Evidence to support the mass production of local ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) in Indonesia

Highlights

Severe wasting is the most dangerous and life-threatening form of undernutrition in children. Indonesia has the second highest number of children under 5 with severe wasting in the world. Child wasting shares common risk factors with stunting and the two forms of undernutrition are mutually reinforcing: children suffering from wasting are three times more likely to experience stunting compared to their well-nourished peers.  Severe wasting can be prevented and successfully treated if identified early. When prevention fails and children become severely wasted, they need urgent access to treatment and care to save their lives. Most children with severe wasting (>85%) can be treated at home, without requiring hospitalization, through outpatient services with the use of ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF). Both the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Indonesian Ministry of Health (MoH) recommend the use of RUTF to treat severely wasted children aged 6–59 months at outpatient healthcare facilities. However, the absence of available RUTF in Indonesia is one of the biggest challenges in providing treatment services for severely wasted children. Locally produced RUTF may help ease the burden of stockouts to facilitate high coverage of treatment services. The results of a study conducted in Indonesia showed that locally produced RUTF was effective in treating severely wasted children without medical complications in outpatient services and was also preferred by children in Indonesia. This policy brief highlights urgent, decisive action is needed to promote local RUTF production and support the expansion of services for treating severely wasted children across the country.