The National Nutrition Council (NNC), in its effort to build capacities of LGUs, once again, conducted a series of capacity-building activities for Local Nutrition Early Warning System (LNEWS) Core Group and Program Implementation Review (PIR) among LNEWS core group in ECCD areas. The PIR was conducted on 04-05 October 2018 at Atrium Hotel in Manila, among LGU partners in the ECCD areas to determine the factors affecting the implementation of LNEWS-FNS; and to determine adjustments to improve its implementation.
Around 50 participants, that included the LNEWS-FNS Core Group members of 10 ECCD areas, Nutrition Program Coordinators (NPCs) of NNC Regional Offices concerned, and ECCD F1K Provincial Nutrition Coordinators (PNCs) participated in the activity. This resulted in a comprehensive assessment of LNEWS-FNS implementation at the local level, which will be used by NNC to determine next steps and action points regarding the LNEWS-FNS implementation and expansion.
Meanwhile, NNC expands LNEWS-FNS to another ten LGUs in CY 2018. Two batches of municipal and city level training for the LNEWS core group were conducted for the following expansion areas:
Batch 1, 24-25 October 2018 at A. Venue Hotel, Makati City:
- Madella, Quirino
- Lamut, Ifugao
- Casiguran, Aurora
- Coron, Palawan
- Bais City
Batch 2, 14-15 November 2018 at Regency Inn Hotel, Davao City:
- Basey, Samar
- Kadingilan, Bukidnon
- Tampakan, South Cotabato
- Kiamba, Sarangani
- Talacogon, Agusan del Sur
Participants to the said trainings were representatives of offices of nutrition, social welfare and development, health, agriculture, planning and development, disaster risk reduction and management and the members of the local Sangguniang Bayan or Sangguniang Panlungsod, including Vice Mayor Helbert A. Jovellar of Kadingilan, Bukidnon.
Lastly, the NNC Regional Offices, from October to December also conducted the third and final part of the series of capacity-building activities, the Training for LNEWS-FNS Data Collectors for these LGUs. Participants to this 2-day training, include the Barangay Health Worker (BHW), 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 primary or household level data in their respective city/municipality. Collection of LNEWS-FNS data for these expansion areas will begin in January 2019.
The LNEWS-FNS is a component of the Philippine Food and Nutrition Surveillance System (PFNSS) that aims to strengthen the capacity of local government units for data collection, analysis and interpretation, and the use of data for nutrition program planning and decision-making. The system enables the communities to act early, based on early warning information, to counter any threat, natural or human-induced that affects the ability of communities and households to obtain sufficient food.
