Accelerating Stunting Reduction Through Collaboration With Villages In Lamongan

“Before this Regent Regulation was enacted, limited village budgets were allocated for stunting reduction, and the spending was not focused. The Regent Regulation allows the villages to specifically allocate budget for stunting reduction, with clear annual program achievement targets. Clear village authorities provide opportunities for more effective policies to prevent and reduce stunting in the villages.” 

Zamroni, Head of the Village and Community Empowerment Office, the Local Government of Lamongan 

The local government (LG) of Lamongan, East Java, issued a Regent Regulation (No. 57/2022) regarding Village Authorities in Acceleration Stunting Reduction on December 30, 2022. Supported by USAID ERAT, the regulation was collaboratively formulated by various local government offices (OPDs), non-governmental organizations, community-based organizations, and academics. The Regent Regulation covers village authorities in implementing activities to accelerate stunting reduction, procedures for implementing the activities, as well as in monitoring, evaluation, reporting, and financing.  

Lamongan’s stunting prevalence is one of the worst in East Java province. Based on the Survey of Indonesian Nutritional Status (SSGI), its stunting prevalence was 27.5% in 2022, the fourth worst among the 38 districts in the province, and significantly higher than the provincial and national averages. It was even 7% higher than the 2021 prevalence.  

USAID ERAT supports the LG of Lamongan to address this issue by facilitating a series of workshops and discussions with the LG and other stakeholders. It was identified that villages have relatively high budgets to contribute to stunting reduction compared with the LG. However, the village funding resources have not been widely utilized, as the village governments did not have any guidelines for using them for stunting reduction.  

With a population of 1.19 million people living in 476 villages, it is a big challenge for the LG to effectively implement stunting reduction programs covering all villages and communities. Although the District Health Office and District Population Control and Family Planning Office have established Family Facilitator Teams with a total of 3,108 members, relying on central and local government programs to reduce stunting is a big challenge. Furthermore, the initial workshop supported by USAID ERAT also identified that coordination and synchronization of stunting reduction programs implemented by the government, villages, and non-government stakeholders was still a big challenge.  

Hence, the LG and other stakeholders agreed to collaboratively formulate the Regent Regulation to enhance the collaboration, particularly with the villages. The regulation will institutionalize the convergence of annual Subnational Government Workplans (RKPD) and the Village Government Workplans (RKPDesa) to make stunting reduction programs more effective. The regulation also addresses the needs of the village governments to have clear authorities and resources to contribute to stunting reduction. USAID ERAT will continue supporting the LG of Lamongan to operationalize the Regent Regulation in improving the programs and activities to reduce stunting prevalence in the district.  

Share this article on :