government was that on August 5, 2021, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) had signed Presidential Regulation No. 72 of 2021 regarding the acceleration of stunting reduction which became the legal basis for implementing future programs.
For information, stunting is a condition of failure to thrive in children under five (infants under 5 years old) due to chronic malnutrition so that children are too short for their age.
Malnutrition occurs since the baby is in the womb in the early days after the baby is born, however, the stunting condition only appears after the baby is 2 years old. Short (stunted) and very important (severely stunted) toddlers are toddlers with body length (PB/U) and height (TB/U) according to age compared to the 2006 WHO-MGRS standard.
