Indonesia is one among countries in the world with severe nutrititional status in the world with its stunting prevalence of around 31%. This is not directly proportional to the government’s increased expenditure in their nutrition improvement attempt that it gives rise to a question on the effectiveness of the interventions they have made. Therefore, thanks to the support from the World Bank and Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Indonesia, The SMERU Research Institute conducted a study to analyze regional governments' expenditure in their attempt for stunting prevention in order to understand the factors which varied the stunting conditions at regional level. This study in November–December 2018 was conducted in six kabupaten/kota, they were Kabupaten Lampung Tengah, Kabupaten Brebes, and Kabupaten Sumba Tengah (high stunting regions); and Kabupaten Belitung, Kota Surakarta, and Kabupaten Klungkung (low stunting regions). This study used quantitative and qualitative approaches to analyze the pattern of regional government’s stunting-related expenditures in 2015–2017 and explored the processes through which the five focus interventions were organized in 2017. This study found that regional government’s budget/expenditure was not good enough to explain the stunting prevalence variation. Despite the many supporting factors, the regional governments also encountered many obstacles related to regional financial management, such as coordination with the central government and their capacity in planning, managing, implementing, and performing monev on the budget usage. Therefore, there is a need to take steps for improvement in all budgeting stages and its utilization, both by the central and regional governments, including by improving the information distribution management, improving the mechanism for determining budget allocation, promoting campaign on the intervention goods benefits.

Suggested citation:

Nurbani, Rachma Indah, Hastuti, Dyan Widyaningsih, Akhmad Ramadhan Fatah, Elza Elmira, Nina Toyamah, Laskar Rianto, and Steve Christiantara (2019) ‘Review of Public Expenditure for Stunting Prevention at Regional Level: The Factors Influencing Stunting Prevalence Variation in Six Kabupaten/Kota in Indonesia.' Draft Research Report. Jakarta: The SMERU Research Institute <URL> [access date].