Home Affairs Minister Ready to Deploy Dukcapil to Support Free Nutritious Meals in 3T Regions
Home Affairs Minister Muhammad Tito Karnavian has expressed support for the government policy prioritising underdeveloped, frontier, and outermost (3T) regions, as well as priority target groups, in the implementation of the Free Nutritious Meals Programme.
The support was conveyed directly by Tito during a Ministerial-Level Limited Coordination Meeting on the implementation of the Free Nutritious Meals Programme at the Main Meeting Room of the Coordinating Ministry for Food in Jakarta on Thursday (6/8).
Chaired by Coordinating Minister for Food Zulkifli Hasan, the meeting discussed a review of Free Nutritious Meals Programme beneficiaries, improvements to the governance of Nutrition Fulfilment Service Units, and several other strategic issues.
According to Tito, communities in 3T regions are the group most in need of government attention.
“They truly need it and they are the ones who should rightly speak up and defend their rights,” said Tito.
The Home Affairs Minister emphasised that the Directorate General of Population and Civil Registration of the Ministry of Home Affairs is ready to support the beneficiary data collection process to ensure the programme runs more accurately and is better targeted.
During the meeting, Zulkifli stated that the government is targeting a number of strategic measures to be completed in the short term, particularly regarding the strengthening of Nutrition Fulfilment Service Units in 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 met for a month,” said Coordinating Minister Zulkifli.
In addition to prioritising 3T regions, the government is also focusing interventions on priority groups, namely pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, and children under five. This step is being taken so that the benefits of the Free Nutritious Meals Programme can be received by the groups most in need.
“Everything will be resolved properly and fairly for all parties. So there is no need to worry,” concluded Zulkifli.
The limited 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, as well as officials from relevant ministries and agencies.