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Soekirman

Publications and source records attributed to Soekirman.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

Community-based school feeding during Indonesia's economic crisis: implementation, benefits, and sustainability.

The Indonesian Government initiated a community-based national school-feeding program in 1996. Implementation was decentralized and involved multiple participants. In 1998 we evaluated the implementation of the program and the perceived benefits for community stakeholders using a survey of principals in 143 randomly selected schools and follow-up with in-depth interviews and observations in a subsample of 16 communities. The evaluation covered the period of the 1998 Asian economic crisis, affording the opportunity to assess its impact on the program. The program was implemented in all targeted schools, with excellent community participation. Feeding was sustained through the crisis, in spite of a dramatic escalation in food costs. The families of schoolchildren, farmers, and those who prepared food received economic benefits. The snacks replaced those sold at schools and were of better nutritional value. The children benefited because the snacks compensated for losses in the home diet resulting from the economic crisis. Characteristics of the program that may be important in explaining its success include the involvement of a range of community stakeholders, engagement with existing village administrative structures, scope for local community adaptation and innovation, and the use of local foods that dispersed benefits and ensured sustained implementation during the crisis.

Adolescent↗

Regional study of nutritional status of urban primary schoolchildren. 2. West Jakarta and Bogor, Indonesia.

The study provides information on the nutritional status of 8- to 10-year-old primary schoolchildren in urban areas of Jakarta and Bogor, Indonesia, based on anthropometric indicators. It compares the use of the anthropometric indicators weight-for-age Z score, height-for-age Z score, weight-for-height Z score, and body mass index (BMI) to assess thinness (underweight and wasted) and overweight in children. A total of 1,367 children were examined. The nutritional status of the 8- to 10-year urban schoolchildren was better than that of urban children under 5 years old. The prevalence of underweight among urban schoolchildren ranged from 7.4% (girls) to 12.95% (boys), while underweight among urban children under 5 years old in 1998 was 29.7%. Meanwhile, the prevalence of overweight (BMI > 85th percentile) ranged from 15.3% (girls) to 17.8% (boys). There were more overweight children in the private schools than in the public schools. On average, private schoolchildren, of all ages and both sexes, were heavier and taller than public schoolchildren. The BMI indicator for "thinness" and "wasting", using the NHANES reference, indicates a false positive result. For detecting overweight in children aged 8 to 10 years, BMI is comparable to the other indices, weight-for-age, height-for-age, and weight-for-height.

Body Height↗

Food and nutrition security and the economic crisis in Indonesia.

Indonesia has been afflicted by an economic crisis since July 1997. The economic crisis was preceded by a long drought associated with El Nino. The result has been a decline in food production, especially rice. In the eastern part of the country, especially in Irian Jaya, there was food insecurity during the early stages of the economic crisis. When the crisis escalated to become an economic, social and political crisis in 1998, food insecurity spread to other provinces, especially to urban areas in Java. The crisis led to increasingly high inflation. unemployment, poverty, food insecurity and malnutrition. The official figures indicate that poverty in Indonesia increased from 22.5 million (11.3%) in 1996 to 36.5 million (17.9%) in 1998. Food production decreased by 20-30% in some parts of the country. Compared with prices in January 1998, food prices had escalated 1.5- to threefold by August/November 1998 when acute food shortages occurred, especially in urban Java. Coupled with a drop in purchasing power, the higher food prices worsened health, nutritional status and education of children of urban poor and unemployed families. Despite social and political uncertainties, the Indonesian Government has taken prompt action to prevent a worsening of the situation by massive imports of rice, instituting food price subsidies for the poor and launching social safety net programmes to cope with food shortages and malnutrition. The present paper attempts to highlight the impact of the economic crisis on food insecurity and malnutrition in Indonesia.

Adolescent↗