DPR: Free Nutritious Meal Programme Success Must Be Measured with Valid Indicators
If the government wishes to draw up or evaluate policies to improve national nutrition, its primary reference should be indicators derived from these surveys, not indicators that do not directly measure nutritional status.
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Charles Honoris, Deputy Chair of Commission IX of the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR RI), has stated that the success of the Free Nutritious Meal Programme (MBG) must be measured using valid indicators.
He explained that Indonesia already has instruments specifically designed to measure the public’s nutritional status, namely the Indonesian Health Survey (SKI) and the Indonesian Nutritional Status Survey (SSGI), which have long served as the main reference for the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes).
“Therefore, if the government wishes to draw up or evaluate national nutrition improvement policies, the primary reference should be indicators derived from these surveys, not indicators that do not directly measure nutritional status,” he said in Jakarta on Thursday.
Charles emphasised that the MBG Programme is highly strategic and carries a very large budget. For that reason, all planning, implementation and evaluation must be based on accurate data and indicators so that its benefits can be genuinely measured in an objective manner.
“The Ministry of Health needs to openly explain the indicators and methodology used to reach its conclusions, because Susenas is essentially a socio-economic household survey, not a survey designed to directly measure the population’s nutritional status,” he said.
He stressed that public policy must be built upon the right indicators, because if the diagnosis is wrong, the treatment also risks being wrong.
“This is also important to clarify the objective of the MBG Programme. If the programme’s main objective is to improve the public’s nutritional status, then its success must be measured using valid nutritional status indicators, such as reductions in stunting, wasting (toddlers with very low body weight), underweight, anaemia, and other indicators measured through the SKI and SSGI. A programme of this magnitude cannot be evaluated merely on assumptions or indicators that do not directly measure nutritional status,” he said.
“The public has the right to know clearly what the MBG Programme’s actual objective is. The programme’s goal must not keep shifting to follow changing narratives,” he added.
Charles said a programme with a budget of hundreds of trillions of rupiah must have clear targets, appropriate indicators, and be evaluable in a scientific and objective manner.
“Without that, it will be difficult to ascertain whether state funds are genuinely delivering improvements in public nutrition, or merely expanding the coverage of meal distribution,” said Charles Honoris.