Company managers and chief executives on Monday pledged their support for the four-year Philippine Multi-Sectoral Nutrition Project to resolve the persisting nutrition problem among Filipino children.
Managers’ Association of the Philippines president Benedicta Du-Baludad urged the effective and judicious use of the PMNP’s P10-billion loan from the World Bank by the government to address the health and nutrition needs of poor mothers and their children.
“We fully support the four-year PMNP which aims to lower the incidence of malnutrition by helping over two hundred towns through primary health care services and nutritional support that will be provided to children and pregnant mothers,” she said, urging the private sector to address and contribute to the effort to eradicate child stunting resulting from malnutrition.
She said severe malnutrition remains a serious problem for nearly 30 years, with one in every three Filipino children below 5 years old suffering from stunting, according to a World Bank study.
The country ranks fifth among countries in the East Asia and the Pacific region with the highest prevalence of child stunting. Rural areas have more stunted children at 30 percent than in urban areas at 26 percent in direct proportion to the poverty levels in the provinces like Western and Southern Mindanao, Mindoro, Negros, Palawan, Samar and the far north of Luzon.
Stunting rates are the highest in Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao at 45 percent rate and lowest in Manila and Central Luzon at 23 percent..
Du-Baludad said MAP was also encouraged to recommend an active pursuit of tripartite partnerships, composed of the business sector, government and community for a whole-of-society approach in fighting malnutrition and child stunting.
“We hope to expand our role beyond fund generation and philanthropy to a shared responsibility in addressing malnutrition in the country, participating in the governance of nutrition strategies and interventions,” she said.
MAP will welcome the opportunity to serve as one of the three private sector representatives in the National Nutrition Council and contribute to its mandate to formulate national food policies and strategies for nutritional improvement.
“We are worried, yet we are hopeful too, that we can solve this national problem by working together. Failure to address this problem in an urgent and decisive manner will place our country’s future in the hands of stunted children becoming adults whose capacity to be productive, competitive, and creative are limited. That will imperil national development and progress,” Du-Baludad said.