Jakarta – A total of 13 million children under the age of five in Indonesia suffer from chronic malnutrition, says the United Nations World Food Program (WFP).
The WFP says the country produces enough food to feed the entire population but does not have the infrastructure in place to distribute it. "There's enough food, but the problem is getting it to those who need it," WFP deputy country director Bradley Busetto said here Wednesday.
Almost half of the nation's 28 million children suffer from chronic malnutrition, according to statistics from last year.
Of children under the age of five living in rural areas, 30.2 percent are underweight and 47.5 percent are under the average height. Meanwhile, of children under the age of five living in cities, 24.5 percent are underweight and 37.3 percent are under average height.
WFP unit head for vulnerability analysis and mapping, monitoring and evaluation Dipayan Bhattacharyya said that anemia occurred in half of the children under five years old suffering chronic malnutrition, and one-third of primary school-age children between 6 and 12, and in more than half of the country's pregnant women. "That's why the major indicator for our program is reduction of anemia occurrences," he said.
The WFP's programs, which include school feeding and nutritional rehabilitation activities, are targeting the groups most vulnerable to malnutrition: primary school-age children and those under five years old, as well as pregnant women in integrated service stations for pre- and post-natal health care (Posyandu).
"The WFP is reaching 1.5 million children in primary schools and Posyandu across Indonesia, in Aceh, Greater Jakarta and East Java, as well as in West Nusa Tenggara and East Nusa Tenggara in the eastern part of Indonesia," Busetto said.
Of the 854 million people suffering from chronic hunger worldwide, more than 400 million are children, according to 2006 data from the WFP. Every five seconds a child dies of hunger somewhere in the world – 720 deaths an hour.
"We are now focusing on the eastern part of Indonesia, especially the rural areas in (East Nusa Tenggara) and (West Nusa Tenggara)," said Busetto, adding that 40 to 50 percent of children in both provinces experienced chronic malnutrition.
"Besides giving food aid, the WFP is also seeing the importance of long-term solutions, such as nutrition education and related issues like building clean water and sanitation infrastructure in places like (West Nusa Tenggara)," Busetto said.
"We realize the complexity of the malnutrition problem. So, for a more sustainable result, we aim to work well with the government and NGOs, as well the private sector," he added.
He said that his office was currently operating at 65 percent of its capacity because of budget constraints in Indonesia, while adding that the WFP still faces a shortage of about US$10 million for its operations throughout the archipelago.
"The private sector can help in many ways, with nutritious new products that are affordable, and helping out in just raising awareness, since they have better marketing than we do," he said.
He added: "All our food is locally produced from suppliers in Indonesia. So that helps to have a way in which to make things more sustainable."
He said the WFP's special nutrition biscuits and noodles, which were manufactured by local food producers, contained nine essential vitamins and six minerals.