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  • The Role of Families in Stunting Prevention in Indonesia

    The Role of Families in Stunting Prevention in Indonesia

    Unlocking Potential is back with a new episode discussing the role of families in stunting prevention in Indonesia. This podcast is hosted by Global CEO Tanoto Foundation, Dr J. Satrijo Tanudjojo and Dr Hasto Wardoyo SPOG, Head of the National Population and Family Planning Agency (BKKBN).

    In 2018, 37.2% of Indonesian children are stunted. Notwithstanding WHO’s (World Health Organization) stunting target of below 20%, Indonesia President Joko Widodo has instructed to push the nation’s stunting prevalence even farther to 14%. BKKBN has adopted this target and spared no expense to achieving it.

    This episode covers the following topics:

    1. Why is stunting important to identify?
    2. Prevent stunting with the right knowledge
    3. The role of all parties, especially families, to prevent stunting
    4. The impact of stunting on a wider scope

    Why Stunting is Important to Identify?

    Dr Hasto Wardoyo said, “Stunting is not inherited, but related to how a baby is nurtured by their family.”

    Children who are stunted are at risk of facing a lower quality of life, which impacts their families and communities. It is therefore necessary to implement early mitigation efforts to safeguard against the longer-term and broader impact of stunting. This would then place the next generation in a better position to realise their fullest potential.

    Prevent Stunting with the Right Knowledge

    Dr Hasto Wardoyo explained that stunting factors include poor nutrition, environmental hygiene, and family parenting culture and behavior.

    Dr J. Satrijo Tanudjojo gave an example of children living in environments with easy access to fish, but parents have instead opted to provide food lacking in nutrition. Educating parents on good nutrition and clean environments for children is critical.

    The Role of All Parties, Especially Families to Prevent Stunting

    Dr Satrijo and Dr Hasto agreed that while multi-stakeholder collaboration is required to make stunting prevention a success in Indonesia, families can make an important contribution by applying best practices and interventions as early as possible. Given the long-term nature of development, such decisions can be discussed and reached as early as even before marriage.

    Education applies to both mothers and fathers, as they embark on a long journey of nurture and support. Furthermore, families also have to readily recognized the importance of proper access to healthcare facilities and antenatal nutrition.

    Stunting’s Impact on a Wider Scope

    Stunting impacts the future of the nation. A high stunting rate may result in declining competitiveness, which will have adverse economic impact. It is therefore critical that like-minded stakeholders, including Tanoto Foundation, come together to fight stunting. These include not only government organisations, research institutions, the private sector and philanthropies, but also the media and families – all have a role to play.

    Ko Zin Thet

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  • Bincang Inspiratif: Nutrition and Nurturing Care for Child’s Development

    Bincang Inspiratif: Nutrition and Nurturing Care for Child’s Development

    Indonesia’s third president, the late BJ Habibie stood at 162 cm tall. To many Indonesian parents, Habibie is a testament that someone’s height does not necessarily define their capabilities. But this notion might cause more harm than good, especially if it leads parents to be lax in ensuring their child’s development.

    Height is one of the most obvious ways to detect of stunting, which is detrimental for a child’s physical and brain development. A child is stunted if their height is more than two standard deviations below the World Health Organization (WHO) Child Growth Standards median.

    “Lack of nutrition does not only affect a child’s height, but also their intelligence,” said Dr Margareta Komalasari, SpA, a pediatrician. According to Dr Margareta, not many parents understand that malnutrition does not only hinder a child’s physical growth but also their brain development as well.

    In the latest episode of Bincang Inspiratif by Tanoto Foundation, Dr Margareta spoke to host Andrea Lee about the importance of nutrition and nurturing care to a child’s brain development. This episode covers:

    • – The significance of the first 1,000 days of life
    • – Complementary food for baby
    • – Role of nurturing care in child’s development

    https://www.instagram.com/tv/CU9vkq5K6NK/embed/?cr=1&v=14&wp=540&rd=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tanotofoundation.org&rp=%2Fen%2Fnews%2Fbincang-inspiratif-nutrition-and-nurturing-care-for-childs-development%2F#%7B%22ci%22%3A0%2C%22os%22%3A1343%2C%22ls%22%3A1134%2C%22le%22%3A1294%7D

    The first 1,000 days of life

    Ensuring a child’s development does not only start from the day they are born, but from the early days of pregnancy. The first 1,000 days of life, a period between early pregnancy and a child’s second birthday, have an everlasting impact on a child’s growth and development. Early childhood care is even more crucial considering the fact that a child’s brain reaches 80% of its adult size by the age of three and 90% by the age of five.

    “A child’s development is influenced by two factors: genetics and environment, including nutrition,” said Dr Margareta. “Hence, it’s important for expecting mothers to fulfill both macro and micronutrients that are needed for the fetus’s development.”

    Macronutrients, consisting of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, are needed in large doses. Proteins are particularly important for brain development.

    Micronutrients, on the other hand, are only needed in small doses. But deficiencies of micronutrients, such as vitamins and minerals, could have detrimental effects both in the short and long term.

    According to Dr Margareta, an expecting mother needs roughly an extra 300 calories per day, and she cautioned against recent trends in which pregnant women avoid eating too much to avoid significant weight gain.

    “It’s normal to gain weight during pregnancy. However, too much is also not good for your baby,” said Dr Margareta. “Generally speaking, the weight gain during pregnancy should not exceed 16 kg to avoid gestational diabetes or hypertension.”

