REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, MAKASSAR -- Despite every effort has been made to reduce malnutrition, Indonesia is currently in a nutrition emergency zone, the Health Ministry's Nutrition Director Doddy Izwardy, said.

"Out of 117 countries, Indonesia is facing a nutrition emergency, which would have three associated impacts on children," Doddy remarked in the South Sulawesi provincial city of Makassar on Saturday.

He pointed out that the three associated impacts on children were Stunting (a condition in which children are shorter than expected for their age), being underweight which will trigger malnutrition, and being overweight that will lead to obesity.

Doddy noted that it would take a century to improve and prevent the next generation from having a stunted physical growth, and therefore the efforts aimed at improvement of nutrition should start from now.

According to him, approximately 48 percent of infants and toddlers were showing stunted growth in the West Sulawesi province.

In an effort to overcome the problem, the Millennium Challenge Account Indonesia (MCA-Indonesia), a trustee institution formed by the government to implement the Compact Program, had distributed grants amounting to 131.5 million U.S. dollars, which is equivalent to approximately 1 billion rupiah in Mamuju, West Sulawesi.

Meanwhile, Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) CEO Dana J. Hyde said in Mamuju that the funds in the Indonesia Compact Program were expected to boost household incomes through investment in nutrition, procurement modernization and natural resource management.

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