MBG Improvement Starts with Transparency and Targeting Accuracy

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Communications expert Dr Emrus Sihombing has stated that the evaluation and improvement of the Free Nutritious Meal (MBG) programme’s governance must begin with programme transparency, accurate targeting, strengthened oversight systems, and enhanced food safety standards. “If children whose nutritional needs are already met continue to receive MBG, the programme’s benefits become less than optimal. The state must prioritise those who genuinely need nutritional support,” he said in Jakarta on Thursday. He argued that state nutritional intervention should be prioritised for children from poor families, abandoned children, communities in underdeveloped, frontier, and outermost (3T) regions, as well as pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, and toddlers (3B). He assessed that MBG meals not consumed by beneficiaries during previous implementations indicate that targeting has not been entirely accurate. This situation, according to him, not only causes budget wastage but also reduces the programme’s effectiveness. “Determining recipients cannot be based solely on schools. There must be clear screening, starting from the family’s economic condition, nutritional status, to each child’s individual needs. Only after that should it be determined who is truly entitled to receive it,” he said. According to Emrus, the current school holiday period is an opportune time to update beneficiary data nationally so that MBG implementation in the new academic year can be more accurately targeted. “A pilot project should be created first, not rolled out sporadically,” he stated. In addition to evaluating beneficiaries, he also highlighted the governance of the Nutrition Fulfilment Service Units (SPPG), noting that many MBG kitchens are new units with no experience in mass food production, making food safety a serious concern. “I support expanding the role of food providers to include school canteens or experienced culinary businesses. They have proven accustomed to managing food daily with more tested standards,” said the political communications observer. According to him, if school canteen capacity is insufficient, the government can collaborate with local PKK groups, women’s community groups, school cooperatives, as well as local food stalls and MSMEs. Emrus also assessed that transparency must be an integral part of MBG management. He proposed that food production kitchens be designed to be more open so that the production process can be supervised by the public. “Public oversight is very important. Kitchens should be made more transparent so the community can directly see the food processing. This way, opportunities for irregularities or negligence can be minimised,” he said.