GOVPH
MENU

Details
Category: Featured Articles

press

WORLD OBESITY DAY JOINT MEDIA RELEASE

DOH and development partners call for a whole-of-society approach to reduce obesity in the Philippines

MANILA, 4 MARCH 2022 – The Department of Health (DOH), National Nutrition Council (NNC), Philippine Association for the Study of Overweight and Obesity (PASOO), Nutrition Center of the Philippines (NCP), World Health Organization (WHO), and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) raise the alarm on growing obesity in the Philippines on the occasion of World Obesity Day.

Globally, obesity affects 800 million individuals, placing them more at risk for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and some cancers. It has also emerged as a major risk factor for severe disease during the COVID-19 pandemic, making people living with obesity twice as likely to be hospitalized if tested positive for COVID-19.

Obesity, which was once considered a problem primarily in high-income and developed countries, is now a rising health problem in low- and middle- income countries including the Philippines.

Around 27 million Filipinos are overweight and obese, based on the latest survey of the Department of Science and Technology’s Food and Nutrition Research Institute. For the past two decades, overweight and obesity among adults has almost doubled from 20.2% in 1998 to 36.6% in 2019. Similarly, the prevalence rates of overweight and obesity among adolescents have more than doubled from 4.9% in 2003 to 11.6% in 2018.

If no action is taken, overall rates of overweight and obesity will continue to rise. It is projected that more than 30% of Filipino adolescents will be overweight and obese by 2030 (Landscape Analysis on Overweight and Obesity in Children, Philippines).

Details
Category: Region 5

BARANGAY ANAS DIETARY SUPPLEMENTATION PROGRAMIsang malaking hamon para sa Barangay Anas, Masbate City ang apatnapu’t dalawang (42) malnourished children na naitala sa kanilang barangay nuong 2021. Ngayong panahon ng maraming pamilya ang hirap makakuha ng sapat na pagkain at halag ng nutrisyon na kailangan ng mga bata.

Sa pamamagitan ng Direct Observed Supplementary Feeding (DOSF) Program na inilunsad ng City Government of Masbate, bahagyang naibaba ang malnutrisyon sa barangay. Ang DOSF ay nagsimula nuong Mayo 17, 2021 para sa mga batang anim (6) na buwan hanggang limang (5) taong gulang sa Siyudad ng Masbate. Kasama ang Barangay Nutrition Scholars (BNS) na si Medina Suplito, at Barangay Health Worker (BHW) Elenita Suplito, bahay sa bahay ang pagbigay ng mga pagkaing inihanda tulad ng linagang itlog, champorado, monggo misua, arozcaldo, lugaw, kalabasa at iba pang nilutong pagkain para sa bata. Kasama rin nito ang pagbibigay ng mga bitaminang kailangan para sa malusog na pangangatawan ng bata. Patuloy din ang pag obserba sa health safety protocols sa distribyusiyon ng mga pagkain para sa kaligtasan ngayong pandemya.

Sa tulong at suporta ng Punong Barangay Franklin C. Asne, City Nutrition Action Officer, Dr. Ma. Theresa Arollado, City Mayor Rowena R. Tuason, at ang National Nutrition Council Bicol, napadali at naging maayos ang implementasiyon ng programa.  Sa kasalukuyan, ipinagmamalaki ng Barangay na may labing lima (15) na bata na lang ang malnourished. Ibig sabihin, napabuti ng animnapu’t apat na pursyento (64%) ang kalagayan ng mga batang malnourished sa barangay. Patuloy ang Direct Observed Supplementary Feeding hanggang ngayong Enero ngayon 2022.

Source: BNS Suplito

- SSAP, MCV. NNC RO V

Details
Category: 10 kumainments

ASec. AMDayanghirang CFS49 Photo

 

Assistant Secretary and NNC Executive Director Azucena M. Dayanghirang, MD, MCH, CESO III delivered the Philippines’ intervention statement during the 49th Session of the Committee on World Food Security’s (CFS49’s) Forum on the Uptake of the CFS Voluntary Guidelines on Food Systems and Nutrition (VGFSyN) on 12 October 2021. VGFSyN aim to support the development of coordinated, multi-sectoral national policies, laws, programs and investment plans to enable safe, healthy and nutritious diets through sustainable food systems, to operationalize the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) Framework for Action in accordance with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The forum provided an opportunity to discuss and mobilize political commitments from governments, donors, civil society, private sector, and the UN system for the implementation of the VGFSyN.

