Nutrition execs tackle plans vs malnutrition

In a bid to intensify programs against malnutrition, district and city nutrition program coordinators (DCNPC) across the country convened in Cebu City for a two-day conference.

The country's blueprint of actions for nutrition improvement, the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition (PPAN) from 2017 to 2022, was presented to the stakeholders during the 6th DCNPC national conference, which will end today.

The PPAN 2017-2022 includes the targets for various forms of malnutrition and the corresponding programs needed to address them. The plan—aside from targets, directions, and priority actions—will also define the roles and contributions of stakeholders for achievement of its goals and targets.

Doctor Azucena Dayanghirang, National Nutrition Council (NNC)-7 deputy executive director, said the conference is aimed at educating the program coordinators on PPAN, recognizing their respective roles in fulfilling the plan.

DCNPC President Raquel Buere said local program coordinators have vowed to implement the plan, which aims to lower the rate of malnutrition among children by the end of 2022.

“The DCNPC will give its big effort to implement the PPAN. Others are only good on planning, but not on actions… And so, we will lobby this plan to the local officials seeking for their support,” she said in a press conference yesterday.

The conference is being attended by 200 delegates, who are expected to present PPAN before their elected government officials.

Doctor Parolita Mission, NNC-7 nutrition program coordinator, said the NNC is banking on a strategy that will mobilize local government units to support the plan and further strengthen its implementation.

Dayanghirang hopes that LGUs will integrate PPAN in their nutrition programs.

In a separate development, the nutrition officials are pushing for the passage of the bill institutionalizing the plantilla of barangay nutrition scholars (BNS) in every barangays all over the country.

Dayanghirang is optimistic that the bill will be passed into law within the year because of the positive support from the legislators.

The bill sponsored by then senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla provides for the BNS' security of tenure and the creation of mandatory position of barangay nutrition worker in every village to address the basic nutrition concerns of the community.

BNS, Mission said, has a monthly honorarium ranging from P300 to P5,000. There are around 46,500 BNS nationwide.

Presidential Decree 1569 enacted on July 11, 1978 aims to strengthen the barangay nutrition program by providing BNS, who are all barangay volunteer workers, to deliver basic nutrition and health-related services.

Mission and Dayanghirang believed that the law is already outdated and its provisions needed an amendment.

The barangay nutrition program is being implemented to address the malnutrition problem, affecting the vulnerable groups particularly school children, pregnant women and lactating mothers, as well as the health and nutrition condition of the community as a whole.

“The program aims to reduce the prevalence rate of malnutrition among moderate and severe preschoolers and school children. The magnitude of the malnutrition problem in the country urgently needs greater involvement and participation of the people at the grassroots level," the bill reads.