Ministry of Health: 1,000 First Days of Life Consortium Ensures the Best Start for Children

Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) has launched the 1,000 First Days of Life (HPK) Consortium to ensure that every child receives the best start in life from conception until the age of two years. Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin in Jakarta on Thursday stated that this is being done considering that 84 million Indonesian children are projected to become the backbone of the nation when Indonesia reaches its centennial in 2045. “My target is to reduce maternal deaths from 4,000 per year to below 400. From 30,000 infant deaths per year, it must drop to below 3,000. Similarly, the stunting rate must fall below 7 percent. We cannot work in an ordinary way because this concerns the lives and future of our children,” he said. To achieve these targets, he called for all interventions to be specific and data-based. The government’s main focus is directed at preventing pregnancy and childbirth disorders, such as managing high blood pressure in pregnant women (pre-eclampsia) and respiratory issues and infections in newborns (sepsis). In addition, the government is preparing regulations to produce multivitamin and mineral supplements (MMS) domestically to meet the nutritional needs of pregnant women. Efforts to strengthen these services have begun trials in nine regional hospitals and 36 community health centres in the Bogor, Bandung, and Garut areas. On the same occasion, the Director General of Primary and Community Health at the Ministry of Health, Maria Endang Sumiwi, stated that Indonesia has shown progress in addressing stunting, with the number of successfully achieved health indicators increasing from three points in 2024 to eight points in 2025. “The government’s focus is to ensure that babies not only survive but also grow excellently through proper nutrition monitoring and stimulation,” said Endang.