Indonesia launches meal program to combat stunting
JAKARTA—Indonesia launched an ambitious $4.3 billion free-meal program on Monday to combat stunted growth due to malnutrition, a key election promise of President Prabowo Subianto.
Prabowo has pledged to provide nutritious meals free to tens of millions of schoolchildren and pregnant women, saying it would improve their quality of life and boost economic growth.
“This is historic for Indonesia for the first time conducting a nationwide nutrition program for toddlers, students, pregnant and breastfeeding mothers,” presidential spokesperson Hasan Nasbi said late on Sunday.
Third-party catering
At least 190 kitchens run by third-party catering services opened nationwide, including some run by military bases, and were busy preparing meals from midnight before distributing them to schoolchildren and pregnant women.
The government has allocated 10,000 rupiahs (62 US cents) per meal, with kitchens preparing rice, protein, vegetables and fruit for students.
The program has a budget of $4.3 billion for the 2025 fiscal year and is set to deliver meals to almost 83 million people by 2029.
The free-meal program is designed to tackle stunting, which affects 21.5 percent of children in the archipelago of some 282 million people.
The Southeast Asian nation aims to reduce the rate to five percent by 2045.
Prabowo has championed the program since last year’s presidential campaign and his team has said the poorest and most remote areas of the Southeast Asian archipelago would be prioritized.
He traveled to several countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, after he was sworn in last October seeking funding support.
Xi donation
He secured a $10 billion deal with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in November for support in several sectors, including the free-meal program.
However, analysts have said the scheme is not sustainable in the long-term.
“I am quite pessimistic if everything is shouldered by the central government. Economically, it’s not sustainable,” Aditya Alta, a public policy analyst from the Center for Indonesian Policy Studies think tank, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“Stunting is a multidimensional issue and addressing it through just one approach is insufficient,” he said.
