The local ordinances and issuances found in the portal are tagged according to Thematic Clusters – ranging from ordinances on the First 1000 Days Program, ordinances on food security, Barangay Nutrition Scholars, and more. A total of 10 major Thematic Clusters can be accessed in the portal, with specific sub-clusters found in several themes. Additional thematic clusters may be added as they emerge.
This clustering allows users to see groups of related ordinances under specific areas of concern in local nutrition programming. The following section describes each of the Thematic Clusters of the Compendium.
First 1000 Days
The First 1000 Days is one of the strategic thrusts of PPAN 2017-2022 to address stunting and other forms of malnutrition. It refers to the period of a child's life, spanning the nine (9) months in the womb starting from conception to the first twenty-four (24) months of life, considered to be the critical window of opportunity to promote health and development and prevent malnutrition and its life-long consequences.
Local governments have pursued the adoption of the RA 11148 – First 1000 Days Law, and the institutionalization of the strategy by enacting ordinances on the First 1000 Days, specifying the package of services and interventions to be provided to those who are nutritionally-at-risk, especially pregnant and lactating women, particularly teenage mothers, women of reproductive age, adolescent girls, and all children who are newly born up to age twenty-four months. Such ordinances also define the coordinating and implementing mechanisms to ensure optimum first 1000 days service delivery within the LGU.
First 1000 Days-Specific
Local governments have enacted ordinances on specific programs that ensure the nutritional wellbeing of mothers and children across the individual life stages of the First 1000 Days of life, from pregnancy, infancy, up to toddlerhood. Ordinances within this thematic cluster aim to ensure quality and coverage of critical interventions in the first 1000 days such as, but not limited to, complete prenatal visits, exclusive breastfeeding, micronutrient supplementation, and dietary supplementation for pregnant women and children 6-23 months old.
Nutrition-supportive
Nutrition supportive ordinances are local legislative efforts that aim to address the underlying causes of malnutrition such as insufficient access to health services and an unhealthy environment. Ordinances under this cluster ensure that programs on health, water and sanitation reach the people, particularly the nutritionally-vulnerable groups, subsequently ensuring an enabling environment for the achievement of positive nutrition outcomes.
Food Security
The cluster on Food Security includes ordinances that ensure that people at all times, have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their food preferences and dietary needs for an active and healthy life. Ordinances around food production including household and community food gardens, livelihood, and employment generation in the communities along with similar ordinances are part of this cluster. Many of these projects are considered under the Nutrition-sensitive Program of the PPAN 2017-2022.
Codes
Codes have been enacted by local governments to provide a comprehensive guiding reference to various instrumentalities of local government and the constituency on broad development concerns within the LGU such as health, children’s rights and welfare, and gender and development. Nutrition as a multisectoral concern has been built into these various codes which has facilitated effective implementation of nutrition programs, projects, and activities in the LGU.
Nutrition Education and Promotion
Nutrition education and promotion is an important facet of local nutrition programs where constituents are provided with reliable and useful nutrition information that will translate into positive knowledge, attitudes, and practices across target groups. Programs in pursuant of this are institutionalized into ordinances enacted by local governments in recognition of the need to communicate nutrition knowledge in the LGU.
Program Management
Institutionalization of nutrition programs are pursued through the enactment of ordinances that define the nutrition program, its coverage, components, and the coordinating and implementing mechanisms that will ensure effective local nutrition program management within the LGU. Ordinances within this cluster ensure that program structures are in place and are effectively implemented by the involved offices in the LGU.
Human Resources
Effective local nutrition program management requires a human resource base that is harnessed by the LGU to coordinate and deliver the services to the constituents, with quality and coverage. In this regard, local governments have enacted ordinances that create, organize, as well as compensate the nutrition human resource requirement of the LGU, from nutrition officers, nutritionist-dietitians, and the frontline nutrition workers – the Barangay Nutrition Scholars (BNS).
Regulation
Various regulatory laws have been passed by the national government that aim to protect the rights of the people to good nutrition and help facilitate the achievement of positive nutrition outcomes among the people. These laws and issuances are adopted and operationalized by local governments through the enactment of local ordinances that respond and adapt the said national policies into the local setting.
Ordinances tagged under Regulation can be further clustered into ordinances on food fortification, salt iodization, healthy foods for schoolchildren, and food safety.
Financing
Financing is an important component of effective local nutrition program implementation. There are ordinances enacted by local governments which feature innovative financing strategies, such as taxation, percentage allocations, and supplemental appropriations, to secure budgets for their local nutrition programs.