The Lens: Indonesia’s plans to fight child malnutrition must be carried out carefully

Recently, the Indonesian president established a new free meal programme aimed at providing nutritious food to schoolchildren, toddlers, and expectant mothers.

The government’s goal is to reduce stunted growth in children, helping to build a healthier workforce for the future.

The programme’s benefits extend beyond good nutrition for children. It has the potential to drive economic growth by increasing demand for food products, which would benefit farmers and the food industry.

Additionally, providing free meals to the underserved can enhance food security and improve the overall quality of life.

However, with a price tag of US$4.4 billion, this initiative comes at a major cost to the government, potentially leading to deficits that exceed Indonesia’s legally defined GDP debt ceiling of 3 per cent.

With the limited budget, the low cost per meal allocated for the programme could undermine the project’s purpose of delivering nutritious meals, rendering the project ineffective.

Additionally, the immense scale of the national programme could prove hard to set up and maintain in the project’s early stages.

To mitigate some risks, the government could consider focusing initial efforts on the most remote areas where populations are most vulnerable to malnutrition.

This maximises benefit while maintaining an appropriate budget.

In conclusion, the benefits of the new free meal programme are clear.

However, a careful approach should be taken to avoid potential budget deficits and logistical problems.

Taiwan carried out its first execution in five years in January. The move upset both rights groups and the EU, which called on the government to maintain its de facto moratorium on the death penalty.

In September, Taiwan’s constitutional court ruled that the death penalty is constitutional but only for the most serious crimes with the most rigorous legal scrutiny. The ruling came after considering a petition brought by 37 people who were on death row.

Taiwan’s Justice Ministry said in a statement that Huang Lin-kai had been executed at the Taipei Detention Centre.

Lin-Kai had been sentenced to death in 2017 for the 2013 murder of his ex-girlfriend and her mother. He also raped his ex-girlfriend.

The ministry said Huang’s execution was consistent with the intention of the constitutional court’s September ruling.

Taiwan last put someone to death in April 2020, which also drew censure from the EU days after the bloc had publicly thanked Taipei for donating face masks during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The EU’s diplomatic service said in reaction to Huang’s execution that it “calls on Taiwan to apply and maintain a de facto moratorium and to pursue a consistent policy towards the full abolition of the death penalty in Taiwan”.

While Taiwan’s largest opposition party, the Kuomintang, voiced its support for capital punishment, rights groups expressed dismay.

“This execution is a shocking and brutal development,” said E-Ling Chiu, the Taiwan director of rights group Amnesty International.

The Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty, in a joint statement with three other rights groups, said executions would “only make society more bloodthirsty”.

Its Facebook page was then flooded with comments in support of the death penalty.

Reuters

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