Economist Unlocks MBG's Success: Local Food Determines the Fate of the Prabowo Program

A number of students at SDN 92 Kendari eat a free nutritious meal in Kendari, Southeast Sulawesi (photo: dok. antara)

Jakarta - The sustainability of the Free Nutritious Meal (MBG) program is considered inseparable from the strength of local food and the integration of cross-sector policies. Without these, large-scale programs that target tens of millions of beneficiaries every day have the potential to face fiscal pressures and implementation constraints in the field.

Wijayanto Samirin, an economic expert at Paramadina University, assessed that strengthening the local food-based supply chain was the main key to ensuring that the MBG program could run sustainably. The integration of MBG with strategic government initiatives, such as the Red and White Chicken Farming program from the Ministry of Agriculture, is considered important to reduce costs while strengthening the regional economy.

According to Wijayanto, the utilization of people's farms and local food commodities not only ensures the fulfillment of national nutritional standards, but also creates a double impact on the regional economy.

"By relying on locally sourced food that is more accessible, fresher, and relatively stable in price, the sustainability of the MBG program will be more guaranteed," Wijayanto said in a statement in Jakarta, Saturday, January 31.

He assessed that the MBG program has great potential in encouraging national economic growth. However, he reminded the need for further studies to ensure the maximum impact of the program in the long term.

"In my opinion, MBG is a revolutionary idea. However, at the implementation level, continuous evaluation is still needed," he said.

Wijayanto emphasized that the success rate of MBG depends heavily on the government's ability to ensure the implementation of the program on a massive, measurable, and targeted basis down to the local level. The government's courage in evaluating the program's governance, from planning to distribution, is considered a determining factor.

He hopes that MBG will not only fulfill the political promise of the President, but will be able to develop into a national flagship program that will contribute significantly to building the Indonesian golden generation 2045.

In terms of nutritional fulfillment, the Ministry of Health's Young Expert Policy Analyst, Agus Triwinarto, stated that the utilization of local food will actually ensure the sustainability of the daily supply of MBG.

According to him, the increase in local food diversity coupled with food security and food hygiene will ensure that the MBG menu meets the nutritional needs of the beneficiaries.

"With the increase in local food diversity as well as food safety and hygienic food supervision, the MBG given will be in accordance with nutritional adequacy," he said.

Agus added that the combination of food safety supervision, hygiene, diversity of nutritious food, and the accuracy of the program's target is believed to be able to encourage the improvement of the quality of Indonesian human resources in the future.

Meanwhile, the Head of the Nutrition Working Team of the Ministry of Health, Yuni Zahraini, said that the design of the MBG program, which has targeted around 55.1 million beneficiaries every day, is a form of government intervention to meet the nutritional needs of the community at large.

In order to realize the Indonesian golden generation 2045 and reduce the prevalence of stunting, the target of the MBG program has been expanded. This program not only targets school students, but also pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, and infants under two years of age.

"Hopefully through this MBG, nutritional interventions can replace one meal of quality. With the support of a menu rich in animal protein, this nutritional intervention program is expected to complement each other," he said.