Health Minister prepares nutrition experts to support four-step MBG programme overhaul

Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin has stated that his ministry will support the National Nutrition Agency’s (BGN) four steps to reorganise the implementation of the Free Nutritious Meal (MBG) programme, including preparing child health and nutrition experts from the Ministry of Health. The four steps involve refocusing beneficiaries, a moratorium on new kitchen construction, improving existing operational kitchens, and drafting a new MBG implementation scheme for underdeveloped, frontier, and outermost (3T) regions. “Whoever is chosen, we will prepare the best. Please, Madam, you decide,” said Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin during a meeting with the BGN in Jakarta on Tuesday. At the meeting, BGN Head Nanik Sudaryati Deyang stated that her agency requires Ministry of Health support in refocusing beneficiaries, as the future target of MBG beneficiaries will be pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, and toddlers (3B), which fall within the Ministry of Health’s domain. Nanik expressed gratitude for the appreciation and support from Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin and his entire staff. “Going forward, God willing, this cooperation will continue and grow even closer, in an effort to prepare Indonesia’s golden generation for 2045,” she said. “I feel happy to be accompanied by a financial auditor with 36 years of experience and a general who will guard me,” Nanik added. Nanik also emphasised that the BGN leadership is now more collective and collegial. As Head of BGN, she will not decide on various matters without the approval of her two deputies. “I am just the ‘class chairperson’. We will decide everything together,” she stated.