Stunting Reduction Target Of 14 Percent Called Vice President Ma'ruf Amin Ambitious: We Only Have Less Than 3 Years

JAKARTA - Vice President (Vice President) Ma'ruf Amin said that currently the prevalence of stunting in Indonesia is still recorded at around 27 percent. In fact, the government targets the prevalence of stunting to be at the level of 14 percent by 2024.

“That is, we only have less than three years. This is a fairly ambitious target and a big challenge that we must face together," he said through a virtual channel during a collaboration ceremony between the BKKBN and the Tanoto Foundation, entitled the 2021 National Stunting Forum, Tuesday, December 14.

According to the Vice President, the government already has a road map to realize these development goals. First, the government encourages commitment with actors involved in this field to be present and exert their best efforts in accelerating stunting reduction.

"This commitment is shown by being the focus of development at the center and regions," he said.

The second is resource optimization. And the third is a commitment to strengthen coordination, monitoring, and evaluation to ensure the program runs well.

"I specifically asked the Head of the National Population and Family Planning Agency (BKKBN) as the head of stunting reduction to strengthen coordination at the central, regional and village levels," he said.

Meanwhile, this strategy, called the Vice President, is very important to oversee the convergence of programs or activities in the effort to reduce stunting targets that have been set.

"Then, ministries and agencies ensure that resources for stunting reduction interventions are available and reach targeted targets, such as teenagers, prospective brides, pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, and children under five," he explained.

On the same occasion, Head of BKKBN Hasto Wardoyo said that his party had formed a Family Assistance Team at the village level as the spearhead in accelerating the acceleration of stunting reduction in Indonesia.

"This team consists of midwives, PKK cadres, and family planning cadres who have the task of detecting the risk of stunting through counseling efforts, facilitating referral services, to being a companion in social assistance," he said.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Tanoto Foundation, Belinda Tanoto, revealed that the steps to eradicate stunting in Indonesia could be more easily realized through cross-sectoral synergies, such as collaborating with the private sector.

“We need more collaboration on this. We have even supported the stunting prevalence reduction program since 2019 by collaborating with the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Ministry of Health in terms of capacity building, technical assistance, and supporting program implementation," he said.