Integrating Nutrition Policy: Agenda-Setting Analysis of the MBG Program for Advancing Rural Sustainability in Indonesia

¹ Department of Government Studies, Faculty of Social and Political Science, Muhammadiyah University of Yogyakarta, Indonesia
² Department of Political Science, Faculty of Social Science, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan

^* Corresponding author: helen.dian@umy.ac.id

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the agenda-setting process of MBG policies in rural sustainability in Indonesia. The research was conducted using the policy agenda-setting theory by John W. Kingdon which includes indicators of problem stream, policy stream, and politics stream. This research uses qualitative research methods by collecting 300 online news articles from three media platforms, which are processed using NVivo12 Plus software. The results showed that the process of forming the policy program was more dominantly influenced by the politics stream (39%) than the policy stream (33%) or problem stream (27%). In addition, sentiment analysis showed that public reactions to the MBG were generally positive (74%), especially in political circles, support for nutrition benefits and government dedication. However, there were negative attitudes (25%), highlighting concerns related to fund allocation, politicization, corruption and skepticism. The convergence of the three flow indicators has created policy windows that have pushed MBG to become a strategic national agenda for the 2024-2029 government. In addition, the policy entrepreneur in question is an interested party from the village itself. Villages play an important role in the form of synergy to create food security ecosystems and support sustainable rural economic development. The contribution of this research will be a reflection by future researchers to further explore the process of the birth of the MBG policy so that it hopes to be a reflection of policy makers in mapping the policy priority scale for solving public problems.