Jakarta- Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin has assured that the data from the Indonesian Nutritional Status Survey (SSGI) on stunting handling will be updated routinely every year.
“We do it annually. Thus, in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024, we carry it out annually,” he said at the “Dissemination of Intervention Policy for the Acceleration of Stunting Reduction in 2023,” on Friday.
He noted that earlier, SSGI was carried out every three years. However, now, it is being conducted once a year due to the short handling time and to adjust to President Joko Widodo’s target of reducing the national stunting prevalence to 14 percent by 2024.
SSGI has been carried out using the survey method for the past ten years.
“This is a survey in nature; thus, not 100 percent (of the population) ‘by name by address’ measured. Why use a survey method, not a census? Because we are not yet been able to carry out a census evenly in all provinces,” he said.
According to Sadikin, Indonesia cannot compile SSGI data using the census method due to the inadequate and uneven distribution of infrastructure in provinces. Thus, it is feared that there will be difficulties when gathering and comparing data during a census.
Nevertheless, he said that currently, there are several provinces with more advanced infrastructure that can collect 100 percent “by name by address” data. The ministry is planning to hold a discussion with the relevant regional governments and ask them to compare the SSGI data with their data.
In accordance with the direction of President Widodo, the Ministry of Health has distributed new body weight scales and anthropometric devices to all integrated health centers (posyandu) so that the body measurements of children can be carried out the same way, thereby making their reporting uniform.
Indonesia’s stunting prevalence in 2022 declined by 2.8 percentage points to 21.6 percent from 24.4 percent in 2021, based on the 2022 SSGI survey of 334,848 samples comprising babies and under-five children.
The government is aiming to reduce stunting prevalence to 17.8 percent this year and 14 percent by next year.
Source: Antara News