In 1993-94 Indonesia will terminate the first long term (25 years) development phase which started in 1969, and will enter the second, beginning in 1994. The first 25 years have seen an improvement people's welfare to a level where most of the basic needs for the majority of people are met. Income per capita increased more than ten times in two decades, i.e. from US$ 50 per year in 1967 to US$570 in 1990, growing at an average of 4.5% annually. This, according to the World Bank, is faster than the income growth rate in Thailand and Malaysia in the same period. The increasing per capita income and economic growth were accompanied by a significant reduction in the prevalence of poverty and an improvement of some basic social indicators particularly in health, nutrition and education. (World Bank, 1990).
For a large and diverse country like Indonesia, development achievements in the two and half decades are only a beginning. Indonesia is still classified as poor country although it is projected that it could join the middle income countries by the end of the decade (World Bank, 1992).
There are still immense challenges in almost all aspects of development in Indonesia. About 27 million people (15%) still live in absolute poverty; the disparity between regions in the rate of progress in development is disturbing; the labour force is still growing at an alarming rate (2.3 million per year); and there is a strong need to improve living standards and the quality of education, health and nutrition. These challenges must be faced with accelerated sustainable development based on the achievements in the first long-term development phase.
Nutrition improvement has been explicitly recognized as one of the major goals of development in the past two decades. Various programmes and interventions were planned and implemented, some successfully.
This paper highlights the role of nutrition in Indonesian development in the past 20-25 years and its prospects for contributing to the next 25 years of development of Indonesia.
