Buntari (57) witnessed that in 2018, stunting cases in her village, Sendangsari, were ranked number one in Pengasih District, Kulon Progo Regency. She also witnessed that the budget for handling stunting in Sendangsari in 2018 was only allocated from the budget for organizing integrated health posts, which when calculated amounted to IDR 50,000 per month per hamlet. In fact, the number of stunted babies under two years old (baduta) in her place reached 15 children.
Buntari is 1 of 25 women in Kroco Hamlet, Sendangsari, who are members of a health empowerment group. In addition to being a health empowerment group, Buntari is also the manager of the Early Childhood Education (PAUD) Pos Kenanga Kroco.
The hamlet where he lives, Kroco, is one of a total of 10 hamlets in Sendangsari Village which is a special location for handling stunting in Kulon Progo Regency. In 2018, stunting cases in Kroco Hamlet were the highest in Sendangsari Village. Meanwhile, Sendangsari Village contributed the highest stunting rate in Pengasih District. The cases were intertwined up to the district level, which placed Pengasih District as the highest contributor to stunting cases in Kulon Progo Regency.
In 2019, Idea with support from the Ford Foundation and the Indonesian Ministry of Home Affairs collaborated to organize a poverty information system utilization program to improve the quality of participatory and accountable poverty alleviation program planning, budgeting and monitoring in the DIY Province. This program was implemented in collaboration with the Yogyakarta Special Region Provincial Government, Bantul Regency and Kulon Progo Regency. At the village level, Sendangsari is 1 of 4 villages that are pilot projects in this program. pilot project dalam program ini.
Several activities carried out with the village government, including the health empowerment cadre group in Sendangsari Village, include providing training on identifying basic problems, participating in development planning, social audits of poverty alleviation programs, and advocacy for poverty alleviation program budgets.
During the collaboration since 2019-2020, the poverty alleviation program and budget for stunting handling activities in Sendangsari Village have continued to experience quality improvements. The programs that are run are also designed with results-based innovations. It is recorded, based on data from the Sendangsari Village Budget, the stunting handling budget in 2019-2020 which is given in the form of additional food, outside the allocation for Posyandu activities, is IDR 250,000 per child per year.
In fact, in 2021-2022, through the pilot program of the National Population and Family Planning Agency (BKKBN), the Sendangsari Village government appointed Padukuhan Kroco to manage the Healthy Kitchen to Overcome Stunting (DASHAT) program, an innovative program that is carried out in the form of providing additional food for stunted toddlers 3 times a day and is managed centrally in a public kitchen. The Village Budget allocated for the DASHAT program is IDR 9,000,000 for one year. This does not include the self-help budget outside the Village Budget.
Advocacy Process
Advocacy for the stunting handling program in Sendangsari Village has indeed gone through various processes, one of which is budget advocacy. This was conveyed by Slamet Supriyono, a member of the health empowerment group and also a hamlet in Kroco, Sendangsari. He said that his group began the advocacy process to the Village by conducting a social audit of the Stunting handling program in Sendangsari Village in 2019.
The social audit of the stunting handling program was conducted to capture the implementation of the program directly to the program beneficiaries using a participatory survey method. From the social audit process, the cadre group found several important findings such as the small budget allocation for handling stunting to the low understanding of parents about parenting patterns for stunted toddlers.
After conducting the survey, the group then analyzed and compiled recommendations for improving the quality and budget allocation for handling stunting. The recommendations were then submitted to the Sendangsari village government to be used as consideration in compiling programs during village meetings.
Not only through social audits, the health empowerment group also advocated for stunting handling programs in RT and hamlet meetings in 2019. Programs that were considered to contribute to handling stunting were proposed in the discussion forum. In the same year, Slamet also said that he, together with group members and the Sendangsari village government, held a Stunting discussion to discuss solutions that would be proposed as programs in the village meeting.
Advocacy efforts carried out by the Sendangsari Village Health Empowerment Group have yielded results with the accommodation of the proposed program and budget for handling stunting in the 2020 Sendangsari Village Budget and continuing until 2021.
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