Hasanuddin University (Unhas) is ready to collaborate with the National Population and Family Planning Agency (BKKBN) to prevent and tackle stunting problems, Unhas Rector Prof. Jamaluddin Jompa stated.

As a public university that supports the government’s policies, Unhas has launched a “care for stunting movement” by involving lecturers and students from various faculties in several strategic programs, he remarked.

Those from Unhas’ Medical Faculty and the Faculty of Public Health, for instance, got involved in a companionship program for pregnant women until they give birth and during the first thousand days of the babies’ lives, he said here, Wednesday.

The care for stunting movement has been part of Unhas’ commitment to strengthening stunting prevention and handling in communities by working with government agencies, he said.

Through this initiative, Unhas’ teaching staff and students get involved in community services, he stated while adding that Unhas is ready to collaborate with BKKBN to tackle stunting.

The universities support the government’s policies, and if all higher educational institutions forged synergistic collaboration for stunting prevention and handling, Indonesia would have healthy births, he affirmed.

Meanwhile, the agency’s Deputy for Population Control, Bonivasius Prasetya Ichtiarto, thanked Unhas for its stunting prevention program while saying that the universities’ role in tackling stunting issues really matters.

Hence, Unhas and BKKBN could collaborate to tackle stunting problems, he said.

In early 2021, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) had tasked BKKBN with leading the implementation of stunting reduction efforts.

Indonesia’s stunting rate, recorded at 37 percent five years ago, had declined to 27.6 percent in 2019. President Jokowi reminded that the 2024 national target of reducing the stunting rate was set at 14 percent.

The target would not be difficult to achieve if the program were to be managed optimally on the field, he emphasized.

The BKKBN would push ministries and institutions in consolidating the budget and programs for reducing the stunting rate.

Jokowi affirmed that every stakeholder must pay serious attention since the stunting rate had reached 27.6 percent in 2019 and was projected to worsen in the wake of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Source: Antara News