The Rector of Universitas Indonesia (UI), Prof. Ari Kuncoro, S.E., M.A., Ph.D, inaugurated three Permanent Professors of the Faculty of Public Health (FKM), on Saturday, November 16, at Balai Sidang, UI Depok Campus. The three are Prof. Dr. drg. Ririn Arminsih Wulandari, M.Kes.; Prof. Ir. Ahmad Syafiq, M.Sc., Ph.D; and Prof. Dr. Drs. Tris Eryando, M.A. On that occasion, Prof. Syafiq was inaugurated as a Professor in the Field of Nutrition Methodology after delivering a scientific oration titled “Gizi Kesehatan Masyarakat: Filosofi dan Praktik” (Public Health Nutrition: Philosophy and Practice).
In his speech, Prof. Syafiq said that in Indonesia, the approach taken to overcome nutritional problems uses more nutritional science that focuses on clinical, biomedical, and curative, compared to science that focuses on prevention efforts. For example, the stunting management program is aimed at recovering children who experience stunting, rather than preventing stunting in the healthy child population. This causes stunting cases to continue to increase even though there are several children who have successfully recovered, which shows the heavy weight on medical-curative and the lack of weight on public health-prevention.
For this reason, Prof. Syafiq assessed the need for the involvement of other disciplines in efforts to address nutritional problems in Indonesia, as stated in Deklarasi New Nutrition Science (Declaration of New Nutrition Science), or better known as the Giessen Declaration issued by the International Union of Nutrition Sciences in 2005. In the declaration, it stated the need for the concept of New Nutrition Science which was defined more broadly and added with relevant dimensions and principles to be able to overcome the challenges and opportunities faced by humans in the 21st century.
In an effort to answer these challenges, Prof. Syafiq uses the concept of Public Health Nutrition as a way to enrich and expand the area of nutrition into the realm of prevention and root causes, by combining the principles of nutrition and the principles of public health. This step is taken to improve or maintain the optimal health of the population and target groups through improving programs, systems, policies, and the environment.
Public Health Nutrition is practiced through seventeen steps in a double cycle. One example is the application of capital analysis and capacity analysis in districts in Indonesia in an effort to assist the stunting reduction acceleration program. The results of Prof. Syafiq’s research show that assessments at the district, health center, and sub-district levels in terms of capital—social capital, human capital, natural capital, and cultural capital—are relatively low. In this case, the lowest value is in cultural capital related to beliefs and social norms that do not support the program.
“For example, we found that there was one stunting locus village that ‘rejected’ the stunting reduction program. This low capital indicates the need for more intensive efforts in terms of advocacy and education from the government. Also modifications to the program that involve the community more through a cultural approach, for example involving religious leaders and the local community,” said Prof. Syafiq.
Other Challenges of National Nutrition Issues
Meanwhile, the results of the capacity analysis showed that the district had the lowest capacity value, especially in identifying problems. For this reason, capacity priorities need to be carried out at this level with more substantive materials and aimed at district officials in scientific programs outside the field of nutrition and health. On the other hand, health centers with the highest capacity values need to get sufficient roles and budget allocations so that they can contribute more to the program, because if the budget allocation for the district is large but health centers are small, it is likely that the stunting reduction program will not run as expected.
In addition to these challenges, Prof. Syafiq also sees various other challenges in nutritional issues, such as the principles of equality and nutritional justice, food and nutritional security, legislation, and regulations, as well as nutrition and sustainable environmental aspects, including climate change, built environment, and fiscal arrangements. “Of course, conventional nutritional science should be enriched, both conceptually and methodologically, with behavioral sciences, social humanities, and others, so that nutrition policies and programs can be more preventive, effective, efficient, and sustainable,” he said.
In addition to Public Health Nutrition, Prof. Syafiq’s interest in the field of Nutrition Methodology is also demonstrated through other research, such as Adequate Cardiorespiratory Fitness during Pregnancy for A Better Quality of Childbirth (2024); When Did the Substantial Loss of Child Linear Growth Occur? (2023); Analysis of Critical Beliefs in Diverse Complementary Food Intervention Using Planned Behavior Theory (2023); and Milk Supplementation Increases Mid-Upper Arm Circumference and Hemoglobin Level among Pregnant Women in Kupang, Indonesia: Evidence from A Regression Discontinuity Design (2022).
Before obtaining his professorship, he completed his Bachelor’s degree in Community Nutrition from Institut Pertanian Bogor in 1991; Master’s degree in Community Nutrition from SEAMEO-Tropmed, Faculty of Medicine, UI in 1994; S3 Nutrition Program, University of Queensland, Australia in 2006. Currently, he is the Director of Graduate Career Development and Alumni Relations UI, Head of the Center for Nutrition and Health Studies, FKM UI, and has served as Head of the Abdurrahman Wahid Center for Peace and Humanities UI for the 2020–2024 period.
