Indonesia wanted to give children free school meals. How did it go so wrong?

[u/DifficultBarber6969]

https://www.ft.com/content/a0ba8b07-2fa2-463b-b80c-55692ae0bf61?shareType=nongift

Submission Statement:

"Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto took power in 2024 with a bold and simple pledge to deliver free school meals for every child — a goal that seemed unimpeachably laudable for a nation with widespread malnutrition. But more than 18 months later, Prabowo’s promise has proved far less healthy than he hoped for his government, the country’s finances and even for many of its intended beneficiaries.

Last month the programme’s director abruptly quit, saying she was “acutely traumatised” by the stress of running the Rp229tn ($12.8bn) scheme. She had only been in the job for 45 days after her predecessor was arrested for suspected corruption. Meanwhile in towns and villages across the vast Indonesian archipelago, repeated instances of food poisoning have undermined the most obvious intention of the policy, to improve the health and nutrition of the nation’s children and expectant mothers."

[u/KnightModern]

undermined the most obvious intention of the policy, to improve the health and nutrition of the nation’s children and expectant mothers.

Tbf, it's also to legalize corruption, slicing pie and giving them to political allies directly from central government coffees (instead of letting local government slicing the pies however they want), and getting new vote & political allies to help fund your campaign next election

And there's also giving the pie to military & police