Yahya Zaini Values The Proposed Budget For Additional Hundreds Of Trillions For The Nutrition Eating Program Is At Risk If...

JAKARTA - Deputy Chairman of Commission IX of the DPR RI, Yahya Zaini, responded to the proposed additional budget of Rp118 trillion proposed by the National Nutrition Agency (BGN) for the implementation of the 2026 Free Nutrition Food Program (MBG).

He assessed that the allocation of funds of that size risks being a waste if it is not accompanied by efforts to overcome the root causes of nutritional problems in the community.

"This program will be the biggest waste if it is only focused on procuring food without touching the root of the problem that has been the cause of the nutrition crisis," Yahya told reporters, Monday, July 14.

According to the Legislator from the East Java VIII Election Area, the main challenge is not only food distribution, but also at low nutritional education from an early age, weak access to healthy and affordable foods, and the lack of nutritional literacy in schools.

Yahya said that Commission IX of the DPR would further discuss the proposed additional budget in detail.

"Of course we will discuss it first. We will undergo in-depth surgery before making a decision. This is one of the functions of budgeting and supervising the DPR," he said.

He emphasized that if the proposal was approved, the MBG Program should be used as a momentum to fix the national nutrition system which is considered weak, fragmented, and short-term.

"The MBG program must not stop as a mass food distribution project, but must also be an initial milestone in comprehensive reform of the national nutrition system," said Yahya.

According to him, the consumptive approach based on the target number of recipients needs to be balanced with a sustainability-based strategy. He gave an example of the need to improve people's consumption patterns, strengthen local food supply chains, and increase public awareness of the importance of balanced nutrition.

Yahya also emphasized the importance of cross-sectoral integration, such as program-relatedness with community-based local agriculture so that food supplies do not depend on large distributors or centralized logistics.

It is necessary to empower mothers and family communities in formulating a nutritional-based household consumption pattern. Then, collaboration with schools, health centers, and health cadres as the front line in nutrition education," he explained.

He also encourages the digitization of the child's nutritional status monitoring system, so that the MBG program not only records food distribution, but also produces concrete data related to changes in the nutritional condition of the beneficiaries.

"If large budgets are only channeled without systemic reform, then we only repeat conventional food aid patterns that do not solve structural problems. The state needs courage to change the approach from 'feeding' to 'educated nutrition'," he said.

Yahya added that layered supervision of the use of the MBG budget is very crucial, including the involvement of the community, academics, and the media so that transparency is maintained.

This large budget must be openly accounted for to the public. Not only audits by BPK, but also the involvement of the wider community in supervising the program," he said.

He also emphasized that Commission IX of the DPR will oversee the implementation of MBG so that it does not become just a symbolic policy ahead of the political year.

"In the future, Commission IX of the DPR will continue to oversee so that MBG does not become a symbolic policy or a short-term project, but becomes a state policy that sides with community empowerment, food justice, and sustainable healthy human development," he concluded.

Previously, the Head of BGN Dadan Hindayana submitted a request for an additional budget of IDR 118 trillion in a Hearing Meeting with Commission IX of the DPR RI, Thursday, July 10.

He explained that the BGN indicative ceiling for 2026 was IDR 217 trillion, so with the addition, the total proposed budget reached IDR 335 trillion.

The budget is intended to run the Free Nutrition Food Program with a target of 82.9 million recipients, and the monthly demand reaches IDR 25 trillion.