Deputy Governor of West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), Sitti Rohmi Djalilah, is targeting to bring down the prevalence of childhood stunting in the province to 14 percent this year.

“Integrated health posts’ (posyandu’s) revitalization has reached 100 percent; stunting management is improving. I’m optimistic it (stunting prevalence) can drop to 14 percent in 2023,” she said at the “Proud Kencana Program and Stunting Reduction Acceleration Regional Work Meeting,” according to a written statement issued here on Wednesday.

According to Djalilah, the transformation of posyandus into family posyandus is one of the flagship programs that the NTB government has continued to accelerate.

Djalilah said that the efforts to realize healthy families through family posyandus have generated good results, with the province’s stunting prevalence declining to 16.84 percent in late 2022 through the synergy and collaboration of all parties.

Based on the Community-Based Electronic Nutrition Recording and Reporting (e-PPGBM) application, it is clear that the trend of stunting prevalence in NTB is declining, she added.

She expounded that, NTB’s stunting prevalence stood at 24.5 percent in 2019 and declined to 23.3 percent in 2020, 19.23 percent in 2021, 18.94 percent in February 2022, and slid further to 16.84 percent in December 2022.

“I highly appreciate the health office heads, community health centers (puskesmas), the Family Welfare Movement teams (PKK), the National Population and Family Planning Agency (BKKBN), and all relevant parties that have strived to realize healthy families to tackle stunting problems,” she said.

Meanwhile, acting head of BKKBN’s NTB Representative Office, Syamsul Anam, said that the declining trend of stunting prevalence is inseparable from the collaboration and synergy of all relevant parties in the province.

“In this work meeting, we will prepare several precise steps to reduce the stunting prevalence more massively,” he added.

Indonesia’s stunting prevalence declined by 2.8 percentage points to 21.6 percent in 2022 from 24.4 percent in 2021, according to the 2022 Indonesian Nutritional Status Survey (SSGI).

The Indonesian government is aiming to reduce stunting prevalence to 14 percent by 2024.

Source: Antara News