Jakarta. “The 2045 Golden Indonesia” vision has become the government’s overarching goal in many of its programs, including the upcoming free nutritious meal program.

This goal sees Indonesia becoming a high-income country by its centenary in 2045. Indonesia also wants to enter the world’s top 5 economies by that year.

President Prabowo Subianto introduced the free meal program when he tried to secure votes in the most recent presidential election. According to Prabowo, serving a nutrient-rich lunch plate to Indonesian schoolchildren across the country at no cost will save kids from the risk of stunting. The national stunting rate has dropped to 21.5 percent as of 2023. This free meal program is expected to reach 82 million beneficiaries, including pregnant moms, by 2029, which will be the Prabowo administration’s final year.

The Indonesian government has set aside Rp 71 trillion around $4.4 billion to run the program this year. The program is set for launch on Monday.

A report by the think-tank Indef that annual budget allocation can propel Indonesia’s gross domestic product (GDP) by 0.06 percent or around Rp 14.61 trillion. This program is expected to boost labor absorption by 0.19 percent, while also propelling income growth by 0.39 percent. These effects will gradually grow as the program reaches more beneficiaries.

It is expected that the annual budget for the school-feeding program will reach up to Rp 109.7 trillion in 2026 as more kids receive their daily lunch plates, according to Indef. The GDP impact will also go up to Rp 6.97 trillion. Budget allocations will eventually soar to Rp 149.2 trillion in 2027 and Rp 223.8 trillion the following year. As the budget increases, so does the economic impact which will add Rp 9.47 trillion to the national GDP in 2027. The GDP impact in 2028 is set to stand at around Rp 9.47 trillion in 2027 and reach Rp 14.22 trillion the following year. In 2029, the government will likely allocate Rp 298.4 trillion, thus further giving a Rp 18.96 trillion boost to the national GDP.

Indonesia is trying to take advantage of its demographic dividend, hence the emphasis on human capital development through improved nutritional intake. Demographic dividend refers to when a large part of the population is working-age people. Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka said that the huge working-age population could provide a “huge opportunity” for Indonesia to catapult its growth.

“The free meal program is one of the government’s concrete efforts to make sure that our kids can grow up healthy and be ready to contribute to the nation,” Gibran said, not long ago.     

Distribution Scheme

Preparations are underway as Indonesia is only about four days away before the program officially starts. The National Nutrition Agency (BPN), which is in charge of overseeing the program, said that the government would work with various stakeholders, including village-owned enterprises, to make sure that everything would run without a hitch. Each regency will even have service units that encompass a manager, nutritionist, accountant, and administrative officers. As of end-2024, BGN has held trial runs in 100 locations, most in Java as most students were in this island.

There will also be several distribution schemes.

The government will set up a central kitchen in several locations. This centralized kitchen will supply the meals for the targeted areas.

The second option is to build a kitchen inside the school, but this scheme will apply for institutions that have at least 2,000 students. 

BGN has also come up with a strategy to reach Indonesia’s remote areas. The agency plans on sending food preserved in vacuum packaging every week or month to remote areas.

At present, each meal costs Rp 10,000. Based on past pilot projects, a lunch plate usually consists of the staple food rice, chicken, vegetable dish, fruit, and milk. However, Indonesia is mulling replacing milk with moringa leaves in regions in which milk is hard to come by.

Learning from Others

According to the 2022 State of School Feeding Worldwide report, at least 53 countries in Europe and Central Asia have adopted a free meal program. The same goes for 44 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, and 37 others in the Latin America-Caribbean region. The East Asia-Pacific region has 32 countries implementing such a policy.  A school-feeding program is also available in 19 Middle East-North African countries.

India has the world’s largest school-feeding program, which makes sure that 120 million students in government and government-aided schools learn on a full stomach every day. Brazil also has the National School Feeding Program (PNAE), which provides nutritious lunches to 40 million students. During a recent trip to Rio de Janeiro, Prabowo even said that he wanted to learn from Brazil’s success story.

“We [Indonesia] want to send a team to study Brazil’s meal program,” Prabowo said.

He added: ““What is the benefit of Indonesia being a G20 member when 20-25 percent of our children do not have enough to eat?”

Japan also has a school-feeding program. Data shows that as of May 2023, 98.8 percent of all Japanese elementary schools and 89.8 percent of junior high schools in the country gave their students free meals. Japanese Ambassador to Indonesia Masaki Yasushi not long ago said that Tokyo was open to partnering with the Southeast Asian country to run the free meal program.

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B-Universe journalists Euis Rita Hartati, Monique Handa Shafira, Muhammad Farhan,Thomas Harefa, Tri Listiyarini also contributed to the story.