THE Department of Health said Asean Leaders’ Declaration on Ending All Forms of Malnutrition was adopted by the leaders of the 10-nation largely economic alliance during the 31st Asean Summit.
The Declaration embodies the highest level of political commitment toward a multi-sectoral collaborative approach on food security and nutrition among sectors such as agriculture, public health and nutrition, and social welfare and other relevant stakeholders.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the Declaration confirmed the critical importance of addressing malnutrition, particularly stunting, immediately and strategically.
Increasingly, nutrition is seen as a maker and marker of development—essential to the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals, medical experts said.
He said the transformative Agenda 2030 was grounded in the ambition of leaving no one behind and served as an inspiration to one of the strategic measures of the Asean Sociocultural Community “to promote a community that is healthy, caring, sustainable and productive, and one that practices a healthy lifestyle resilient to health threats and has universal access to healthcare.”
The Asean is home to 17.9 million girls and boys who are too short for their age (stunted) and face diminished mental development—with irreversible consequences for individuals, families, communities and countries.
It is imperative that Asean member states, without delay, scale up actions toward ending all forms of malnutrition, to make sure that the potential of everyone, everywhere, is unleashed by making malnutrition an injustice of the past.
Faster results at scale are necessary to achieve the six global targets for Improved Maternal, Infant and Young Nutrition adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015, and the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
The Asean leaders tasked the member nations’ Health Ministers to monitor the progress of the Declaration and support the delivery of nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions.
In March 2018, the Philippines will lead the formulation of the framework of action for nutrition and a strategic plan to implement the Declaration among the 10 Asean member states.
The 10 Asean member states have also agreed to adopt the “One Health” approach to tackle the pressing issue on antimicrobial resistance that will ensure a holistic, multi-sectoral, and multi-disciplinary approach in combating AMR at the regional and country levels.
The Philippine Department of Health which took the lead in crafting the declaration said the signing of the document “is a historic achievement in the Asean that will contribute to the Asean vision of a healthy, caring, sustainable and productive Region resistant to emerging health threats and have universal access to health care.”
Globally, AMR has emerged as one of the serious challenges of the modern world with an alarming increase in rates of drug resistant infections observed across different regions and countries because of the inappropriate use of antimicrobials in the health, veterinary and agriculture sectors.
In 2014, the World Health Organization already raised the alarm that without effective action by governments and global leaders, the world could face a return to the post-antibiotic era where drug resistant infections overtook cancer as the leading cause of human suffering and death by 2050 threatening the gains achieved with the discovery of antibiotics in the 20th century and the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals, in particular, attaining good health and well-being.
The Asean community quickly recognized the importance of taking action against AMR with the increasing incidence of of antimicrobial resistance in the region such as drug-resistant tuberculosis, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, macrolide-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae, multi-drug resistant enteric pathogens and extremely drug-resistant Gram-negative bacilli in both the hospital and community settings.
Duque said: “Antimicrobial resistance poses a serious threat not only in the Philippines but also the whole Asean with major implications in health, trade, agriculture, the economy and global security. “The Department of Health is very pleased to lead in this initiative as our main contribution in regional health cooperation during this important period of our chairmanship.
“DoH is ready to share our country experience in implementing the one health approach with other Asean member states that is embodied in our National Action Plan to combat antimicrobial resistance.”