Vice President Asks Local Government To Focus On Guarding Zero Stunting Targets By 2030

Vice President Ma'ruf Amin delivered his remarks at the handover of the stunting assistance program from the Dewa Dewi Indonesia Foundation and PT Semen Imasco Asiatic in Jember, East Java, Wednesday (6/12/2023). (ANTARA/Yashinta Difa)

JEMBER - Vice President Ma'ruf Amin asked local governments to focus on overseeing the implementation of the stunting reduction acceleration program even up to zerostunting by 2030, according to sustainable development goals.

In the event of handing over the stunting assistance program in Jember Regency, East Java, the Vice President stated that the government had succeeded in reducing the prevalence of stunting from 30.8 percent in 2018, to 21.6 percent in 2022.

"However, our time to achieve the target of 14 percent stunting in 2024 is increasingly limited. For this reason, all stakeholders at the central and regional levels must ensure that there is synergy between programs from the national to village levels," said Vice President Ma'ruf as quoted by ANTARA, Wednesday, December 6.

In the event of handing over stunting assistance from the Dewa Dewi Indonesia Foundation and PT Semen Imasco Asiatic, the Vice President asked for stunting assistance to be given on target and not overlapping with the mechanism for providing assistance that has been provided by the government.

In particular, he asked the government of Jember Regency to map pockets of stunting areas and identify less services so that they can be repaired immediately.

Furthermore, the local government is expected to develop a program to intervene in existing problems by inviting all parties to be involved. The Vice President also hopes to optimize collaboration in accelerating stunting reduction between the central and regional governments and other elements, such as the private sector, universities, professional organizations, community organizations, religious leaders, community leaders, and the media.

"The Jember Regency Government should coordinate and ensure that assistance from forms of partnerships is channeled to priority locations and priority targets, and can fill gaps in the coverage of stunting services that have not been fulfilled by the government," he said.

According to Vice President Ma'ruf, the provision of food assistance is not only needed by stunting children, but also important to give to pregnant women, as well as to healthy toddlers to maintain their nutritional intake so as not to experience weight loss, especially pregnant women and children from stunting families.

The trend of stunting rates in children increases at the age of six months to one year, which is partly due to the insufficient provision of breast milk companion foods. Therefore, food assistance should be oriented to providing breast milk companion foods with appropriate and quality nutrition, one of which is the intake of animal protein, such as eggs, fish, and others," he said.

The vice president then asked the local government to conduct massive education to the public as well as counseling on the importance of stunting prevention.

Thus, public awareness will be awakened, and there will be a desire to actively participate in accelerating the reduction of stunting.

"Stunting is still a big problem that is urgent for us to solve together because stunting does not only have an impact on children's physical condition, but also on health, to their thinking skills," said the vice president.

"Stunting children will later grow into adult people whose productivity is low, which in the end will hinder economic growth, and will cause problems of inequality and poverty," he continued.

On this occasion, the government of Jember Regency received 10,000 packages of stunting assistance containing rice, eggs, green beans, cooking oil, wheat flour, baby milk, and baby biscuits.