HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO MANAGE STUNTING REDUCTION?

HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO MANAGE STUNTING REDUCTION?

Why is it that in Indonesia, the role of stunting reduction is assigned to the Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Cultural Affairs, and not to their Minister of Health? Do they know something that we do not know? Or is it simply because they take the problem more seriously than we do?

In Indonesia, stunting is treated not merely as a health issue but as a national development priority. It is managed at the Cabinet coordination level, because it is a problem that involves not only nutrition and healthcare, but also education, livelihood, sanitation, and local governance. That makes sense. After all, stunting—children being too short for their age due to chronic undernutrition—is both a cause and a symptom of poverty.

WHAT IS STUNTING, AND WHY DOES IT MATTER?

Stunting is not just about a child’s height. It is about a child’s future. According to UNICEF, stunted children are more likely to suffer from poor cognitive development, lower school performance, and reduced productivity as adults. In other words, stunting isn’t just a health crisis—it’s an economic and social one.

In the Philippines, the 2023 Expanded National Nutrition Survey revealed that about 26% of Filipino children under five were stunted. That means roughly one in four Filipino children is growing up physically and mentally disadvantaged before even reaching school age.

INDONESIA’S MODEL: COORDINATION AT THE TOP

Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Cultural Affairs oversees stunting reduction as part of a broad mandate that includes education, health, social welfare, and family development. This official brings together the Ministries of Health, Education, Social Affairs, and Agriculture—aligning policies and funding toward a single goal: reducing stunting to below 14% by 2024.

They understood something important—that stunting is not only about feeding programs. It’s about clean water, maternal health, proper sanitation, and parental knowledge. It’s about creating communities where mothers have access to prenatal care, families can afford nutritious food, and children grow up in safe, healthy environments.

HOW IS THE PHILIPPINES COORDINATING ITS EFFORTS?

To be fair, the Philippines has begun taking steps in the right direction.

We now have the proposed Anti-Stunting Action Plan (ASAP) Council Act of 2025, filed by Senator Alan Peter Cayetano. The bill seeks to establish a high-level council to lead a whole-of-government and whole-of-society strategy against stunting. The plan includes early childhood nutrition, maternal care, community education, and local government accountability.

In parallel, the Philippine Multisectoral Nutrition Project (PMNP)—jointly led by the Department of Health (DOH) and Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) with World Bank support—integrates nutrition, agriculture, maternal health, and food security programs. It targets local governments with the highest rates of stunting and builds their capacity to deliver services effectively.

But here’s the real question: Are these efforts truly coordinated?

WHERE COORDINATION MATTERS MOST

How exactly do DOH, DSWD, and DepEd coordinate? Does the DOH ensure that local health units work with schools to deliver nutrition education and feeding programs? Does DSWD link its 4Ps beneficiaries to livelihood opportunities that improve family food security?

And what about non-government organizations (NGOs)? Many NGOs have deep experience in community nutrition, but are they getting the institutional and financial support they need?

We must remember that the root causes of stunting go beyond hunger. Poor families often rely on cheap, calorie-dense but nutrient-poor food. Clean water and sanitation are still inadequate in many barangays. And even when nutrition knowledge is available, the lack of access to livelihoods keeps families trapped in cycles of malnutrition.

A COMMUNITY-BASED APPROACH

The best solutions are often local. At the barangay level, nutrition councils should be activated and properly funded. Each council can coordinate five key pillars:

  • Nutrition: Promote breastfeeding, micronutrient supplementation, and dietary diversity.

  • Health: Ensure prenatal care, growth monitoring, and deworming services.

  • Livelihood: Connect families to backyard gardening, aquaculture, and food-related enterprises.

  • Education: Train barangay health workers and parents on child care and development.

  • Governance: Use data-driven tools to track progress and mobilize local resources.

This approach goes beyond charity—it empowers communities. Imagine community kitchens that also serve as nutrition learning centers. Imagine composting and food waste recovery programs that feed community gardens. Imagine mapping local biodiversity to promote native, nutrient-rich crops instead of imported food products.

TREAT STUNTING AS A NATIONAL EMERGENCY

If Indonesia treats stunting as a development crisis, we should do the same. Stunting reduction should not sit quietly under the DOH’s nutrition division—it should be elevated to the Cabinet level, under a coordinating body that links human development, poverty reduction, and food security.

When we think of stunting only as a health issue, we limit our solutions to vitamins and feeding programs. But when we think of it as a human development issue, we begin to see how stunting connects to income, education, sanitation, and governance.

MY SUGGESTION

Let us assign stunting reduction to a Coordinating Minister for Human Development—someone who can align the efforts of DOH, DSWD, DepEd, DA, and LGUs, and who can also engage the private sector and civil society.

Let us make the fight against stunting not just a program, but a national mission. Because no nation can rise to its full height when its children cannot.

Ramon Ike V. Seneres, www.facebook.com/ike.seneres

iseneres@yahoo.com, senseneres.blogspot.com 

02-28-2026

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

HOW IS THE CRIME RATE COMPUTED IN THE PHILIPPINES?

HOW IS THE CRIME RATE COMPUTED IN THE PHILIPPINES? When we talk about the crime rate in the Philippines, we often assume that the figures we see are accurate reflections of reality. But have we ever paused to ask—how exactly is the crime rate computed? Where does this data come from, and how reliable is it? The computation of the crime rate in the Philippines is officially handled by the Philippine National Police (PNP). The formula itself is straightforward: Crime Rate = (Total Reported Crimes / Total Population) x 100,000 This simple equation gives us the number of crimes per 100,000 people, allowing for fair comparison across regions and time periods. However, the reality behind these numbers is more complex than it appears. Data from the Ground The foundation of our national crime rate is empirical data collected at the grassroots level—from individual police stations scattered across the country. Every reported crime is logged in local police blotters, forming the buil...
Read more

GREY AREAS IN GOVERNMENT FUNCTIONS

GREY AREAS IN GOVERNMENT FUNCTIONS Dear Mr. President: May I ask who is going to be the arbiter or referee whenever there are overlaps in functions between two or more government agencies? I imagine that there would be no problem if these agencies would just cooperate and collaborate with each other, but what if they are unable to settle their differences and they would just end up throwing blame at each other or finger pointing at each other? Allow me to cite some examples. Who is supposed to take the lead in waste to energy projects? Is it supposed to be the DENR that is supposed to handle waste? Or is it supposed to be the DOE that is supposed to handle energy generation? Or is it supposed to be the DILG since it is the one that could direct or influence the waste to energy projects of LGUs? Who is supposed to take the lead in producing and promoting the use of biofuels? Is it supposed to be the DA, since the production of biofuels is supposed to be all about planting biofuel ...
Read more

LOCALIZED FREE AMBULANCE SERVICES

LOCALIZED FREE AMBULANCE SERVICES As it is supposed to be, anyone in the Philippines should be able to dial 911, and a telephone operator should be able to dispatch fire, rescue, ambulance and police (FRAP) units as soon as possible, based on acceptable response times. I invented the FRAP acronym for easy recall, and I hope it sticks, if there is no other alternative. Unfortunately, due to a mixture of technical and political reasons, the Philippines has not adopted 911 as a national number, because some LGUs would rather use their own three-digit numbers such as 117 and 168. I actually proposed a technical solution to that problem, but it was not adopted either. For whatever it is worth, my solution is to install a call forwarding system that could route all calls to a central operator, regardless of what number is dialed. It is very sad for me to know that up to now, even if our country is already over one hundred years old, there are still many LGUs that do not have fire trucks. it ...
Read more