Governor Edy Asks Village Funds Of IDR 425.606 Billion To Be Used To Prevent Stunting

North Sumatra Governor Edy Rahmayadi. ANTARA/Anggi Luthfi Panggabean

The Governor of North Sumatra (Gubsu) Edy Rahmayadi asked for village and sub-district funds of Rp425,606 billion to be used in an effort to accelerate stunting reduction in this region.

Governor Edy said that a number of these budgets can be used for the provision of additional food (PMT), construction of proper latrines and clean water, utilization of posyandu, purchase of anthropometry and so on.

"Starting from the national level, there is a Regulation of the Minister of Villages PDTT No. 8 of 2022 concerning Priority for Using Village Funds in 2023, a Decree of the Governor of North Sumatra Province has also been issued No. 900/14477 concerning the Use of Village Funds in 2023 for Stunting Rates Reduction in North Sumatra Province," said Governor Edy as quoted by ANTARA, Thursday, August 3.

He said, there should be no reason for villages and sub-districts not to budget for stunting reduction.

"So there is no longer any reason for villages not to have a budget to accelerate stunting reduction. Village and Kelurahan funds of IDR 425.606 billion in 2022 and 2023 can be used as an effort to accelerate stunting reduction in North Sumatra," said Edy Rahmayadi.

Head of Representative for the National Family Planning Agency (BKKBN) of North Sumatra Province Munawar Ibrahim, explained that stunting is one of the factors that affects the quality of superior human resources. Currently, the family is at risk of stunting (KRS) in North Sumatra based on verbal data in 2022, there are 791,390.

"So that stunting prevention in children can be done from an early age, such as youth assistance, prospective brides (catin), mothers check their pregnancy regularly to health service centers for six times during pregnancy, pay attention to nutrition from the womb, provide exclusive breast milk and immunization, pay attention to nutrition in the first 1,000 days of child life (HPK), parenting, as well as adequate latrines and clean water availability," said Munawar.

Munawar said, there were as many as 30,969 family assistant teams (TPK) to accelerate stunting reduction in 6,251 villages in 33 regencies/cities and have 893 family planning extensions (PKB), PPKBD and sub-PPKBD spread across sub-districts and villages and sub-districts.

"Conducting and mobilizing by forming and equipping cadres in every village and sub-district so that the implementation of stunting reduction is carried out quickly," said Munawar.

The elements in the TPK team consist of PKK cadres, KB cadres, and health workers (midwives and or nurses). Meanwhile, PKB is an employee of the Central BKKBN who is placed in the KB regional apparatus organization (OPD) in each district/city.

"Their job is to conduct KIE (communication, information and education) related to family planning and family development as well as about stunting," he said.