Vice President Gibran Urges MBG Programme Prioritisation in 3T Regions

Kupang (ANTARA) - Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka has requested that the Free Nutritious Meals (MBG) programme be prioritised in underdeveloped, frontier, and outermost (3T) regions so that its benefits are felt by the communities most in need. The statement was made by Gibran during a dialogue with parents and residents at SD Wolomoni, Niowula Village, Detusoko District, Ende Regency, East Nusa Tenggara, on Thursday, after reviewing the readiness for implementing the MBG programme at the school. “MBG will be more targeted if focused on 3T areas,” said Gibran. According to him, areas like Niowula Village, which are quite far from urban centres, are the regions that need the programme the most. Therefore, the government will accelerate various supporting processes so that MBG can commence promptly. Gibran stated that MBG kitchens which are ready to be built need to immediately obtain permits and feasibility tests in order to operate. “Areas like this are precisely the ones that need MBG the most. That is why, if the kitchen is ready, we must automatically speed up its licensing. Because I am sure the children behind me really need MBG and I believe it will ease the burden of the mothers here,” said the Vice President. Besides highlighting the acceleration of the programme’s implementation, Gibran acknowledged that MBG still faces a number of challenges requiring improvement, particularly in terms of governance and oversight. “I am aware that MBG still has many shortcomings. Indeed, going forward there must be more improvements. Its governance must be improved to be more efficient, there should be no more procurement of unsuitable goods, and most importantly, corrupt practices must be eliminated,” he explained. To the press, Gibran said the school holiday period would be used by the government to conduct a thorough evaluation of MBG’s implementation. “Yesterday, the new Head of BGN and the Deputy Head of BGN conveyed that we now have a school holiday break. I think that is the right time to conduct a comprehensive evaluation, especially regarding governance at BGN,” said the Vice President. “Going forward, we will continue to improve it to be more targeted and to ensure corrupt practices do not happen again,” he added. Furthermore, Gibran emphasised the importance of involving various community elements in the implementation of MBG, including parents, schools, vocational high school students in the culinary arts field, as well as community and religious organisations. The Vice President added that the government’s focus on 3T regions aligns with President Prabowo Subianto’s directive to ensure development is no longer oriented towards specific areas, but reaches all regions evenly. “What we highlighted earlier was the disparity. So now, development is no longer Java-centric, but Indonesia-centric,” said the Vice President. A student representative from Jenderal Soedirman University, Rapid Bena Matin, said the visit provided a picture of the access gap between urban areas and 3T regions. “Here we can see firsthand the reality on the ground that in these remote 3T areas… Perhaps we live in urban areas with easy access, and here we are given the opportunity to see directly the condition of the community, especially regarding the President’s priority programmes like MBG or KDMP,” said Rapid. According to him, students are ready to contribute to overseeing and evaluating the implementation of government programmes so that their benefits can be felt evenly. “We as students are also ready to contribute to always succeeding and also fixing, evaluating what the shortcomings have been so far,” he said.