In her intervention statement, ASec. Dayanghirang stated that the Philippines will sustain its commitment to end hunger and all forms of malnutrition through the implementation of the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition (PPAN) 2017-2022 and beyond as part of the Philippines' Food Systems Transformation Pathway. As the country’s framework of action for nutrition improvement, the current PPAN complements nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive programs and demonstrates the link to the VGFSyN as it recognizes food insecurity as one of the underlying causes of malnutrition. She added that the successor PPAN will focus on strengthening the nutrition program of the local government units under the ambit of the food system.

Furthermore, Asec. Dayanghirang committed that the country will take off from the gains of the policies that support the PPAN, such as the National Food Policy (NFP) and the First 1000 Days (F1K) Law, adding that the Philippines will continue to assist the formulation of local nutrition action plans (LNAPs), following a results-oriented approach guided by the nurturing care framework to address the multi-dimensional causes of malnutrition.

She added that alliances and partnerships will be utilized in the promotion of the uptake of VGFSyN through the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement. The Philippines have already organized the SUN networks at the national, and partly sub-national level, and will endeavor to be fully organized in all sub-national levels to avoid fragmented actions among multi-stakeholders and ensure collective effort to fight malnutrition on a context-specific measure on the ground.

She also shared that the country will develop the National Nutrition Information System (NNIS) which shall harmonize all existing national and local nutrition databases to identify individual, groups, and localities with the highest magnitude of hunger and malnutrition. The NNIS can serve as a platform to promote uptake of the VGFSyN by providing available, updated, and accessible data on food systems and nutrition, especially on food consumption that can aid in making predictive decisions and fostering data-supported innovation in nutrition.

Asec. Dayanghirang closed the Philippines’ intervention statement by expressing her confidence that this policy tool considers the food systems in its totality and looks at the multi-dimensional causes of malnutrition.

The CFS 49 is be held virtually from 11 to 14 October 2021.

You may read and download the VGFSyN here: https://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/cfs/Docs2021/Documents/CFS_VGs_Food_Systems_and_Nutrition_Strategy_EN.pdf

 

Written by: Nina Fritzie P. Bruce

Details
Category: Featured Articles

Landscape Event Banner as of 1 Oct 2021 2

[Joint Press Release for Virtual Dialogue with Punong Barangays: Enabling Nutrition Devolution]

Manila, 4 October 2021. Recognizing the inadequate appreciation of the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition 2017-2022 as the framework for addressing problems in nutrition at the barangay level, and the opportunities to scale up investment in nutrition brought by the implementation of the Supreme Court Ruling on the Mandanas-Garcia petitions and Executive Order 138, the National Nutrition Council (NNC) in partnership with the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), and the Liga ng mga Barangay sa Pilipinas (LBP), spearheaded the conduct of a Virtual Dialogue with Punong Barangays: Enabling Nutrition Devolution.

“We recognize the important role of barangays in the delivery of nutrition related programs and services to help address malnutrition and other health problems in the community,” says Secretary Eduardo Año of DILG, who was ably represented by Undersecretary Martin Diño. The DILG sits as the Vice-Chair of the NNC Governing Board.

The Formative Evaluation of the PPAN 2017-2022 commissioned by NEDA in 2019 revealed that the formulation of Barangay Nutrition Action Plans (BNAPs) varies. The nutrition volunteers, called Barangay Nutrition Scholars (BNSs), often prepare said BNAPs and submit the same to the Barangay Nutrition Committees (BNCs) for approval with no information on the budget allocation despite the various guidelines issued by the DILG, DBM, and NNC to guide planning and budgeting. Also, a familiar clamor among the Barangay Nutrition Scholars is the poor appreciation of Punong Barangays and members of the nutrition committee of their roles and functions and the importance of investing and scaling up nutrition in their governance system.

In his message, Cabinet Secretary Atty. Karlo Alexei B. Nograles emphasized that “with the implementation of EO 138 or the SC Ruling on Mandanas-Garcia Petitions, it is my fervent hope that our Local Chief Executives, particularly our Punong Barangays and the sangguniang kabataan chairpersons would integrate, strengthen, and sustain our nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive programs in their local policies and plans.” CabSec Nograles is the current Chair of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Zero Hunger and Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Adviser for the Philippines.