ILOILO City – To help address malnutrition problem in barangay level, the National Nutrition Council (NNC) Region 6 is urging all barangays in the region to prioritize the implementation of nutrition programs.
The NNC-6 will spearhead a webinar this December for newly-elected barangay captains to help them formulate their respective Barangay Nutrition Action Plan (BNAP).
Sheryl C. Sedantes, officer-in-charge Regional Nutrition Program Coordinator of NNC-6, said the webinar aims to help barangay officials in the preparation of their nutrition plans, programs and activities for 2024.
“Dapat si barangay may gina-obra man for nutrition. That’s why we really plan to conduct this webinar kay bal-an namon bag-o ang captains, so gusto namon tagaan sang guide kon paano nila i-implement kag i-formulate ang BNAP,” Sedantes said.
She particularly wanted the BNAP to align with the interventions and programs under the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition (PPAN) 2023-2028.
She added that barangay officials play an important role in the implementation of nutrition programs especially that the data recording on the number of children aged zero to 59 months, pregnant women, lactating women, elderly, adolescents, adults, and school children starts at the barangay level.
Sedantes also assured the barangay officials that the NNC-6 is ready to extend technical assistance in formulating the BNAP, especially that each barangay is facing its own malnutrition problem.
“Ang BNAP is like sang PPAN. Bale plan na nila (barangay) and sa na-mention nga interventions sa PPAN, ano ang naga-apply sa ila nga dapat nila i-implement para i-address nila ang problem,” explained Sedantes.
The BNAP’s formulation would be led by the Barangay Nutrition Committee (BNC) with barangay captain serving as the chairman.
Under PPAN, meanwhile, here are the interventions needed to achieve healthy diets:
* establishment and maintenance of school, community and workplace food gardens
* completion of farm to market roads and market infrastructures
* setting up of KADIWA stores
* provision of nutrient-dense and fortified food
* provision of food stamps or cash transfers
* monitoring of EO 51 or adopting a national code of marketing of breastmilk substitutes, breastmilk supplements and related products
* regulation and marketing of unhealthy food
The PPAN 2023-2028 interventions to promote better practices are the following:
* development and implementation of maternal health service packages
* Infant and Young Child Feeding promotion and counseling
* Peer/community support for breastfeeding mothers
* development of enhanced minimum standards of breastfeeding station
* formulation and implementation of integrated social behavior change for the first 1,000 days
* development of social behavior change strategies for school age children, adolescents, adult, and other adults
Barangay Captains Urged to Retain BNS
Sedantes encouraged the newly-elected barangay captains to retain the existing barangay nutrition scholars (BNS) for easier implementation of nutrition programs.
“Gina-encourage namon tani ang barangay captains nga kon sin-o na to ang existing nga BNS i-retain na lang sila kay dugay naman sila dira,” she said.
BNS’ functions include disseminating public information on nutrition programs and assessing nutritional status of children, among others.
“So very critical ina kay kon indi na sia kabalo magkuha sang height and weight, mag-compute and analyze sang data, lain na karon nga report ang iya ma-generate,” Sedantes added.
Based on NNC-6 data, here is the region’s prevalence rate for stunting, wasting, and overweight/obesity from 2018 to 2022:
* Stunting – 2018 (8.45 percent), 2019 (7.64 percent), 2020 (7.13 percent), 2021 (6.85 percent), and 2022 (5.15 percent)
* Wasting – 2018 (2.62 percent), 2019 (2.53 percent), 2020 (2 percent), 2021 (1.85 percent), and 2022 (1.41 percent)
* Overweight/obesity – 2018 (2.3 percent), 2019 (2.25 percent), 2020 (2 percent), 2021 (2.62 percent), and 2022 (2.01 percent).
Here is the breakdown of the prevalence rate of stunting, wasting and overweight or obesity in 2022 per province.
Stunting
* Antique (9.83 percent)
* Negros Occidental (7.34 percent)
* Iloilo (5.37 percent)
* Aklan (4.87 percent)
* Guimaras (4.84 percent)
* Capiz (4.49 percent)
Wasting
* Negros Occidental (2.19 percent)
* Antique (2.11 percent)
* Aklan (1.65 percent)
* Iloilo (1.33 percent)
* Capiz (1.21 percent)
* Guimaras (0.88 percent)
Overweight and obesity
* Capiz (2.96 percent)
* Guimaras (2.96 percent)
* Aklan (2.85 percent)
* Antique (2.79 percent)
* Iloilo (2.72 percent)
* Negros Occidental (1.73 percent)/PN
