Current issues and what the World Food Programme is doing
With a quarter of a billion people, and encompassing great geographic and human diversity, Indonesia is the world’s fourth most-populous nation and south-east Asia’s largest economy. Now classified as middle income, the country has achieved Millennium Goal 1 by halving the percentage of its people living in extreme poverty and hunger; it has also nearly halved the percentage of those living in poverty (to 11.1 percent, or 28.5 million people).
But the pace of poverty reduction is slowing; inequality is rising. Between 2000 and 2015, poverty rates among households headed by men fell faster and further than among households headed by women. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) expects the prevalence of undernutrition to have declined to 7.6 percent in 2014–2016, from 19.7 percent in 1990–1992. Most indicators of development, life expectancy and education are positive, but malnutrition – and stunting in particular, remains widespread.
Current issues in Indonesia
• Food security improved between 2009 and 2015, with 58 of 398 rural districts found to be highly vulnerable in 2015. But progress may taper off if the challenges of food access, malnutrition and vulnerability to climate-related hazards are not addressed.
• Stunting affects 37 percent of children under five, and along with underweight is prevalent among all income groups; meanwhile, the prevalence of overweight and obesity among adults has increased sharply, also for all income groups.
• Poverty and volatile food prices hinder access to food, especially in remote areas. Most Indonesians, including 60 percent of subsistence farmers, buy their food in markets.
• Indonesia aims to become self-sufficient in rice, corn, soybeans, beef and sugar. Efforts to increase production are under way, but climate change means that agriculture and livelihoods are still vulnerable to extreme weather.
• The country also faces the threat of frequent natural disasters.
What the World Food Programme is doing in Indonesia
In collaboration with our bilateral development partners (Australia, Germany, Japan and the United States), our main role is to ensure that the Indonesian Government’s own programmes are effective by providing policy advice and technical assistance. (Direct delivery of food aid would only occur in the event of a Level 3 emergency.) As leader of the global logistics and emergency telecommunications clusters, WFP will also ensure that it can support the Government’s relief work if an emergency occurs. The Country Programme (2016-2020) focuses on four activities:
• WFP supports the Government in collecting and analyzing data on food security and nutrition for best policies and programmes.
• WFP promotes balanced diets to address under nutrition and overweight.
• WFP improves the efficiency and nutritional impact of national social protection programmes
• WFP enhances national and sub-national emergency preparedness and response through the establishment of an integrated network of strategically located logistics hubs.
World Food Programme partners in Indonesia
WFP cannot fight global hunger and poverty alone. These are our partners in Indonesia:
Featured Indonesia publications
A Country Brief provides the latest snapshot of the country strategy, operations, operational highlights (achievements and issues/challenges), partnerships and country background.
Looking for more publications on Indonesia? Visit the Indonesia publications archive.