Indonesia is gradually recovering from multiple crises that have hit the country since 1997/98, but poverty rates are still above pre-crisis levels. Overall, household food security has improved, except in some structurally insecure areas, while malnutrition rates remain high and have increased among children under five.
WFP first began operating in Indonesia more than 40 years ago. After closing its office in 1996, severe drought, the economic crisis and political turmoil prompted WFP to return in 1998. In response to a series of natural disasters - the Aceh tsunami of December 2004, the Nias earthquake of 2005 and the Yogyakarta earthquake and West Java tsunami of 2006 - WFP established operations in affected areas of Indonesia. Annually, more than 2 million targeted vulnerable people are receiving WFP assistance. As of August 2006 almost 500,000 of the most vulnerable people in the tsunami-hit areas of Aceh and Nias were being provided with a monthly food ration while another 70,000 in the Yogyakarta area were receiving supplementary food assistance. WFP’s school feeding programmes cover more than 800,000 children in both the tsunami area as well as other parts of Indonesia. Food is also given to malnourished children and their mothers; to tuberculosis patients in exchange for treatment; and to people displaced by ethnic conflict, so that they can settle down and rebuild their livelihoods.
WFP’s goals include assisting Indonesia’s poor and tsunami-hit populations to build infrastructure and to send their children to school, as well as to ensure that malnourished vulnerable groups such as new mothers and young children receive nourishing meals combined with an education in basic nutrition.
In collaboration with the Government, WFP has published two important studies: a Food Insecurity Atlas of Indonesia and a Nutrition Map of Indonesia, both of which are continuing to address UN Millennium Development Goals and national priority issues.
Independence from the Netherlands
in 1949 led to the rise of President Sukarno.
A bloody anti-communist crackdown put General
Suharto in power.
In 1997 President Suharto resigned amid
mounting popular protest.
Three presidents have held office since
1997: Habibie, Abdurahman Wahid and, still serving, Megawati Sukarnoputri.
The next presidential election is due in 2004.
WFP Activities
The Indonesian government has embraced ambitious targets for reducing the rates of malnutrition and maternal and child mortality by 2010 in line with the UN’s Millenium Development Goals. WFP’s Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation (PRRO) helps to achieve these goals – by providing nutritional assistance to vulnerable children and pregnant women. However, aid activities also provide recovery rations to the most vulnerable tsunami survivors, boost primary school attendance, encourage TB patients to finish their treatment, help people improve their livelihoods and assist communities to develop. Specific activities include:
Targeted Food for Recovery – monthly food ration for the most vulnerable families (Aceh & Nias)
500,000 beneficiaries (aim to phase out activity during 2006)
Food Assistance to targeted Java Earthquake affected people – monthly ration of supplementary foritified food
120,000 initially, gradually phasing out by November 2006
Nutritional Rehabilitation aid via local health centres. Pregnant women and nursing mothers receive fortified noodles; children receive either fortified biscuits or fortified blended food (Greater Jakarta, East Java, NTT, NTB, south Sulawesi and Aceh & Nias)
- 420,000 children under 5 (rising to 480,000 in 2007)
- 130,000 pregnant women and nursing mothers (rising to 150,000 in 2007)
School Feeding – primary school students receive fortified biscuits in class every day to increase attendance and performance (Greater Jakarta, East Java, NTT, NTB and Aceh & Nias)
- 826,000 children (rising to 840,000 in 2007)
TB assistance – rice and fortified noodles to TB patients and their families to encourage patients to finish their treatment regime and provide extra nutrition to help them fight the disease (Greater Jakarta, East Java, NTB, NTT and south Sulawesi)
- 105,000 TB patients and their families (both years)
Capacity Building – More than 140 small community development projects have been undertaken with ownership passed on to the local community.
Publications – In collaboration with the Government, WFP has published a Food Insecurity Atlas of Indonesia and a Nutrition Map of Indonesia.
Overview
