Commentary

Grand promises about feeding children have fallen foul of rushed implementation and ignoring lessons from abroad, says an Indonesia analyst.

Students rest while receiving treatment for food poisoning after eating government-sponsored free school meals, at Cililin regional hospital in Bandung, West Java province, Indonesia, Sep 25, 2025. (Photo: Reuters/Willy Kurniawan)

JAKARTA: Indonesia’s Free Nutritious Meal programme carries an irresistible political promise that no child should go hungry at school.

Launched in January by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto and widely known by the acronym MBG, it aims to provide free meals to tens of millions of schoolchildren, toddlers and pregnant women. The ambition is historic in scale, but its execution has revealed a troubling gap between vision and capacity.

The programme’s budget is colossal. The government set aside 171 trillion rupiah (US$10 billion) in 2025, with plans to nearly double it in 2026. This announcement won international attention, positioning Indonesia as a champion of social welfare.

Yet by the middle of the year, only 3 trillion rupiah had been spent, reaching fewer than 4 million beneficiaries against a target of more than 17 million. The mismatch suggests a programme pushed faster than the system can...