Free meal programme should align with stunting handling: Ministry

 Indonesia's Ministry of Population and Family Development/The National Population and Family Planning Board (BKKBN) has stated improvements in the governance of the Free Nutritious Meals (MBG) Programme should be aligned with stunting handling policies in the country.

The Ministry's Main Secretary Budi Setiyono said here on Friday the alignment aimed to support the government’s policy which is currently undertaking a comprehensive overhaul of the priority programme MBG as the nation's nutrition improvement programme.

"I hope the National Nutrition Agency (BGN) can increase the programme's effectiveness in the future. One of the recommendations is the importance of paying attention to inputs from cross-ministerial and institutional stakeholders in the formulation and implementation of stunting-related policies," Setiyono said.

According to him, various ministries and government agencies possess experience, data, resources, and policy instruments that can serve as important capital in supporting the success of the acceleration programme in stunting reduction.

Therefore, he explained all recommendations conveyed through cross-sector coordination forums should be taken into consideration in the decision-making process, so that policies are more comprehensive and applicable.

"BGN also needs to strengthen cooperation more intensively with all ministries and agencies related to the programme of stunting reduction. Such coordination is needed to ensure policy alignment, program integration, and optimisation of available resources," Setiyono said.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Population and Family Development Wihaji said his ministry continues to strengthen the free meal programme for pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, and toddlers, or the 3B program, with support from the Family Assistance Teams (TPK).

"Today, the 3B group receiving benefits has reached 9.9 million people, consisting of 911,000 pregnant women, 2.2 million breastfeeding mothers, and around 6 million toddlers. This is an important achievement in efforts to strengthen nutrition interventions for the most in-need groups," Wihaji pointed out.

He noted the coverage of beneficiaries would not have been possible without the support of more than 122,000 TPKs.