Community-Based Nutrition and Financial Literacy Toolkit for Application in Community Health Centers in Indonesia

Indonesia faces a double burden of maternal and child malnutrition, with high rates of under and over nutrition. As of 2014, 12% of children suffer from wasting while 12% are overweight. Outdated practices and rapid socioeconomic changes contribute to suboptimal feeding practices. Meanwhile, healthcare workers and mothers are time and resource constrained, limiting the efficiency of existing interventions. Our idea is to develop and implement a set of toolkits that integrate basic individual and community based financial and practices to support better health and feeding practices for mothers and children. We develop both mobile and paper based toolkits, and leverage the Integrated Service Post (Posyandu) as an existing community driven RMNCH infrastructure. We will provide mothers with a simple healthy meal-planning and budgeting tool adjusted to locally based ingredients, and equip health workers/volunteers with a mobile app to assist in communication, education and patient management. This approach is complemented by community initiatives based on the Posyandu. Examples include the traditional arisan (rotating savings) and jimpitan (voluntary community contribution), entrepreneurship training, and engaging local food sellers to implement healthy food production practices. To ensure sustainability, we plan to develop partnerships with the local healthcare department, microfinancing institutions and other community stakeholders.