Tengkes, New Government Challenges

Also read: Decline of Tengkes Slows, Number of Tengkes Only Drops 0.1 Percent

The slow decrease in the prevalence of stunting is being evaluated based on the achievement of nine target indicators as outlined in the presidential regulation. Out of the nine indicators, three have reached their targets, while the remaining six have not been achieved. One of the indicators that has not been achieved is the percentage of under-five children (toddlers) with malnutrition who receive additional nutritional intake (90 percent).

President Joko Widodo and Vice President Ma'ruf Amin conveyed their evaluations on efforts to reduce the prevalence of stunting in separate occasions, as quoted by Kompas.id. During the National Health Work Meeting 2024 in Tangerang, Banten on Wednesday (24/4/2024), the President stated that the goal of reducing stunting by 14 percent is not an easy task to achieve. Efforts to reduce stunting must be carried out in an integrated manner by all parties involved.

Vice President Amin also delivered his evaluation during the National Working Meeting for the Proud Kencana Program and the Acceleration of Stunting Reduction 2024 at the office of the National Population and Family Planning Agency, Jakarta, on Thursday (25/4/2024). The Vice President urged policy interventions to be focused on things that have leverage in accelerating the reduction of stunting.

Also read: Stunting in Urban Areas, an Irony

Joko Widodo-Ma'ruf Amin only have five months to pursue the target of reducing the prevalence of stunting before the inauguration of Prabowo Subianto-Gibran Rakabuming Raka in October 2024. Prabowo-Gibran, who campaigned to continue Jokowi-Amin's programs, must achieve the target of stunting prevalence as stated in the presidential regulation.

In their vision and mission, Prabowo-Gibran plan 8 Quick Best Result Programs that are directly supervised by the President and Vice President in five years, with the top priority aimed at addressing malnutrition. The first program is to provide free lunch and milk in schools and pesantrens as well as nutritional assistance for toddlers and pregnant mothers.

We are both waiting for the results of this program to reduce the prevalence of tengkes in Indonesia.