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Directors Bio 3471 2756

AZUCENA MILANA-DAYANGHIRANG, MD, MCH, CESO III
ASSISTANT SECRETARY and EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
NATIONAL NUTRITION COUNCIL

Dr. Azucena M. Dayanghirang is an experienced public health leader. For the past 29 years, she has been a facilitator and a trainer for various health programs particularly on Maternal Child Health and Nutrition. She has served the people of Davao as City Nutrition Action Officer from 1991-1995; Chief of the Technical Services Division and Medical Officer VI of Davao City Health Office from 1996 to 2005; as well as the Provincial Health Officer II and Provincial Nutrition Action Officer of Davao del Sur from 2008 to 2016.

During her stint in the local government, she led the City Nutrition Committee in the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of health and nutrition programs. She initiated the “Fresh Milk Supplemental Feeding Program,” which led to the reduction of protein-energy malnutrition among 0-6-year-old children. She also successfully lobbied for the regularization of 32 Nutritionist-Dietitians deployed in the 16 Districts of Davao City in 1996.

In 2016, she was elected as the National President of the Nutrition Action Officers' Association of the Philippines (NAOPA), Inc. Shortly after, she was appointed as Deputy Executive Director of the National Nutrition Council (NNC), an attached agency of the Department of Health, Philippines. In August 2019, Dr. Dayanghirang was appointed as the Executive Director of the NNC. Currently, she is designated as the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Philippines Government Focal Point and most recently, appointed as a member of the Executive Committee of the Global Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement representing Asia and Papua New Guinea.

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte signed the appointment of Dr. Dayanghirang to Career Executive Service Officer (CESO) Rank III effective 3 December 2020. Recently, she was upgraded to Executive Director IV with the rank of Assistant Secretary as approved by President Duterte through Executive Secretary Salvador C. Medialdea on 21 July 2021.

Philippine Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Business Network Organizational Meeting: Nutrition is also our Business!

Details
Category: Directors Corner

image article on business networkThe National Nutrition Council (NNC) Executive Director Azucena M. Dayanghirang and Focal Point of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Global here in the Philippines, with the assistance of the top honchos from the United Nations (UN) World Food Programme (WFP), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Nutrition International (NI) led the first-ever Philippine SUN Business Network (SBN) Meeting held last 28 February in Makati City.

Department of Health (DOH) Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje representing Secretary Francisco Duque welcomed the top business leaders and companies of the country. Standard Insurance President and CEO John Echauz was appointed as the SUN business sector convenor.

The SBN will serve as the platform for business and nutrition cooperation, with aim to reduce all forms of malnutrition among the nutritionally vulnerable as provided in the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition, 2017-2022.

The meeting unanimously said, private and public sector partnership in addressing malnutrition is DOABLE! A series of meetings is happening this March to discuss the plan of work and their official launch at the High Level Summit for Scaled Up Nutrition on 27 March 2020 at the PICC.