The Management Association of the Philippines said it will actively seek for the government’s declaration of child stunting as a priority national agenda and will demand for concrete actions that will trickle right to grassroots level.
It said budget support should be allocated to the initiative and resources to reorient feeding programs with greater emphasis on maternal nutrition, babies and toddlers and form competition policy in agriculture and food value chains.
“As a business group, we can have greater impact acting collectively in the fight against malnutrition and child stunting,” said MAP president and BDB Law Founding partner Benedicta Du-Baladad in a news conference with MAP partners and members of the media.
“We at MAP hope to expand our role beyond fund generation and philanthropy to a shared responsibility in addressing malnutrition in the country, participating in the programming and governance of nutrition strategies and interventions. It will be a shift from a transactional to a transformational partnership with the government,” Du-Baladad said.
MAP recommends an active pursuit of tripartite partnerships among the business sector, government and community for a whole-of-society approach in fighting malnutrition and child stunting and its adverse effects.
“We will do our share and engage the private firms, organizations, and individuals to heed this call, starting with our own MAP members and expanding the circle to other groups so that together we can all work in building a more progressive future for the country,” Du-Baladad said.
MAP governor-in-charge for resilience and recovery Cielito Habito illustrated the magnitude of the problem and offered solutions that could be done to move forward.
“Child stunting is a major threat to the nation’s future,” Habito said.
“MAP’s ecosystem is diverse and can potentially muster the collective strength of the private sector to mobilize and help the government achieve the country’s nutrition objectives. As we are among the leading employers in the country, MAP can strategically influence its network of employees in the delivery of support services like nutrition literacy,” he said.
According to the World Bank, the Philippines has one of the worst cases of child stunting in the world, ranking 5th with the highest stunting prevalence among countries in the East Asia and Pacific Region, and is among the 10 worst countries in the world.
The World Health Organization described stunting as a growth and development impairment of children resulting from poor nutrition, repeated infection and inadequate psychosocial stimulation. When this happens specifically during the first 1,000 days from birth, it can lead to adverse consequences that will limit a child’s ability to reach his full mental, physical and economic potential.
“We should be worried. If the problem is not addressed in an urgent and decisive manner, we will be placing our country’s future in the hands of stunted children becoming adults whose capacity to be productive, competitive and creative are limited, thus affecting national development and progress,” Du-Baladad said.