Presented by The Friedman School of Nutrition at Tufts University
Indonesia just launched what could become one of the world’s largest school feeding programs. And the urgency couldn’t be clearer: More than a fifth of Indonesian children are stunted, and millions more are undernourished.
The numbers are huge: The effort aims to feed 83 million children and pregnant women by 2029, and next year it’s expected to cost 350 trillion rupiah ($21.5 billion). If it succeeds, it could become a model for other countries trying to fight hunger, reduce poverty, and build more climate-resilient food systems, Devex contributing reporter Rebecca Root writes.
Funded entirely by Indonesia’s government, the plan is to serve daily free meals at schools, community centers, and health facilities for both children and pregnant women. Some 5,000 central kitchens and over 700 nutrition service units are already operating, with more on the way. Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto sees the plan as a way to stimulate local economies in addition to improving nutrition.
“The ambition and vision of the Indonesian program are tremendously exciting,” Peiman Milani, director of the food initiative at The Rockefeller Foundation, tells Rebecca.
Still, turning that vision into reality — providing daily meals for tens of millions of children and women — is no easy feat. Feeding Indonesia is challenging due to its sheer size and complexity: More than 17,000 islands, over 900 of them inhabited and many hard to reach, with wildly varying infrastructure.
At the Philanthropy Asia Summit I attended several weeks ago, Ferro Ferizka Aryananda, Indonesia’s special adviser to the coordinating minister for human development and culture, said they are working on adapting the program to fit these variations. In Java, the feeding program looks one way: “Distribution using a car, using a truck is very easy,” Ferro said. “But in Papua … the distance is 40 kilometers” between schools, which calls for a different approach to how meals are prepared and scaled.
It’s a giant logistical puzzle — and an expensive one. Its rollout comes as economic growth slows and poverty remains close to 10%. Officials hope private investors and efficiency savings will help cover the costs.
The ambitions also carry the risk of entrenching inequality, experts say. Implementation will naturally be easier in major, well-resourced cities than in frontier or underdeveloped regions, warns Rifky Pratama Wicaksono, policy analyst with The Audit Board of Indonesia. “If it turns out that there are actually more beneficiaries located in areas that should not be the main priority, the disparity will only widen," he says.
But ensuring that local economies actually benefit could help mitigate some of these risks. The government’s plans, after all, include partnerships with local businesses that can supply climate-smart protein, rice, and vegetables from nearby suppliers instead of relying on imports. “Diversity on the school meal plate will eventually drive diversity around local production systems, which is also important from a resilience climate adaptation perspective,” Milani says.
And this approach makes sense. After all, school feeding is often called a “low hanging fruit” for food systems transformation. It keeps kids in school — especially girls who might otherwise drop out — and fights poverty by buying from local farmers. It builds stronger, shock-resistant food systems by linking smallholder producers to guaranteed markets.
Indonesia’s effort is being watched as a potential model for the region. The country is set to lead work on developing minimum standards and guidelines for the ASEAN Nutrition School Package. As Wicaksono puts it, it “is a model of how leadership can inspire institutional change.”
Read: Inside Indonesia’s plan to feed 83 million people for free
See also: 5 things to know from the latest global survey on school meal programs
Funding cuts clip UNHAS’ wings
The United Nations Humanitarian Air Service — often the only way aid workers can reach crisis zones cut off by conflict, poor roads, or geography — is facing severe funding shortfalls that are already disrupting operations.
Managed by the World Food Programme since 2004, UNHAS provides passenger and light cargo transport for more than 600 humanitarian organizations in 21 countries, mainly in Africa. But donors are stretched thin, and with a multimillion-dollar funding gap, WFP is reducing its fleet by over 22%. That means 17 fewer aircraft will be in service, alongside route cuts and likely staff reductions.
It’s a serious blow for a service that, in 2024 alone, moved over 355,000 passengers, nearly 5,000 metric tons of cargo, and conducted more than 1,400 medical evacuations and security relocations.
The impact is especially stark in South Sudan, one of UNHAS’ largest and most challenging operations. Service there has been reduced from 48 to 43 destinations, meaning five locations have been cut entirely and capacity to 10 others scaled back. The cuts come at a time when over half the population is experiencing acute food insecurity, making reliable humanitarian access even more critical. Around 60% of UNHAS’ destinations in the country can only be reached by helicopter, especially during the rainy season, when roads are impassable.
