RRI.CO.ID, Jayapura - A multinational, cross‑sector collaboration has officially begun in Cenderawasih Land as the Papua Provincial Administration, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA) launched a monitoring dashboard for the Free Nutritious Meals (MBG) Program.

The strategic partnership focuses on strengthening technical capacity and nutrition support facilities for Papua’s children. Assistant for Administration and Public Welfare at the Papua Regional Secretariat, Yohanes Walilo, said the dashboard launch is a strategic step in implementing the MBG Program. The system is designed to support fast, accurate, data‑driven decision making in the field.

“MBG is one of the national strategic programs that not only focuses on meeting children’s nutritional needs. It is also a long‑term investment to create a healthy, smart, strong and competitive generation of Papuans,” he said after the dashboard launch and MBG Task Force socialization in Jayapura on Wednesday, 16 July 2026.

Yohanes noted that Papua’s geographic challenges, such as mountains, coasts, islands and remote areas, require adaptive, collaborative service approaches. For this reason, the MBG Program’s success depends on synergy among all stakeholders.

“MBG concerns nutrition quality, food safety, sanitation and hygiene, distribution, waste management, and ensuring every child truly receives benefits in a proper and dignified manner. Therefore, cross‑sector collaboration is the key to the program’s success,” he said, as quoted by Antara.

He explained that the dashboard allows administration officials to monitor Nutrition Fulfillment Service Unit (SPPG) operations, beneficiary numbers and school coverage. The system also tracks food safety, sanitation and hygiene, waste management, field constraints and follow‑up actions.

“We expect every regional apparatus, working group member and MBG task force to update data regularly with valid, accurate and accountable information. Monitoring results should form the basis for evaluation to improve service quality for Papua’s children,” added Yohanes.

UNICEF Papua Chief, Aminuddin Mohammad Ramdan, said the dashboard is built to compile critical data on MBG implementation. The monitored data includes beneficiary counts, participating schools, SPPG operations, and emergency reports such as suspected food poisoning.

“This dashboard will help local governments monitor in real time so issues on the ground can be responded to more quickly and policies are truly data‑based,” he said.

Aminuddin said that besides developing the digital system, UNICEF is providing technical support to build human resource capacity. The support also strengthens operations at 14 SPPG units under the National Nutrition Agency located in Jayapura and Biak Numfor regency.

He hopes the MBG monitoring dashboard’s coverage can be gradually expanded to encompass the entire Papua province. The expansion aims to make program implementation more effective, accountable and optimally beneficial for Papua’s children. ***