Unicef to help provide lower prices for children's food
Unicef to help provide lower prices for children's food
JAKARTA (JP): Local representatives of the United Nations
Children's Fund (Unicef) have expressed a readiness to help the
Ministry of Health provide cheap supplementary food for
Indonesian children, it was reported yesterday.
Suyono Yahya, secretary to Coordinating Minister of People's
Welfare Azwar Anas, said after a monthly ministerial meeting
under Azwar's coordination that the program would aim to provide
supplementary food at affordable prices to the poor.
The third party in the scheme would be food manufacturers, he
said.
"A program is being developed by the Ministry of Health and
food manufacturers, and Unicef has said that it is willing to
help shoulder the distribution cost.
"This scheme will keep prices of children's food within the
reach of poor people," he said.
He did not indicate the amount of assistance offered by
Unicef, but made it clear the government wished to target the
children of workers involved in labor-intensive public projects
in 30 regencies across Java.
The Rp 33 billion (US$3.6 million) government-run projects,
which started earlier this month and are scheduled to last until
the end of March, are targeted to employ 3.9 million unskilled
workers.
"Unicef's offer to help us will ease the burden (of workers)
and will particularly protect their children from malnutrition,"
he said.
Yesterday's meeting was chaired by Azwar Anas and was attended
by, among others, Minister of Social Services Inten Soeweno,
Minister of Women's Roles Mien Sugandhi, Minister of Youth
Affairs and Sports Hayono Isman, Minister of Education Wardiman
Djojonegoro, State Minister of Environment Sarwono Kusumaatmadja,
and the Ministry of Health's secretary-general Hidayat
Hardjoprawito.
The meeting focused on steps the government was taking to
minimize the public impacts of the current monetary crisis.
Suyono said the government, for instance, had allocated Rp 500
billion to support further endeavors of 21,222 groups of village
entrepreneurs who had succeeded in capitalizing on the
government-sponsored Takesra/Kukesra poverty alleviation credit
scheme.
"The new scheme is called Kredit Pengembangan Kemitraan Usaha
(Business Partnership Development Credit), or KPKU," Suyono said.
The government would start channeling the credit to the
provinces of Central, West and East Java, East Nusa Tenggara,
South Sulawesi and North Sumatra.
"Each group can receive Rp 50 million from the program, and
individuals can get a maximum of Rp 2 million with a 12 percent
interest rate. That's still below bank interest rates," he said.
The government hoped the local entrepreneurs would focus on
developing agro-industry products which could generate more
employment for those who had lost their jobs due to the economic
crisis.
The Indonesian Armed Forces announced early this month that
about 2 million people had lost their jobs since the monetary
crisis hit the country last July. Analysts, however, have claimed
the number could be higher. (aan)