Strengthening community roles to reduce stunting in COVID-19 pandemic in indonesia rural areas: capacity building program for cadres and local government

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the community's disruption of nutrition and health services, including the closure of an integrated healthcare center (posyandu) in many areas in Indonesia. Posyandu plays an important role in nutrition services, particularly in detecting and managing growth and development disorders, such as stunting. This study aims to identify the improvement of knowledge in health cadres and community leaders in areas with high cases of severe acute malnutrition (SAM), namely, Temon, Kalibawang, and Dekso subdistricts in Kulon Progo, DIY, which followed a capacity-building program about strengthening the role of the community in the delivery of nutrition programs. Methods: The program was conducted through interactive online seminars to ensure the continuity of essential nutrition care services during this pandemic. This study used a one-group pre-test and post-test design. Knowledge measurement was conducted in three consecutive online seminars with 180 participants: health cadres/volunteers, village heads, community leaders, nursery/early years teachers, and academicians. The pre-test and post-test questionnaires were spread through Google Forms before and after online seminars and assessed using the Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test. Results: The results showed that the participants improved their knowledge in webinars I and III (p-value 0.001). However, there was no significant improvement in the participants’ knowledge in webinar II (p-value 0.251). Conclusions: Multi-sectoral collaboration among the government, community leaders, health cadres, health professionals, non-government organizations, institutions, and nursery/early years teachers are needed to reduce stunting, particularly in pandemic situations.