Vice President Hopes Prabowo-Gibran Continues Acceleration Of Stunting Reduction

JAKARTA - Vice President Ma'ruf Amin hopes that the ranks of the Prabowo Subianto-Gibran Rakabuming Raka government can continue the program to accelerate stunting reduction.

"I really hope that the ranks of the new government leaders can continue to be committed to continuing the implementation of the stunting reduction acceleration program and maintaining the results that have been achieved previously. It would be even better if it could exceed the achievements in the previous period," said the Vice President in his remarks at the opening of the 2024 Stunting National Coordination Meeting (Rakornas) in Jakarta as reported by ANTARA, Wednesday, September 4.

The vice president claimed that during the implementation of the stunting reduction acceleration program in the last five years, many progress had been recorded.

"We should be grateful that the stunting prevalence rate fell from 30.8 percent in 2018 to 21.5 percent in 2023. This means that in five years, we can reduce stunting prevalence by 9.3 percent or an average of 1.85 percent per year. This decline is one and a half times faster when compared to the 2013-2018 period," he said.

The Vice President considers the results achieved to be the fruit of the hard work, smart work, and collaborative work of all elements involved.

However, Ma'ruf Amin also reminded that the big target that must still be achieved is to free Indonesian children from stunting. Therefore, the Vice President gave a special emphasis on the importance of the sustainability of the stunting prevention program.

"Leaders can change and stunting rates can be lowered. However, we still have unfinished homework, namely freeing Indonesian children from stunting," said the Vice President.

The Vice President as the Steering Committee Chair of the Stunting Reduction Acceleration Team (TPPS) leads the 2024 Stunting National Coordination Meeting in accordance with the mandate of Presidential Regulation (Perpres) Number 72 of 2021 concerning the Acceleration of Stunting Reduction. The National Coordination Meeting lasts for two days, September 4-5, 2024 in Jakarta.

The stunting National Coordination Meeting itself is an annual coordination meeting to discuss programs to accelerate stunting reduction at the national level involving participants from elements of the central government, provincial and district/city governments, development partners, business worlds, non-governmental organizations, and universities, as well as other stakeholders.

Paying attention to 2024 as the last year of accelerating the national strategy for stunting prevention which began in 2018 and also the last year of implementation of Presidential Decree No. 72 of 2021, the National Coordination Meeting this time will focus on exploring various advances that have been shown in efforts to reduce stunting in the country.

As at the 2023 Stunting National Coordination Meeting, at the 2024 National Coordination Meeting, the Vice President also presented an award as a form of appreciation for the achievement of accelerating stunting reduction carried out by local governments.

Appreciation in the form of providing Fiscal Incentive Funds for the Year of Running 2024 in the category of accelerating stunting reduction is given to 130 local governments consisting of nine provinces, 99 regencies, and 22 cities. Appreciation is also given to 15 well-performing villages in an effort to accelerate stunting reduction.

"Hopefully the stunting reduction acceleration program can continue and be perfected in the following periods, as an effort to create a superior generation according to Indonesia Gold's 2045 vision," said the Vice President.