Promoting District Collaboration With Villages To Optimize Stunting Reduction In Nias

“USAID ERAT has been supporting us since the beginning to prepare this regent regulation. Through this regulation, hopefully village heads will be able to develop the program and allocate the annual budget for activities to prevent and reduce stunting in their respective villages.”  

Jellysman Geya – Head of Nias’ Development Planning, Research and Development Board (BAPPELITBANG)  

The stunting rate in Nias is relatively high, reaching 30.3% in 2021. In an effort to contribute to the reduction of stunting prevalence in Nias,  USAID ERAT supported the local government of Nias to reduce stunting by facilitating a multi-stakeholder workshop entitled “Stunting Eradication through the Utilization of Village Funds”.  

The workshop discovered that one of the challenges is lack of coordination between the local government technical office (OPD) and the village government. The village government did not have guidelines and list of activities that can be financed by the village budgets for stunting reduction. Moreover, there is also delay on the issuance of village fund management regulations.  The workshop led to the drafting of a regent regulation on utilization of village funds to reduce stunting at the village level. 

After two workshops facilitated by USAID ERAT, the Regent Regulation (Perbup) No. 30/2022 on Village Roles on Convergence of Prevention and Acceleration of Stunting Reduction was issued – the first of its kind in the province. The regulation contains stunting reduction targets, types of activities, and stages of prevention such as development of an information center in the village, cadres, supervision, reporting, and financing.  

According to the Head of Nias’ Development Planning, Research and Development Board, Jellysman B. Geya, “USAID ERAT has supported us since the beginning to prepare this regent regulation. Previously, villages were not clear in budgeting their funds to reduce stunting. Through this regulation, hopefully that village heads will be able to develop programs and allocate the annual budget for activities to prevent and reduce stunting in their respective villages,” said Geya.   

Geya further explained his hope that there will be village-level innovations on stunting reduction. Proper and effective use of village funds for through synchronization of stunting prevention activities within the village and between villages is one of the priorities for participatory, transparent, and accountable village development. “The plan for 2023 is to complete the technical instructions and implementation instructions for the program menu in Perbup No. 30 of 2022, so that it can be used in all priority stunting villages in Nias,” said Geya. USAID ERAT also facilitated a workshop on drafting technical guidelines and implementation guidelines of the Perbup No. 30 of 2022 on December 7-9, 2022. USAID ERAT will continue to support the Nias government, facilitating the process of implementing village-to-district programs to reduce stunting prevalence. 

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