The National Nutrition Council (NNC) is once again conducting a series of capacity-building activities in another set of local government units to expand its coverage of the Early Warning System for Food and Nutrition Security (EWS-FNS) in 2016. The recently conducted two (2) batches of municipal/city level training for the EWS core group of LGUs is the second part of the capacity-building activities for these municipalities, with consultative-workshops as the first part, conducted between May and August 2016.
The first batch of city/municipal level training was conducted on 17-18 August 2016 in Makati City, while the second batch was conducted on 31 August – 01 September 2016 in Davao City. Participants of the training were EWS core group members of the following LGUs:
Batch 1:
- Alaminos City, Pangasinan
- Lucena City, Quezon
- Libmanan, Camarines Sur
- Passi City, Iloilo
- La Carlota City, Negros Occidental
Batch 2:
- Dalaguete, Cebu
- Hilongos, Leyte
- Kumalarang, Zamboanga del Sur
- Hagonoy, Davao del Sur
- Maimbung, Sulu
The training covers 12 technical sessions, from basic concepts of data collection, nutrition and nutrition-related data analysis, maintenance of the food and nutrition security early warning system and the use of the automated data management system, including the Operation Timbang (OPT) Plus automated tools. Participants include local heads of departments or offices of nutrition, social welfare and development, health, agriculture, planning and development, disaster risk reduction and management and the local Sangguniang Bayan or Sangguniang Panlungsod.
The training was also attended by selected NNC Regional Nutrition Program Coordinators and technical staff who will serve as the EWS-FNS Regional Focal Persons andassist LGUs in the system’s establishment and maintenance and in the scaling up of the system nationwide.
Meanwhile, the third part of the capacity-building activities, the Training for EWS-FNS Data Collectors for these LGUs is ongoing and expected to conclude by end of October 2016. Participants include the Barangay Health Workers (BHWs), Barangay Nutrition Scholars (BNS) and the Rural Health Midwife (RHM) assigned to the identified five (5) sentinel barangays of each of the 10 LGUs. Trained BHWs, BNSs and RHMs will be responsible for the quarterly collection of household level data in their respective city/municipality.
EWS-FNS expansion areas that were covered by NNC in 2014 and 2015 are already implementing the said system and conducting their own quarterly data collection and analysis with technical assistance from NNC through its Regional Offices. The implementation of the system in these areas and adoption for their respective planning is also being monitored on a quarterly basis by the NNC Regional Offices.
The EWS-FNS is a component of the Philippine Food and Nutrition Surveillance System (PFNSS) intended to enable LGUs to take timely nutrition action through early detection of a worsening nutrition situation based on the monitoring of nutrition and nutrition-related indicators. Re-establishment of EWS-FNS was inspired by the Local Nutrition Early Warning System (LNEWS), modelled by NNC in the 1980s. It has evolved into EWS-FNS as a component of the Joint Programme of the Millennium Development Goals Fund (MDG-F) and later as a component of the Maternal and Young Child Nutrition Security Initiative in Asia project (MYCNSIA) conducted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and NNC.
This year’s expansion brings to 48 the number of cities and municipalities covered by the project, to date.
