Government, NGOs move to prevent 'lost generation'

Leo Wahyudi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Representatives of state agencies and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) agreed here on Monday to step up various nutrition programs to reduce the number of undernourished children and thereby prevent the emergence of a "lost generation."

The meeting, hosted by the office of the coordinating minister for people's welfare, endorsed the government target of reducing the prevalence of undernourished children from 26.4 percent in 1999 to 20 percent in 2005 -- a decrease of 0.6 percent per annum.

According to data from the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), about 10 million children in 2000 were undernourished, of which 1.7 million suffered serious malnutrition.

Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Jusuf Kalla said the economic downturn and sectarian conflicts had both contributed to the huge number of undernourished children.

He noted that currently some 330,000 refugees still lived in squalid temporary settlements nationwide. Those people, including their children, were prone to severe malnutrition.

Some of the best ways of reducing the undernourishment problem, Kalla said, would be to stimulate economic growth and settle refugee problems.

At the micro level, the government, through various ministries, had also pursued its own programs to alleviate poverty and tackle malnutrition, according to Farid Husain, a deputy to Kalla.

Such programs, however, were not well coordinated and often overlapped, Farid added.

"The support given to the needy often does not fulfill their needs," he said.

He noted that his office would coordinate such programs, so that they would be more beneficial to the needy.

Damasus, an activist from Catholic Relief Services, said many NGOs, as well as world bodies, had been helping the government to tackle the problems of undernourishment and malnutrition after the crisis reached its height in 1998.

The World Food Program and Unicef are two organizations that are active in helping to reduce the prevalence of undernourished children.

The problem was, according to Damasus, that the government itself did not have a clear mission or programs to reduce the incidence of undernourishment.

After the fall of the New Order era, Damasus said, the government had lost the spirit to fight against poverty and malnutrition because it was too preoccupied with political issues.

Meanwhile, an official at the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), Taufik Hanafi, said the central government alone would not be able to tackle malnutrition problems.

He suggested that local administrations be involved in a concerted nutrition program to prevent the emergence of a "lost generation."