TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Indonesia's National Nutrition Agency (BGN) is reviewing the target beneficiaries of its flagship Free Nutritious Meals (MBG) program, with one proposal under consideration being the exclusion of students from affluent high schools to improve targeting and budget efficiency.
Deputy Head of BGN Agustina Arumsari said the agency is aligning the program with the priorities outlined in Indonesia's National Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMN), focusing resources on groups most in need of nutritional support.
"High school students may no longer need to receive MBG, particularly those attending elite schools where daily allowances range from Rp100,000 to Rp200,000," Arumsari said after a closed-door meeting with Commission IX of the House of Representatives (DPR) in Jakarta on Monday, June 15, 2026.
According to Arumsari, removing some high school students from the program could reduce the number of beneficiaries by as many as 8 million.
As of June 10, the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education reported that approximately 43 million students had received free meals, representing about 80.7 percent of Indonesia's total student population.
She said the proposed adjustment is part of broader efforts to improve the program's management through the end of 2026 while maintaining its core objective of addressing nutritional needs.
"We need this refocusing so that government intervention becomes more targeted and, consequently, more budget-efficient," she said.
BGN is currently working with several ministries and government agencies, including the Ministry of Health, to finalize the new beneficiary criteria. Arumsari said the agency has not yet determined how many recipients will remain eligible once the review is completed.
Shift From Quantity to Quality
The review comes as BGN adopts a new approach under its current leadership, placing greater emphasis on service quality and targeting accuracy rather than pursuing the government's previous goal of reaching 82 million beneficiaries this year.
BGN Head Nanik Sudaryati Deyang said the agency has informed President Prabowo Subianto that improving program quality will take precedence over expanding coverage.
"We told the President that in 2025 we should not focus solely on quantity. Our priority is to improve quality," Nanik said during a press conference at BGN headquarters in Central Jakarta on June 4.
She said the policy shift is part of wider efforts to strengthen governance and improve budget efficiency within the agency, making the number of beneficiaries no longer the primary measure of the program's success.
As part of the review, BGN is considering reducing coverage in schools serving economically well-off communities and redirecting resources to areas with greater nutritional needs.
According to Nanik, this approach would allow the program to continue expanding while ensuring that public funds are directed toward vulnerable groups rather than being distributed evenly regardless of economic conditions.
Priority recipients include communities in Indonesia's remote, underdeveloped, and frontier regions—known locally as the 3T areas—as well as the so-called 3B groups: pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, and toddlers, who face a higher risk of malnutrition.
Dinda Shabrina contributed to the writing of this article.
Read: MBG Kitchens to Lose Rp6 Million Daily Flat-Rate Incentive
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