Indonesia faces a triple burden of malnutrition including stunting, wasting, and obesity. Around 30% of Indonesian children suffer from stunting due to long-term poor nutrition. Key causes include a lack of diet diversity and reliance on rice, poor knowledge of child growth and nutrition, cultural beliefs that discourage proper nutrition for pregnant women and breastfeeding, and early marriage which increases risk of malnutrition for young mothers and their children. Solutions require a holistic multi-sectoral approach including nutrition supplementation, breastfeeding support, nutrition education, food fortification, improving access to healthcare, and promoting household gardens to develop sustainable food sources.
Indonesia faces a triple burden of malnutrition including stunting, wasting, and obesity. Around 30% of Indonesian children suffer from stunting due to long-term poor nutrition. Key causes include a lack of diet diversity and reliance on rice, poor knowledge of child growth and nutrition, cultural beliefs that discourage proper nutrition for pregnant women and breastfeeding, and early marriage which increases risk of malnutrition for young mothers and their children. Solutions require a holistic multi-sectoral approach including nutrition supplementation, breastfeeding support, nutrition education, food fortification, improving access to healthcare, and promoting household gardens to develop sustainable food sources.
Indonesia faces a triple burden of malnutrition including stunting, wasting, and obesity. Around 30% of Indonesian children suffer from stunting due to long-term poor nutrition. Key causes include a lack of diet diversity and reliance on rice, poor knowledge of child growth and nutrition, cultural beliefs that discourage proper nutrition for pregnant women and breastfeeding, and early marriage which increases risk of malnutrition for young mothers and their children. Solutions require a holistic multi-sectoral approach including nutrition supplementation, breastfeeding support, nutrition education, food fortification, improving access to healthcare, and promoting household gardens to develop sustainable food sources.
Indonesia faces a triple burden of malnutrition including stunting, wasting, and obesity. Around 30% of Indonesian children suffer from stunting due to long-term poor nutrition. Key causes include a lack of diet diversity and reliance on rice, poor knowledge of child growth and nutrition, cultural beliefs that discourage proper nutrition for pregnant women and breastfeeding, and early marriage which increases risk of malnutrition for young mothers and their children. Solutions require a holistic multi-sectoral approach including nutrition supplementation, breastfeeding support, nutrition education, food fortification, improving access to healthcare, and promoting household gardens to develop sustainable food sources.
Under-5 --> Weight/Age or Weight/Height >3SD What is ‘hidden hunger’? Hidden hunger à or micronutrient deficiency
“a phenomenon caused by lacking in essential
micronutrients in a person’s diet”
Vitamins Minerals Micronutrient deficiency with the highest prevalence in Indonesia: • Required in little amounts Iron deficiency anaemia • Support physiological functions
Source: WHO Global Health Observatory
Children are suffering too
30.8% 10.2% 8%
Source: UNICEF global databases Infant and Young Child Feeding, UNICEF/WHO/World Bank Group, 2018. Stunting is an inter- generational problem
The vicious cycle must end
Stunting rates are shown stubbornly high
Source: Ministry of Health, 2020.
Stunting affects all Stunting rates are high in nearly all provinces of Indonesia, affecting children from different family backgrounds and although poor children are worse off, even higher income quintiles have significant stunting levels. Stunted children bear short-term and long-term consequences
Short-term Long-term
Lost productivity &
Impaired brain healthcare costs development Smaller stature Lower IQ
Weakened immune system Premature Greater risk of death NCDs 2 CAUSES The unique drivers of malnutrition in Indonesia 1 Poor diet diversity
Over-dependent on single staple food à
white rice (energy-dense, lack of essential nutrients)
Healthy food (vegetables, fruits and
animal-based foods) are often considered unaffordable for a large part of populations 2 Lacking knowledge on growth measurement Is this child malnourished? It’s difficult to tell by naked eye whether a child suffers from malnutrition.
- Mothers’ lack of knowledge
- Don’t know their children’s nutritional status - Provide food that has inadequate calories
- Data collection - Manual measurement is prone to human error - Manually written on books —> data is scattered and difficult to track
Unknown children's Inappropriate Increasing
nutritional status nutrition intake malnutrition cases 3 Nutrition in pregnancy: poor knowledge & cultural beliefs • Knowledge of a healthy diet during pregnancy is often limited.
• Follow all relatives' suggestions.
• Use of TBA is still dominant.
• Cultural habits encourage mothers not to eat certain foods during
pregnancy. 4 Breastfeeding critical: cultural beliefs & poor facilitation • In 2017, still only 42% of Indonesian children up to six months of age were exclusively breastfed. • Aggressive marketing of formula to mothers à No clear regulation. • Working mothers face additional barriers to breastfeeding à only 11% provides nursery room 5 Complimentary feeding problems: poor knowledge
• Only one third of children 6-23 months were
fed according to all IYCF (Infant and Young Child Feeding) recommendations. • Consume too few food groups • Fed far too infrequently once exclusive breastfeeding ends 6 High rates of early marriage and kawin siri • 17.1% of adolescent girls aged <18 years are married. • 8% of adolescent girls are already mothers or pregnant with their first child. 7 High tobacco consumption • Has highest rates of cigarette consumption in the world (68.1%). • Household expenditure on tobacco displaced expenditure on nutritious foods for children (22%). • Cultural beliefs on smoking tobacco à Kretek pride 3 SOLUTIONS Nutrition supplementation; Breastfeeding, PAUD with health and nutrition curriculum; complementary feeding, fortification; Reproductive health curriculum; Nutrition education; Balanced-diet Parenting class promotion; Deworming; UHC Holistic approach Food sustainability; WASH improvement Household garden program is needed Iodized salt; Non-cash food assistance; PKH General fortification
Food security and standardization; Reproductive health education;
Fortified food monitoring; Labeling Bina Keluarga Balita (BKB), and advertising Parenting
Course for bride-to-be;
Encouraging role of religious Birth figure; Training for islamic certification dormitory school students
Village fund distribution
Region incentive fund What are the simplest things we can do? Make sure to eat all good sources of micronutrients
Source: Gizi dan Kesehatan Remaja. 'Buku Pegangan dan Kumpulan Rencana Ajar untuk Guru Sekolah Menengah Pertama'. 2016. SEAMEO RECFON- Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Republik Indonesia Thank you! Any questions?
