National Nutrition Agency Accelerates Validation of Free Nutritious Meals Data, Prioritising Food-Insecure and High-Stunting Areas

JAKARTA - The National Nutrition Agency (BGN) is accelerating the validation and integration of beneficiary data for the Free Nutritious Meals (MBG) programme, prioritising 405 districts and cities classified as food-insecure, poor, and with high stunting prevalence. “We are using this data to ensure that MBG distribution is truly targeted at these groups; in total, there are 405 districts or cities,” said Deputy Head of BGN for Operational Nutrition Fulfilment, Sony Sonjaya, at the BGN office in Jakarta on Thursday (23/6/2026). He noted that overall, there are 405 districts and cities as priorities for MBG distribution. This step is expected to enhance the effectiveness of the MBG programme in meeting the nutritional needs of the most vulnerable communities. Data validation is also strengthened through integration from several ministries acting as data custodians. “Beneficiary data is becoming more valid because it consists of three data custodians,” Sony stated. Meanwhile, data on madrasahs and pesantren is managed by the Ministry of Religious Affairs. Data on toddlers, pregnant women, and breastfeeding mothers comes from the Ministry of Population and Family Development and the Ministry of Health. According to Sony, BGN acts as a data user and does not intervene in the duties of each data custodian. “BGN does not intervene in the tasks of the data custodians. We are data users, but we need integrated data in one table,” Sony said. This integration is carried out to strengthen the validation of beneficiary data, in line with the President’s directives, making the data used more accurate than before.