Stunting is a major challenge in Indonesia and other emerging countries, with a significant impact on the progress of children and society at large. The effects of stunting come with diminished intellectual skills and learning ability, poor educational performance, and an increased threat of nutrition-related chronic diseases, such as diabetes.
In Indonesia, the 2021 National Nutrition Status Survey (NISS) showed that the overall stunting rate increased from 30. 8 percent in 2018 to 24. 4 percent in 2021 among the country’s 23 million children under five. Indonesia today will see its long-term threatened by stunting, which is basically caused by poor nutrition and sanitation.
Last July, President Joko Widodo said the government committed to reducing the prevalence of stunting to 14% over the next two years.
While stunting is preventable, it is a complex challenge that requires multidisciplinary responses and collaboration among other stakeholder groups. The Tanoto Foundation uses a multi-pronged technique through working with government establishments, advancement organizations, educational establishments and NGOs to replace and empower them. maximum affected by stunting.
Stunting is preventable, but it is a complex that requires multidisciplinary solutions.
The Foundation partnered with Indonesia’s National Population and Family Planning Council (BKKBN) to identify families at risk and provide them to the Foundation’s Early Education and Parent Centers (Rumah Anak SIGAP) and its services. Earlier this year, President Widodo appointed the BKKBN to serve as a bridge between the 22 ministries and government agencies involved in national stunting alleviation efforts, with the goal of accelerating the implementation of government systems on the ground.
At the subnational level, in recent years, the Foundation has opted for provinces and express districts for more comprehensive intervention systems because of the central role provincial governments play in allocating and approving budgets for fitness and nutrition initiatives.
The main interventions of the program at the provincial point are the replacement of behavior and the importance of the role of caregivers. The target beneficiaries are adolescents, young couples, families with pregnant and lactating women and families with children under five. A key target is families with pregnant women, women and young people under the age of two (families of the “first 1,000 days of life”).
A notable recent intervention was the Foundation’s cooperation with UNICEF in 2021 to expand stunting prevention crusades in six provinces. The crusade provided data on stunting prevention to mothers and caregivers through the media, social media and decided on virtual platforms. This program designed to build the adoption of the six most productive practices among pregnant and lactating women, mothers and caregivers of children under five.
The Foundation also collaborated with UNICEF to adopt two population-based progression measures for youth aged 0-3 years (CREDI) and 2-5 year youth (ECDI) for use in Indonesia. ECDI has now been tracked through Indonesia’s National Bureau of Statistics. (BPS) as a component of the annual national socio-economic survey.
Another of the main points of interest for the Tanoto Foundation in Indonesia is the strengthening of parenting skills from the first years of training. This challenge is addressed through the provision of progression from the first years of training. An essential channel for the delivery of these are the Rumah Anak SIGAP centers.
These centres will offer 4 services: parenting learning, youth gambling, personalised counselling and home visits. So far, the Foundation has established 23 centers in 4 provinces, and 4 more will be completed by the end of 2022.
Belinda Tanoto, member of the Board and Satrijo Tanudjojo, general director of the Tanoto Foundation, in one of the Rumah Anak SIGAP centers of the Foundation.
Building on these parent outreach systems, the Foundation leveraged existing infrastructure and evolved educational modules and systems to equip 600,000 Family Support Team (TPK) members and 39,000 social members of the Pendamping Sosial PKH conditional money movement programme with the skills needed to fight stunting in their lives. Systems
Capacity-building efforts also reach public sector agencies. In collaboration with the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Foundation has helped train more than 22,000 social staff members who help families in need. It also seconded a senior specialist to the Ministry of Social Affairs to expand stunting prevention modules for social staff to assist poor families through the Keluarga Harapan Programme conditional money movement initiative.
The Tanoto Foundation’s delight over the years has shown that fitness and nutrition interventions alone are not enough. At the national and subnational levels, more can be done to reduce stunting in policies, programmes and services.
This revelation also laid the groundwork for the Foundation’s call to action at the recent Asia Philanthropy Summit in Singapore, where it highlighted the possibility of replicating its SIGAP program in other countries. This, in turn, can help catalyze efforts to tackle stunting at a broader point across the Asian region.
In addition to the call to action at the Summit, the Foundation announced its participation in the new Philanthropy Asia Alliance, where it will donate US$25 million to social causes in the region. Other members of the alliance come with the Bill Foundation.
Ultimately, effectively addressing stunting in Indonesia is a long-term challenge that will require continued collaboration among stakeholders as well as continued investment in various fields. This means that philanthropic organizations like the Tanotto Foundation, nonprofits, businesses, social activists, and government officials will want to combine the paintings to create an environment conducive to children’s flourishing.