“There is absolutely no reliable commercial alternative for the flights,” says Oleh Maslyukov, who leads UNHAS in South Sudan. “Nobody's going there for any other reason. There is simply no money, no commercial interest.”
Other countries are also feeling the squeeze. In Afghanistan, aid workers have seen a nearly two-thirds drop in available seats and lost three helicopter destinations. The Central African Republic’s fleet has shrunk from three aircraft to two.
While UNHAS keeps costs low by charging modest passenger fees — covering about 30% of its budget — most funding relies on donors whose budgets are under growing pressure.
Read: UN air service faces cuts, jeopardizing aid access to remote areas
And don’t miss: What it’s like to deliver food aid to war-torn Sudan
Related: Why has UNOCHA set a lower target for humanitarian spending?
See you in Sevilla
Once every decade, the world tries to get on the same page about financing for development — and this week in Sevilla, Spain, delegates formally adopted the “Compromiso de Sevilla,” a 38-page road map for the next 10 years. This wasn’t a surprise: The text was already negotiated and agreed upon before they arrived. But this week, national representatives are placing their stake in the ground — announcing their priorities and their support, or lack thereof, for the final document.
The agreement is a patchwork of compromises. High-income countries acknowledged low- and middle-income countries’ debt burdens and the need for reforms, but they didn’t include new debt relief mechanisms. It supports creating a U.N. Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation, though it stops short of binding commitments. There’s also a call to “immediately triple” the financing capacity of multilateral development banks. And, much to many countries’ frustration, language on climate change was watered down — a legacy of U.S. pushing, even though Washington ultimately exited the talks and did not attend.
FAO argues that now is the time for bolder, smarter financing plans anchored in the economic realities of countries most dependent on agrifood systems. That includes reallocating domestic resources toward cross-sectoral investments with transformative impact — and exploring instruments such as debt-for-development swaps to free up fiscal space for these critical goals.
“Let us be clear: It is not yet a breakthrough. The true measure of this gathering will not be words on a page,” says Barbados’ finance minister, Ryan Straughn. “It will be whether we bend the arc of history towards justice, towards action, and towards results on the ground for our people.”
Now the focus shifts to implementation — with much of the real work expected to happen in sideline meetings and private negotiations. Meanwhile, low- and middle-income countries are showcasing over $1 billion in investable projects spanning agriculture, energy, and digital infrastructure.
Read: Sevilla reporter's notebook Day 2 — compromiso adopted, but what next?
Background reading: Defining a decade — what to expect from Financing for Development
+ Catch up on all our coverage from the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development in Sevilla.
So long, USAID
Yesterday marked the end of the U.S. Agency for International Development as the State Department officially assumed control of U.S. foreign assistance programs and absorbed the agency’s remnants — bringing an end to a six-decade chapter of U.S. global engagement.
Bringing home the bacon
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“Today is a very, very sad day, a tragic day, I believe, for the United States of America,” said Susan Reichle, former USAID counselor, at a Devex Pro Briefing event yesterday. “They are only going to have 718 people, less than 6% of the USAID workforce, to manage these programs.”
Panelists warned of an “impending trainwreck” as the State Department takes over programs without sufficient personnel to manage them.
“One of the calculations I’m looking at right now is the per capita management responsibility per officer at the State Department is going to go from $1.7 million to $12.8 million,” said Jim Kunder, former acting USAID deputy administrator.
“Potentially, there are going to be a lot of Plumpy’Nut bars rotting in warehouses in Africa because this thing is hopelessly understaffed,” he said, referring to the ready-to-use therapeutic food, or RUTFs, that are critical to humanitarian response efforts — particularly feeding malnourished children.
Watch: State Dept takeover of USAID is an 'impending trainwreck,' experts say (Pro)
See also: Why are 400,000 boxes of food for malnourished kids stuck in the US?
And don’t miss: Can the US State Department do development? (Pro)
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Chew on this
Funding shortages threaten relief for millions of Sudanese refugees. [UN News]
Most packaged food in Kenya would need a health warning label under new rules, report says. [Reuters]
More than 17 million people are facing high levels of acute food insecurity, with projected pockets of populations in IPC Phase 5. [IPC]
About the author
Ayenat Mersie
Ayenat Mersie is a Global Development Reporter for Devex. Previously, she worked as a freelance journalist for publications such as National Geographic and Foreign Policy and as an East Africa correspondent for Reuters.
