Jakarta- Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin and acting governor of Jakarta Heru Budi Hartono have agreed to focus stunting reduction efforts in Jakarta on pregnant women and under-five children.
The government is targeting to reduce Jakarta’s stunting prevalence by up to 5 percent.
“We have agreed; the preparations have been carried out this week. Next week, we will go straight (to implementation) because this is an issue of execution,” Sadikin informed after a meeting on stunting reduction at Jakarta City Hall here on Wednesday.
Preparations have been made for organizing and matching the data on the number of stunting cases in Jakarta, he said. The data will be obtained from the Ministry of Health, the National Population and Family Planning Agency (BKKBN), and the Jakarta provincial government.
After the data are organized and matched, the Ministry of Health and the Jakarta government will focus on synchronizing stunting reduction programs for pregnant women and children aged 6 to 24 months.
According to Sadikin, pregnant women have a high risk of giving birth to stunted children. Thus, the provision of supplementary foods is necessary to prevent malnutrition and anemia among them.
Meanwhile, children aged 6 to 24 months need complementary foods such as animal proteins in the form of eggs, milk, chicken meat, and beef, among others.
Sadikin noted that, based on the Indonesian Nutritional Status Survey (SSGI) data from the Ministry of Health, Jakarta’s stunting prevalence stood at 14 percent.
Based on BKKBN data, there are 790 thousand under-five children in Jakarta, and around 110 thousand of them, or 14 percent, are stunted.
Jakarta acting governor Heru Budi Hartono expressed optimism about reaching the 5-percent stunting reduction target.
The reason is that, based on data recorded in Cilincing sub-district, North Jakarta, out of 777 stunted under-five children, 134 are no longer stunted due to efforts made by the government.
The Indonesian government is targeting to reduce the country’s stunting prevalence to 14 percent by 2024. The incidence of childhood stunting in Indonesia was recorded at 21 percent in 2022.
Source: Antara News