Jakarta Gears Up to Become Pilot for Acceleration of Stunting Handling

The Jakarta Provincial Government is ready to become a pilot province for accelerating the handling of malnutrition in a bid to realize the national stunting reduction target of 14 percent in 2024.

Surely, we can achieve it (target)

Collaborating with the Health Ministry (Menkes), Jakarta is ready to work hard to reduce the stunting rate with a target of below 5 percent (equivalent to the level of stunting in developed countries).

Hence, Jakarta Acting Governor, Heru Budi Hartono held an executive meeting with Health Minister, Budi Gunadi Sadikin at Jakarta City Hall, Wednesday (2/1). It was held to discuss accelerating the resolution of the stunting problem in Jakarta.

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He stated that he was ready to make Jakarta a pilot province capable of reducing its level of stunting on par with developed countries in the world. He was optimistic that he could achieve this target, as his staff was working fast to reduce stunting. It can be seen that there are already several areas that are capable of reducing stunting rates quickly.

"Surely, we can achieve it (target). It can be seen that Cilincing has 777 stunting cases, we can quickly reduce them by 17 percent or 134 stunting sufferers have passed. The highest completion is in Cilincing. In Tanjung Priok, 81 have passed or are free of stunting. Starting today, the agency heads have started working by the Menkes' order. With the existing program, we just need to sharpen and speed up," he expressed, as quoted by Jakarta PPID's press release.

He added that there are three steps to accelerate the handling of stunting strategy. The first is to synchronize stunting/malnutrition data owned by the Jakarta Government with the Menkes and the National Population and Family Planning Agency (BKKBN).

The second is the Jakarta Government will directly conduct monitoring in the field to provide additional nutrition and vitamins to residents who are in areas prone to stunting.

"Earlier I ordered all staff to go to the field, perhaps to the integrated health services post (posyandu) and to grade 7 or junior high school students to be given extra food and vitamins. We agreed that every Wednesday they will have a meal together and be given additional vitamins," he explained.

The third is his party will focus on providing nutrition supervision in three important periods, namely (1) mothers during pregnancy (2) babies aged 6-11 months, and (3) children aged 12-23 months.

In Jakarta, the total number of pregnant women was 140,000 people. Thereby, he urged pregnant women to routinely check up on their pregnancies at posyandu and pay attention to nutrition during pregnancy.

"Please don't be lazy to check up on your pregnancy at health centers or posyandu. Together with Menkes, we can immediately intervene if pregnant women are malnourished. Pregnant women's behavior must also be disciplined, eat well, take care of their health, and must have regular check-ups for routine control. So, when giving birth, we can prevent stunting. The easiest and cheapest prevention is the position when the mother is pregnant," he continued.

Health Minister, Budi Gunadi Sadikin explained that the government had just formalized national stunting data which had decreased, from 24 percent in 2021 to 21 percent in 2022. There are still 2 years to reach President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo's target of 14 percent.

He then directed the Acting Governor to make Jakarta a pilot province for reducing stunting below 5 percent. The stunting rate in Jakarta itself fell by 2% to 14.8%, this figure is the second lowest national ranking.

"I tell home (Mr. Heru) that we will give a gift to the President, there are provinces that can get under 5 percent. Because now the position is at 16 percent. We talked about it earlier, we gave an example of one province in Indonesia with a level of stunting in developed countries. Then he was committed to it considering I can't work alone without the support of the regional head," he explained.

He emphasized that to achieve this target, the steps that must be taken by the Jakarta Government together with the Menkes include synchronizing stunting data based on name and address.

"We agreed to be equal. We can finish it within a week," he asserted.

Then stunting management program between the Jakarta Government and the Menkes must also be synchronized. This program is focused on three groups, namely the group of pregnant women because the highest risk of stunting occurs before giving birth, the group of infants aged 6-12 months, and children aged 12-23 months because they need additional food other than breast milk such as animal protein.

"We have agreed, starting this week the preparations. We execute it next week. Because it's an execution issue. Hope we can report to the President, that the progress is fast. Once again, this is an ambition, not a promise. We both want Jakarta to be under 5 percent," he closed.