    Introducing complementary food

    A newborn baby should be breastfed exclusively until they are six months old. Then, parents can introduce weaning food to their diet. WHO recommends that parents introduce pureed, mashed, and semi-solid food before gradually increasing the quantity and consistency of the food until the child’s first birthday.

    “It’s important that these foods remain complementary and that parents should care about the nutrition and the texture of the food itself to prevent choking,” said Dr Margareta. She also said that in the beginning, the baby should not consume too many vegetables as these might hinder nutrition absorption. Fruits should also be limited as they are sugary, which might lead the baby to refusing less-sweet food.

    While many parents are cooking weaning food from scratch, buying fortified food is okay too. What matters is that the child gets enough calories and nutrition, according to Dr Margareta.

    More than just food: The significance of nurturing care

    “A child does not just sit and eat,” said Dr Margareta. “They also need love and a stimulating environment as well.”

    The latter two are known as nurturing care, which is crucial to ensuring a child’s early childhood development according to the Unlocking Children’s Potential to Learn report by Filantropi Indonesia and Tanoto Foundation.

    According to Dr Margareta, nutrition alone is not enough. To ensure that a child is growing and developing optimally, parents should also provide enough stimulation especially during the golden age.

    While the pandemic has limited the activities that parents and children can do, Dr Margareta suggested that parents just need to be creative. Parents can still ask children to play catch or learn to ride a bicycle to train their rough motor skills and accompany them to draw or play with playdough to enhance their fine motoric skills.

    “When they’re in their copying phase, facilitate their creativity and let them play pretend at home,” said Dr Margareta.

    Even more crucially, parents have to help children build their self-confidence by supporting them and to not speak in a condescending manner. “Our offhand comments or criticisms might affect them profoundly. Speak with love and believe in them,” said Dr Margareta.

    “Remember, all kinds of support from nutrition to nurturing care must be integrated to ensure optimal growth and development,” she summed up.

    Ko Zin Thet

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  • New Report Shows ECED Holds the Key to Elevating Indonesia’s National Education

    New Report Shows ECED Holds the Key to Elevating Indonesia’s National Education

    We believe in the transformative power of education to improve people’s lives. Education is truly key to human development. And yet, one question remains: How can we ensure that every child is truly learning when they are being educated?

    This is one of the driving questions behind Unlocking Children’s Potential to Learn, a newly published report by Filantropi Indonesia in collaboration with Tanoto Foundation.

    The question is relevant to Indonesia as the majority of students are performing poorly. OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which measures students’ learning outcomes, suggests that Indonesian students are performing below the OECD average in reading, mathematics and science. Since the country first undertook PISA in 2001, no significant progress has been made.

    When it comes to intervention in human capital development, it seems that the sooner might truly be the better. A plethora of research and studies have shown that  early childhood education and development (ECED) sector holds significant influence on development in later stages in life: from basic education and health, to behavior and income as adults. Tanoto Foundation Baseline Monitoring Study in 2018 showed those students who attended preschool were able to read at a faster rate with higher reading comprehension. It seems that in the puzzle of creating quality national education, ECED has been a missing piece.

    However, despite Government of Indonesia’s heavy investment in education in general, early childhood education is severely underinvested. Enrolment in early education at 38.1%, according to SUSENAS in 2018, is also significantly lower than elementary to high school levels – which have been made compulsory in the country. Access to early childhood education is fragmented and represents the prevailing trends of inequality in Indonesia: across the economic divide and again at rural vs urban areas.

    Intervention in ECED is not only limited to education per se, but rather includes other aspects in childcare from parenting to health and nutrition. Since 2018, Tanoto Foundation has been working on ECED interventions across three pillars focusing on stunting reduction, parenting programs and early childhood education teacher capacity building.

    Stunting, which has long-term effects on a child’s brain and physical development, is still prevalent at Indonesia despite some progress in the past two decades. The stunting rate among children below five years old was at a staggering 42% in 2000, but had fallen to 27% by 2019. However, the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic is feared to hinder the stunting prevention efforts as Indonesia’s poverty rate increased and many children lost their parents to the coronavirus – a new challenge for Indonesia to reach the target of reducing the stunting rate to 14% by 2024.

    As it stands, ensuring that a child can develop optimally in order to grow as a healthy and fully-functioning adult who can optimize their own potential is a task that requires us to invest not only in the child, but also the parents. One of the key findings in the Unlocking Children’s Potential to Learn report is the significance of nurturing care, which is characterized by “a stable environment that promotes children’s health and nutrition, protects children from threats, and gives them opportunities for early learning, through affectionate interactions and relationships”.

    This report also seeks to provide more understanding about the impact of ECED intervention to student learning outcomes in later stages of education. In particular, the study elaborates on the significance of early education and childcare in preparing them with the capacity to learn. Combining literature review and interviews with Tanoto Foundation personnel who have been working in the field, the report is both a wakeup call and call to action for increasing investment in ECED intervention and further collaborations among both public and private sectors.

    As the title suggests, the ultimate objective of the report is to unlock children’s potential to learn, starting from their earliest stage of development from age 0 to 6. We are hoping that this study will be a trigger for policy makers and development partners to discuss and invest more on intervention toward early childhood education and development, as well as strengthening collaboration and partnerships that will multiply the impact and benefits which Indonesian children may reap now and in the future.

    Read the Unlocking Children’s Potential to Learn report here.

    Ko Zin Thet

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