WFP Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific - 2016 SPRs RBB 2016 SPRs by project type | Page 119

Standard Project Report 2016
Progress in human development has been slower than economic development. Indonesia ranked 110th of 188
countries in the 2015 Human Development Index. Although Indonesia is approaching its target of 100 percent
enrolment in primary education, with 92 percent of boys and 93 percent of girls enrolled in 2012, girls have
significantly higher drop-out rates than boys, especially at the secondary level. Reasons for this include early
marriage, and financial and cultural constraints.
Indonesia ranks 110th of 155 countries on the gender inequality index. Despite economic growth there are
significant gaps with respect to gender equality in the areas of health, education, employment, and involvement in
decision-making processes, with women in rural regions suffering greater disparity than women in urban areas.
Poverty, coupled with high food prices in the market place and limited infrastructure, hindered access to food,
especially in remote areas. According to the World Bank, Indonesian rice prices are 50 to 70 percent higher than
those in Thailand or Viet Nam, a heavy burden for the 92 percent of Indonesians who are net purchasers of rice.
Indonesia's food systems are frequently disrupted by natural disasters. The country experienced 2,342 natural
disasters in 2016, the highest number of events in the last 14 years. Malnutrition is prevalent everywhere but is
worst in areas with limited infrastructure and access to schools, markets and hospitals. Households reliant on
subsistence agriculture or living in slums with poor sanitation have the highest rates of malnutrition.
Indonesia has acted rapidly to implement the 2030 Agenda and set national targets and indicators for the
Sustainable Development Goals.
Response of the Government and Strategic Coordination
The Indonesia National Medium-Term Development Plan (2015–2019) focuses on: i) human development, including
nutrition; ii) primary sector development, including food sovereignty; and iii) poverty alleviation and development in
remote areas.
To achieve food sovereignty, the Government aims to: i) reinforce food security through increased production; ii)
stabilise prices; iii) improve the quality of food consumption and nutrition by promoting balanced diets; iv) mitigate
the effects of disasters on food security; and v) improve farmer welfare.
The Food Law institutionalises the right to food and the state's obligation to provide sufficient, safe and nutritionally
balanced food for all people at all times. Food security policies have previously focused on food production aiming
to achieve self-sufficiency. The state-owned enterprise Perum Bulog is tasked with stabilising the price, availability
and accessibility of rice, and for distributing subsidised rice to the poor. Import restrictions have also been used to
regulate supply of rice. In 2016, a Presidential Decree gave Perum Bulog an expanded mandate to ensure the
availability, accessibility and affordability of nine other commodities (corn, soybeans, sugar, cooking oil, wheat flour,
red shallots, chilies, beef, chicken and eggs).
A 2013 Presidential Decree launched the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) movement and a multi-stakeholder task force
of 13 ministries. The Donor and United Nations Country Network on Nutrition (DUNCNN) was established in 2014 to
support the Government in comprehensively addressing nutritional outcomes; WFP Indonesia has played an active
role in this coordination mechanism. In response to the National Medium-Term Development Plan, the National
Food Security Agency has developed a comprehensive strategic policy framework and national action plan to
improve food security and nutrition. Dietary diversity is recognised as important for health and nutrition, but policies
until recently have focused on the production of staple foods rather than diversity in diets and nutritional balance.
Recent initiatives such as the Presidential Directive to unify and harmonise the multiple social assistance transfer
programmes into a single electronic card-based system have presented the re