January 29, 2026 | 04:54 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia's National Nutrition Agency (BGN) will evaluate the effectiveness of the free nutritious meal program (MBG) one year after its beneficiaries have consumed the meals. BGN Head, Dadan Hindayana, mentioned several indicators of the program's success, including physical growth and brain development.
"The measurement should be carried out by an independent institution," he said after a limited coordination meeting at the Coordinating Ministry for Food in Jakarta on Thursday, January 29, 2026.
The meeting was chaired by Zulkifli Hasan as the host and attended by the leadership of the Red and White Cabinet, such as Deputy Head of BGN Nanik Sudaryati Deyang, Minister of Religious Affairs Nasaruddin Umar, and Minister of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection Arifatul Choiri Fauzi.
Dadan cited Japan as an example of the MBG program's success in promoting student growth. In Japan, he said, there is a difference in height among people born in the 1940s to the 2000s.
He stated that the significant increase in height was triggered by the improved nutritional quality. "There has been a significant growth due to improved nutritional quality. So, it's not just genetic potential, but also nutritional quality. Indonesia will be like that," he said.
On that occasion, Dadan affirmed a journalist's question about measuring brain development through intelligence quotient (IQ) tests. "Of course," said Dadan when asked if there would be IQ tests for students who have received the MBG program for a year.
Previously, the plan to measure the effectiveness of MBG on child growth and brain development was also addressed by Zulkifli Hasan during the meeting. "If they were malnourished before consuming nutritious meals, what about their physical growth, including their brain growth?" he said in a press conference in Jakarta, Thursday, January 29, 2026.
MBG has been running for more than a year since President Prabowo Subianto's priority program was launched on January 6, 2025. To date, the National Nutrition Body recorded that MBG has reached 60 million people. The target is to increase this number to 82.9 million people by 2026.
Read: BGN Welcomes Criticism of Free Nutritious Meal Program
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