Safeguarding child health in Indonesia's school feeding program: Why technical leadership and policy alignment matter

Indonesia's Makan Bergizi Gratis (MBG) program represents one of the most ambitious universal school feeding initiatives in the Global South, with the potential to improve child nutrition, educational participation, and long-term human capital development. However, its rapid national scale-up has outpaced the technical governance and institutional capacity required to ensure food safety, nutritional quality, and policy coherence. This short communication adopts an analytical policy perspective to examine two interrelated governance challenges that may constrain the program's effectiveness in safeguarding child health. First, limited integration of qualified nutrition professionals and weak technical leadership may compromise food safety and nutritional adequacy. Second, insufficient alignment between MBG and Indonesia's core nutrition priorities, particularly those related to the first 1000 days of life and poverty-targeted interventions, raises concerns regarding social efficiency and equity. Drawing on global evidence and early implementation insights from Indonesia, this paper argues that strengthening technical leadership, reinforcing food safety governance, and aligning MBG within a broader national nutrition strategy are critical to ensuring that the program functions as an effective and sustainable social investment. While focused on Indonesia, the findings may offer broader insights for similar programs in low- and middle-income countries. This paper contributes a governance-oriented perspective that links technical capacity and policy alignment to health outcomes in large-scale school feeding programs.