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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.

Philippines identifies nutrition priorities for 2022

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Category: Directors Corner

SUNJA photo

 

The Philippines identified top 3 nutrition priorities to pursue in 2022 during the 2021 Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Joint Assessment Consultation Series held on 10 and February 2022. These are:

  • Development and dissemination of Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition 2023-2028 and Regional Plan of Action for Nutrition 2023-2028, including the operational and advocacy plans
  • Tracking of budget to monitor increasing investments for nutrition programs / PPAN interventions (both nutrition specific and nutrition sensitive), through implementation of the developed comprehensive resource mobilization
  • Establishment of comprehensive PPAN monitoring and evaluation system to include, but not limited to, physical and financial tracking, and results-based monitoring of the PPAN results framework

 

 

The Scaling Up Nutrition Joint Assessment (SUNJA) Consultation Series is an annual activity of the SUN Movement countries to assess and reflect on the the progress and bottlenecks, identify support needed to scale up actions, and set country nutrition priorities for the following year.

The two-day virtual consultation series was attended by 97 participants from the government, civil society, business, private sector, academe, development partners, United Nations, and other non-government organizations across sectors.

The consultation centered on the functionality of the multisectoral and multistakeholder platform, coordination, alignment, and results of nutrition priorities and plans of the country, policy, advocacy, and communication for nutrition, finance and resource mobilization strategies, and knowledge sharing and learning efforts. The four established networks (academe, business, civil society alliance, and development partners) also assessed and shared their networks’ contributions, commitments, and challenges to accelerate the progress for achievement of nutrition goals.

To close the consultation, Assistant Secretary and Executive Director Azucena M. Dayanghirang emphasized the need for 3 C’s to address the urgent problem of hunger and malnutrition: Collective and Collaborative efforts among Committed stakeholders.

“I believe this annual multi-stakeholder gathering is a great opportunity for us to recalibrate our efforts to attend to the most current issues and problems as well as reignite our passion to accelerate the delivery of different nutrition interventions. If there’s anything this consultation series has made me realize, it is that, TOGETHER, WE can achieve greater things”.

The Philippines submitted its final 2021 assessment report to the SUN Movement Secretariat on 28 February 2022. The Philippine SUN Core Group members composed of the Chairs and Convenors of the four Networks shall monitor the implementation of the identified 2022 priorities. The final assessment report will be available soon at https://scalingupnutrition.org/sun-countries/philippines/.

 

 

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