SCALING INCLUSION, MANAGING RISK: GOVERNANCE TRADE-OFFS IN GREEN PUBLIC PROCUREMENT FOR INDONESIA’S NATIONAL SCHOOL FEEDING PROGRAM

Abstract

National school feeding programs are increasingly positioned as instruments of inclusive green economic transformation. In Indonesia, the Makan Bergizi Gratis (MBG) program integrates nutritional provision, local supplier inclusion, and sustainability-oriented procurement within a single national platform. Prevailing policy narratives assume that expanding inclusive green procurement strengthens food security and local economic development in mutually reinforcing ways. This article challenges that linear assumption by conceptualizing MBG as a structurally tensioned governance system. Drawing on institutional complexity, paradox theory, and collaborative governance literature, the study develops a configurational governance framework that examines the interaction among inclusion intensity, control mechanisms, operational scale, and institutional capacity. The analysis argues that inclusion generates heterogeneity, which increases monitoring demands; intensified control, in turn, may constrain participation. Moreover, scaling transforms risk from localized operational exposure into systemic vulnerability, producing non-linear stability effects. Rather than proposing harmonization, the article identifies threshold dynamics and boundary conditions under which inclusive green procurement enhances food system stability—or amplifies fragility. Food security, particularly its stability dimension, is reframed as a derivative of governance alignment rather than aggregate provision. By repositioning procurement as a strategic arena of paradox, the study contributes to food security scholarship, inclusive green economy discourse, and public management theory. The findings suggest that resilience in national feeding systems depends less on normative inclusion ambitions and more on adaptive calibration under persistent structural tension.