WHERE COORDINATION MATTERS MOST

How exactly do the Department of Health (DOH), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), and Department of Education (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 (Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program) 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, Department of Agriculture (DA), and local government units, 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.