Papua Provincial Government and UNICEF Launch Dashboard to Monitor Free Nutritious Meals Programme

The Papua Provincial Government, together with UNICEF and with support from the China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA), has launched a monitoring dashboard for the Free Nutritious Meals (MBG) Programme to strengthen governance, coordination, monitoring, and evaluation of the programme’s implementation. Yohanes Walilo, Assistant for Government and People’s Welfare at the Papua Regional Secretariat, stated in Jayapura on Wednesday that the dashboard launch is a strategic step to support fast, precise, and data-based decision-making in the execution of the MBG Programme. “The MBG Programme is one of the national strategic programmes that not only focuses on fulfilling children’s nutrition but is also a long-term investment in creating a healthy, intelligent, strong, and competitive future generation for Papua,” he said following the launch and socialisation of the MBG Programme Task Force dashboard. According to Yohanes, Papua’s geographical challenges, which encompass mountainous, coastal, archipelagic, and remote areas, require an adaptive and collaborative service approach. “The MBG Programme relates to nutritional quality, food safety, hygiene and sanitation, distribution, waste management, and ensuring that every child truly receives benefits properly and with dignity. Therefore, cross-sector collaboration is key to the programme’s success,” he said. He explained that through the dashboard, the government can monitor the operations of the Nutrition Fulfilment Service Units (SPPG), the number of beneficiaries, school coverage, food safety, hygiene and sanitation, waste management, various obstacles in the field, and their follow-up resolutions. “We hope that every regional apparatus and member of the MBG working groups and task forces can update data regularly with valid, accurate, and accountable information so that monitoring results become the basis for evaluation to improve service quality for Papuan children,” he said. Aminuddin added that in addition to developing the digital system, UNICEF is also providing technical support to enhance human resource capacity and strengthen the operations of 14 SPPGs belonging to the National Nutrition Agency (BGN), consisting of seven SPPGs in Jayapura City and Regency and seven SPPGs in Biak Numfor Regency. “We hope the coverage of the MBG Programme monitoring dashboard can be gradually expanded to reach all areas of Papua Province so that programme implementation runs more effectively, accountably, and provides optimal benefits for Papuan children,” he said.