Government Prioritises 3T Regions and Vulnerable Groups in Free Nutritious Meal Programme

Coordinating Minister for Food, Zulkifli Hasan, led a Limited Coordination Meeting at the ministerial level regarding the implementation of the Free Nutritious Meal Programme at the Coordinating Ministry for Food in Jakarta on Thursday. The meeting discussed the refocusing of programme beneficiaries, improvements to the governance of the Nutritional Fulfilment Service Units, and other strategic issues to accelerate the programme’s execution. During the meeting, Zulhas emphasised that the government is targeting the completion of several strategic steps in the short term, particularly regarding the strengthening of Nutritional Fulfilment Service Units in disadvantaged, frontier, and outermost regions, namely Papua, East Nusa Tenggara, and Maluku. Furthermore, the government is also prioritising areas with high stunting prevalence. “We have just finished, today’s meeting decided that the data collection for the 3T regions will be completed within this week, because last week we discussed a one-month timeline,” Zulhas stated. In addition to prioritising 3T regions, the government is also focusing interventions on priority groups, specifically pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, and toddlers. This step is taken so that the benefits of the Free Nutritious Meal Programme can be received by the groups most in need in a targeted manner. “Everything will be resolved properly and fairly for all parties. So there is no need to worry,” he added. Meanwhile, Minister of Home Affairs, Muhammad Tito Karnavian, expressed his support for the government’s policy of prioritising 3T regions and priority target groups in the programme’s implementation. According to him, communities in these areas are the ones most in need of government attention. “They truly need it and they are the ones who should be speaking up to defend their rights,” he asserted. He added that the Directorate General of Population and Civil Registration at the Ministry of Home Affairs is ready to support the beneficiary data collection process to ensure the programme runs more accurately and on target. The coordination meeting was also attended by Head of the National Nutrition Agency Sudaryono, Minister of State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi, Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin, Minister of Primary and Secondary Education Abdul Mu’ti, Minister of State Apparatus Empowerment and Bureaucratic Reform Rini Widyantini, and officials from relevant ministries and agencies.