In the previous article, Ladies already know about stunting, including what stunting is, what are the factors that cause stunting, how is the situation of stunting in Indonesia, the reasons why stunting must be overcome, and how the government's efforts are in handling stunting. In this article, we will discuss the 5 Pillars of Stunting Prevention, which is an effort to ensure that both sensitive and specific nutrition interventions are carried out in a convergent and integrated manner.
The five pillars of stunting prevention were decided at the Ministerial Meeting on stunting on 9 August 2017, which consisted of:
- Commitment and vision of the country's highest leadership
This pillar aims to ensure that stunting prevention is a priority for the government at the central, regional, to village levels. This pillar maintains and follows up on the President's and Vice President's commitment and vision for the Acceleration of Stunting Prevention by directing, coordinating, and strengthening stunting prevention strategies, policies, and targets. The implementation is carried out by the central government, regional governments, village governments, community groups, and households.
- The national campaign focuses on understanding behavior change, political commitment, and accountability
This pillar aims to increase awareness and understanding and encourage behavior change to prevent stunting. 1. This pillar includes: (a) National campaigns and outreach using various forms of media and various community activities; (b) Interpersonal communication to encourage behavior change at the household level; (c) Continuous advocacy to decision-makers at various levels of government; and (d) Capacity building for program managers.
- Convergence, coordination, and consolidation of national, regional, and community programs
This pillar aims to strengthen convergence through the coordination and consolidation of central, regional, and village programs and activities. Convergence is an approach to delivering coordinated, integrated, and joint interventions to prevent stunting to priority targets. Implementation of convergent interventions is carried out by aligning planning, budgeting, implementing, monitoring, and controlling activities across sectors as well as between levels of government and society.
- Encouraging food security policies
This pillar aims to increase access to nutritious food and promote food security. This pillar includes strengthening policies to meet the nutritional and food needs of the community, including meeting the food and nutritional needs of families, providing food assistance and additional food, investment and innovation in product development, and food security in line with the mandate of Law no. 36/2009 concerning Health and Law no. 18/2012 concerning Food.
- Monitoring and evaluation
This pillar aims to improve monitoring and evaluation as a basis for ensuring quality service delivery, increasing accountability, and accelerating learning. Results-based monitoring and evaluation systems can help governments to build a strong knowledge base and drive changes in the way programs are delivered, improve performance, accountability, transparency, and knowledge, and accelerate learning. To ensure its sustainability, this results-based monitoring and evaluation system needs continuous attention, resource support, and political commitment.
In dealing with stunting in Indonesia, of course, the role of the government alone is not enough. The active role of the community, especially the family, is also needed in efforts to prevent and overcome stunting. One of the important roles of the family is to ensure the fulfillment of children's nutrition and to maintain the sanitation and hygiene of the home environment. This is because the main causes of stunting are prolonged malnutrition and repeated infections.
Another way is to meet nutritional needs since pregnancy, provide exclusive breastfeeding until the baby is 6 months old, provide MP-ASI for ages 6 months and above, continue to monitor the growth and development of children, and always maintain a clean environment.
Ladies, are you ready to become a stunting-handling hero? You can start by educating those around you about stunting, one of which is by spreading this article. Don't forget to read other nutrition and health-related articles on Fitie too!
Sources:
Direktorat Promosi Kesehatan dan Pemberdayaan Masyarakat. Pencegahan Stunting pada Anak. [Posted 2019 Mar 28]. In: Kemenkes RI [Internet]. https://promkes.kemkes.go.id/pencegahan-stunting
Kementerian Komunikasi dan Informatika. Pemerintah Harapkan Peran Aktif Keluarga dalam Penanggulangan Stunting. [Posted 2021 Jun 29]. In: Kominfo [Internet]. https://www.kominfo.go.id/content/detail/35353/pemerintah-harapkan-peran-aktif-keluarga-dalam-penanggulangan-stunting/0/berita
Sekertariat Percepatan Pencegahan Stunting. (2019). Strategi Nasional Percepatan Pencegahan Anak Kerdil (Stunting). Jakarta: Sekertariat Wakil Presiden Republik Indonesia.