In August last year, Indonesian president Joko «Jokowi» Widodo used his annual state of the nation address to speak a message of national unity.
«Let us revisit the spirit of our Founding Fathers; that Indonesia is not only Jakarta and Java,» he said, wearing ethnic Sasak dress, standing beneath an imposing garuda, Indonesia’s mythic eagle-like national emblem. Dr Ty Beal, a technical specialist for the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, emphasises that the link between stunting and poverty is less straightforward than commonly appreciated.
«Vietnam is less prosperous than Indonesia yet has a much lower stunting prevalence . Because the causes of stunting are so numerous and inter-related, it’s difficult to know exactly why Vietnam has a much lower stunting prevalence than Indonesia. We can only speculate,» he said.
Dr Brian Sri Prahastuti, Senior Advisor at Executive Office of The President Republic of Indonesia, highlighted to the Globe the government’s commitment to tackling the issue, saying there are «23 ministries and institutions that have programmes contributing to stunting reduction».
She added that progress on stunting in Indonesia saw «significant improvement» between 2013 and 2018, with the solution laying in educational initiatives at the local level.
Stunting is also a women’s empowerment issue. When women are informed, empowered and supported to fight stunting the benefits extend to their children, themselves and to society
Valerie Krisni, outreach coordinator for the 1000 Days Fund
This article was written by Alastair McCready
To read the full article, please click on the following link:https://southeastasiaglobe.com/coming-up-short/
1190.506 SRY