The national government’s plan to allot P10 billion to address malnutrition in communities with high incidence of stunting in children is laudable, but perhaps long overdue.
Launched recently, the four-year Philippine Multisectoral Nutrition Project will cover 235 towns with high rates of stunted children and pregnant women.
Project funding will come from the World Bank. The project will be implemented by the Department of Health and the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
This follows a 2021 survey by the Department of Science and Technology’s Food Research and Nutrition Research Institute that found more than half of stunted children were from the poorest and poor households in the country.
The Marcos administration has deemed it proper to put a high priority to the nutrition project.
In fact, this is considered of strategic importance as it also covers such areas as food security, health care, and education, among others. Malnutrition is linked to long-term adverse developmental impacts.
The World Health Organization classifies stunting in children, defined as being shorter than their age, as a “high public health significance.”
Stunting can lead to mortality from infections, as well as cognitive, social and emotional developmental delays, a lack of physical stamina in adult years and the increased likelihood of low economic productivity.
According to the Health Department, one in every three Filipino children under the age of 5 or about 30 percent is considered stunted. There are an estimated 10 million children in this age group.
The DOH plans to start slowly because in the first or one and a half years, it will perform baseline assessments for the 235 municipalities to get a clearer picture of their nutrition status.
The assistance to be given to beneficiaries will be performance-based grants and support packages in the form of primary healthcare services and nutritious food.
The agency believes the government cannot expect communities without proper access to food, education and livelihood to nurture healthy citizens.
Taking off from similar initiatives in other countries, the Philippines’ nutrition project hopes to replicate Indonesia’s accomplishment of bringing down stunting by as much as 8 percent after three years.
The Multisectoral Nutrition Program is an investment in the nation’s future that deserves the full support of all concerned national government agencies as well as local government units.
This initiative reflects the whole-of-society approach that we hope will produce salutary results as an integral part of a broader anti-poverty program in the years ahead.