Responsibility for national stunting prevalence reduction requires active involvement of multi-sectors programs. Convergence  is an approach that is used as a guidance for programs implementation from central government to village level. Every elements support each other to achieve national and regional targets.

The penta helix concept almost has same meaning as convergence. It is involvement of 5 elements; government, society or community, academics, entrepreneurs, and the media. Stunting reduction which is a national priority, also requires involvement of these elements to reduce national prevalence of stunting.

Higher education or academics should have very important roles in efforts to reduce prevalence and support implementation of stunting programs. It became a topic in Kedaireka Webinar “Collaboration of Higher Education in Overcoming Stunting in Indonesia”, Thursday (1/4). “It is important how we converge between program interventions that are still sectoral,” stated Deputy for Human Development and Equality, Secretariat of the Vice President, Suprayoga Hadi. In the webinar that was held by the Directorate General of Higher Education, Ministry of Education and Culture, Suprayoga added that convergence is not only required for governments. Stunting reduction must also involve other stakeholders from businesses, universities and professional organizations, civil society organizations, development partners, and the media. “But we underline that there is opportunity to empower more than 1000 universities to support stunting reduction in 514 districts/municipalities,” Suprayoga added. On the same occasion, Secretary of the Directorate General of Higher Education, Ministry of Education and Culture, Paristiyanti Nurwardani said that she is ready to mobilize any potential in his organization to support the reduction of stunting. One of them is the Kedaireka platform which can be used for penta helix stakeholder collaboration. “This penta helix involves government as well as academics. We will use all of potential in the Directorate General of Higher Education, both public and private to achieve the goals (stunting reduction),” Paristiyanti said. Chairperson of the Indonesian Institute of Nutrition, Abdul Razak Thaha explained importance roles of higher education in reducing stunting. Higher education has several key roles; maintaining the sustainability of stunting reduction programs, providing scientific evidence to program implementers, strengthening the capacity of district/municipalities governments, and providing assistance in developing effective intervention models, as well as good practice learning materials. “Studies show that if stunting is not treated, it will be passed down to the next generation. So, we encourages universities to give big attention to stunting reduction,” Abdul Razak said.