Accelerate Stunting Reduction, BKKBN Signs MoU With Zakat House

Signing of MoU BKKBN with Rumah Zakat/BKBBN Public Relation

JAKARTA - Head of BKKBN Hasto Wardoyo signed an MoU with Rumah Zakat regarding the Synergy of the Proud Kencana Program with the Empowered Village Program in the Context of Accelerating Stunting Reduction.

Hasto stated that this activity was aimed at realizing a shared commitment to increase cooperation between the BKKBN and the Rumah Zakat Indonesia Foundation to build synergy in the Synergy of Family Development, Population and Family Planning Programs with the Empowered Village Program in the Context of Accelerating Stunting Reduction.

The signing of this MoU was carried out in the 2022 Rumah Zakat Expose Public Event as well as the Head of BKKBN receiving an Award in the "Happiness Award" Category which took place online and also in person at the HM Auditorium. Rasjidi Ministry of Religion RI Building, KH. Wahid Hasyim Street No. 6, Kb. Sirih, Menteng, Central Jakarta.

This activity was attended by the Minister of Religion of the Republic of Indonesia, who in this case was represented by the Directorate General of Islamic Community Guidance, Kamaruddin Amin, Chairman of the Indonesian Zakat House Foundation, Mr. Nur Efendi along with the ranks and Chairman of the Sharia Board of Zakat House, Siti Ma'rifah.

Prior to the signing of the MoU, Hasto gave an illustration that the stunting rate in Indonesia continued to show a declining trend. This achievement is certainly the hard work of many parties. From SSGBI data, it is known that the stunting rate in 2019 was 27.67 percent, while in 2021 stunting cases decreased to 24.40 percent. This means that the BKKBN and several other parties involved in efforts to reduce stunting cases in Indonesia succeeded in reducing 3.3 percent of stunting cases in 2 years.

"This decline in stunting also means that the efforts and interventions carried out by ministries and government agencies have shown good results," Hasto said in an official statement, Friday, February 25.

Currently, Hasto said, one of the targets of the national-scale BKKBN is to reduce the stunting rate by 3.5 percent in two years. Since the issuance of Presidential Decree No. 72 of 2021 regarding the Acceleration of Stunting Reduction, the BKKBN has taken various strategic steps.

This step includes preparing the National Action Plan for the Acceleration of Stunting Reduction (RAN PASTI) which consists of providing data on stunting risk families, assisting stunting families, assisting prospective brides, stunting audits, monitoring families with stunting potential, procurement planning, supervision, and accountability, evaluation, and reporting.

"In the next two years, Indonesia must see concrete and measurable achievements, especially so that the prevalence of stunting decreases to 14 percent in 2024, according to the 2020-2024 RPJMN target. Even the stunting rate is expected to be zero percent by 2030,” said Hasto.

At the Proud Kencana National Working Meeting a few days ago, Vice President Ma'ruf Amin opened and gave directions so that all stakeholders could be committed to accelerating stunting reduction.

This commitment includes efforts to reduce stunting being placed as one of the main priorities for implementing development at the central to village level, a commitment to optimize resource mobilization, and a commitment to strengthen coordination, monitoring, and evaluation to ensure the program continues to run well.

"Specifically, the Vice President also gave directions to the BKKBN as the Chief Implementer for the Acceleration of Stunting Reduction to strengthen coordination with stakeholders at the central, regional, and village/kelurahan levels," said Hasto.

The head of the BKKBN emphasized that involvement and collaborative work at all levels of government is very important to oversee the convergence of programs or activities in an effort to achieve stunting reduction targets. Considering the available time, it is less than three years to oversee the convergence of programs or activities in an effort to reduce stunting that has been set so that it can reach target targets, such as teenagers, prospective brides, pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, and children under five," he continued.

Therefore, BKKBN cooperates with Rumah Zakat Foundation as a philanthropic institution that manages zakat, infaq, alms, and other social funds through community empowerment programs. "The empowerment program is realized through four main clusters, namely Smile Champion (education), Smile Healthy (health), Smile Mandiri (economic empowerment), and Smile Lestari (environmental sustainability initiative). So that a strategic cooperative relationship will be built between the Parties in supporting development programs in the fields of family development, population, and family planning, in accelerating the reduction of stunting," said Doctor Hasto.

In line with the thoughts of the Head of BKKBN, CEO of Rumah Zakat Nur Efendi stated that collaboration across sectors and related ministries and support from donors is the key to the success of programs to improve people's welfare in Indonesia.

"We are able to provide more than 42 million beneficiaries in 34 provinces in Indonesia with funds sourced from as many as 789,000 donors, as well as presenting 1695 empowered villages, 20 winning schools, 9 primary clinics," said Nur Efendi.

Entering its 24th year in 2022, Nur Efendi added that strengthening community empowerment programs needs to continue, one of the most effective intervention programs is community empowerment at the village level.

"The way we empower Indonesia is by establishing an empowered village, where there is empowerment facilitator assistance by inspiring volunteers, an integrated empowerment program that is tailored to the potential of the village and has a community-owned business entity (BUMMAS)," said Nur Efendi.

Hasto reminded that stunting alleviation must be supported by sufficient resources, so that every intervention needed is ensured to reach the level of families who are categorized as stunting-prone. “House of Zakat has synergized in stunting prevention efforts with sub-district, sub-district, and health centers in several provinces. Including making a Nutrition Kitchen and Nutrition Garden which was initiated by Rumah Zakat volunteers," said the Head of BKKBN.

“Collaborative work of various parties is the key to ensure convergence between programs to the village/kelurahan level to reduce stunting. This effort cannot be carried out by one institution alone, or by elements of the central government alone,” said Doctor Hasto.

The form of synergy can also be filled with Quality Family Villages (KB villages) with one of the new activities, namely the establishment of Healthy Kitchens to Overcome Stunting (DASHAT). "So it is hoped that pregnant women, mothers who want to become pregnant, breastfeeding mothers can get attention to get nutrition for processed products from Dashat, this activity is one form of effort to socialize healthy menus for pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers and toddlers in overcoming stunting in an effective manner, especially in the KB village,” said Doctor Hasto.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a wide impact on various aspects of people's lives, both in terms of health and the economy, which not only weakened the upper-class economy, but was more felt for groups of micro-business economic actors.

"The Rumah Zakat Foundation can encourage the acceleration of the independence of micro and small businesses in the context of realizing a just and prosperous and equitable society and can help provide guidance and assistance to micro-business actors in business groups to increase family income acceptors (UPPKA)," said the Head of the BKKBN.

This cross-sectoral collaboration will support joint efforts to achieve the big goal of realizing a generation of Indonesians that are healthier and of higher quality. Ending his remarks at this activity, Doctor Hasto hoped that this event could be used as leverage for the synergy between the BKKBN and the Rumah Zakat Foundation in order to build the nation to realize a Prosperous Indonesia.