11 November 2014, Quezon, City - As part of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement strategy, the National Nutrition Council-NCR with the Regional Nutrition Committee conducted an NGO Forum at the Robbinsdale Hotel, Quezon City. The forum aims to forge partnership with government and non-government organizations to widen doors for partnerships and for exploring, testing, and scaling up innovations for nutrition improvement.

“National agencies and local government units have been working together to fight hunger and malnutrition in our country for a very long time. NGOs implement various programs and projects to supplement or complement the government’s effort in mitigating hunger and malnutrition in our country. However, their involvement is not fully recognized and documented which sometimes lead to overlapping and/or duplication of projects and beneficiaries.” said NCR Regional Nutrition Program Coordinator Milagros Elisa V. Federizo.

NPC Federizo further explained that achieving the targets of the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition or the PPAN, which is the country’s blueprint or framework to mitigate hunger and malnutrition, calls for a strong collaboration with local government and NGOs.

Fifteen (15) NGOs and nine (9) member agencies of the Regional Nutrition Committee (RNC) attended the Forum and pledged their commitment to support the implementation of the Updated Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition 2014-2016. They also mapped out their courses of action to ensure fulfilment of their commitment to the PPAN.

“Needless to say, malnutrition cannot be solved by one agency or sector alone. Malnutrition, be it undernutrition or overweight and obesity or specific nutrient deficiencies, is a problem caused by the interplay of various causative factors which requires the collective and collaborative actions of various agencies, sectors and stakeholders” NPC Federizo added. (PJMA/MEVF/NNCNCR)