This paper critically examines the global origins of Indonesia’s stunting reduction programs and their impacts on local communities targeted by these interventions. Stunting reduction policies in Indonesia closely follow global health frameworks that prioritize simplified nutrition metrics, such as height-for-age, as central development indicators. While these quantitative targets have raised stunting to a national priority, they have also narrowed interventions to demand-side approaches focused on individual behavioral changes, overlooking the structural issues driving malnutrition. I argue that Indonesia’s adoption of a global health model emphasizing top-down governance and individual-oriented metrics has limited effectiveness, placing disproportionate responsibility on caregivers and health workers without achieving sustainable improvements in child health. This argument draws on a study of longitudinal policy conceptions of stunting and fieldwork in Semarang to assess local-level implementation and outcomes. The paper underscores the need for a comprehensive, community-centered approach to stunting intervention in Indonesia. 

Keywords: policy intervention, development indicator, caregivers, healthworkers, stunting, Indonesia.