Bridging Policy Fragmentation: Aligning Indonesia ’s Food Systems for Better Nutrition
Penulis
Jimmy Daniel Berlianto
Maulana Fajrul Izzi
Indonesia’s food and nutrition policies are structurally fragmented, potentially undermining healthy diets. While policy coverage for malnutrition and food self-sufficiency is extensive, these areas operate independently, creating misalignments that negatively impact the affordability, availability, and desirability of nutritious foods.
Highly prioritized flagship programs risk undermining structural nutrition goals if they are not properly governed. Large-scale national initiatives, such as the Free Nutritious Meal (MBG) program, receive strong political and fiscal support; however, remaining governance gaps create tensions and could potentially undermine the wider nutrition policy agenda.
Aligning cross-sectoral priorities is essential for an integrated food systems approach, moving beyond sector-specific metrics toward shared system-level objectives. The Coordinating Ministry for Food Affairs and the Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Cultural Affairs must lead efforts to align interventions across the food supply chain, markets, public food provision, and behavior change campaigns using shared outcomes, such as the Cost of a Healthy Diet.
As one of the key factors of healthy diets, desirability should be given more attention by prioritizing behavioral change and preference shaping outcomes. This includes the need to redesign current flagship programs and stronger policy alignment mechanisms between similar programs, such as MBG and supplementary feeding programs.
