Ministry: Free Nutritious Meals Programme Must Strengthen Local Stunting Prevention Ecosystem

The Secretary of the Ministry of Population and Family Development, Budi Setiyono, has stated that the Free Nutritious Meals (MBG) programme must strengthen the stunting prevention ecosystem in the regions and should not build a new system for handling growth failure in toddlers. According to him, the programme must reinforce the service ecosystem that has been built by integrated health posts (posyandu), Family Support Teams (TPK), midwives, community health centres (puskesmas), and community leaders. ‘The existence of MBG can actually perfect that ecosystem. What may need to be optimised are the menus, governance, time management, and inter-sector communication patterns,’ he said during a discussion with the Family Support Team in Yogyakarta. He explained that the existing ecosystem had never experienced dangerous incidents related to the quality of food distribution. Therefore, the presence of MBG, especially for the targets of pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, and toddlers, can strengthen the stunting prevention ecosystem. ‘Cross-sector synergy in handling stunting. All this time, best practices in services for pregnant women to toddlers in the regions have proven to be effective, so we need to provide direction for the evaluation of MBG implementation without eliminating the role of the existing service system,’ Budi stated.