The City of Navotas commits to improve the implementation of the LNEWS-FNS in the city in the new normal during the virtual program implementation review (PIR) held on August 23, 2021. The PIR was attended by members of the city core group, household data collectors and representatives from the five (5) sentinel barangays: North Bay Boulevard South (NBBS), Tangos, Tanza, Daanghari and San Roque.

The LNEWS-FNS or Local Nutrition Early Warning System for Food and Nutrition Security enables the community to act early, based on early warning information gathered from timely data collection, to counter any threat, natural or human-induced that may affect the food and nutrition security situation in the area.

In 2015, the city of Navotas was chosen as the pilot area of the LNEWS-FNS for an urban setting. Various activities were conducted since 2015 including consultative workshop with the city nutrition committee, advocacy meetings with barangay nutrition committees of sentinel barangays, training of members of city core group and household data collectors, signing of memorandum of agreement between NNC and Navotas City Government, provision of equipment and supplies and regular meetings to monitor the LNEWS-FNS implementation.

The project implementation did not run without challenges especially now with the COVID-19 response as the city’s priority action. The PIR aimed to document the successes, good practices, lessons learned as well as problems encountered and recommendations for the successful implementation of LNEWS-FNS at the local level.

During the PIR, participants assessed the implementation process through identification of facilitating factors, challenges encountered, and steps undertaken to address these challenges starting from the data collection up to the integration of LNEWS recommendations to local nutrition plan and local development plan. Participants were also asked questions concerning the usefulness and utilization of data collected and importance of the project. The group agreed that the project is useful to the city, but implementation should be improved concerning the timely data collection and interpretation, formulation of recommended interventions based on the data collected and presentation of intervention proposal to the city nutrition committee for approval. 

NNC-NCR Regional Nutrition Program Coordinator Milagros Elisa V. Federizo thanked the city government and the sentinel barangays for accepting the LNEWS-FNS project and supporting its implementation for the past five (5) years. She hopes that the recommendations identified during the PIR will help improve its implementation to make it more relevant and useful to the city.

“Let us think of ways to make the project more useful especially now that we are in the new normal,” RNPC Federizo said. She added, “Kailangan natin magmodify ng strategies in doing things to make it more relevant despite the pandemic and to enable the local nutrition committees at the barangay and city levels to respond immediately and appropriately to food insecurity and malnutrition problems”.

The results of the PIR will be processed and will be forwarded to NNC-Central Office as reference for the National LNEWS-FNS Program Implementation Review to be held in September 2021.

Written by:
Nutrition Officer II Theresa A. Rivas and
Nutrition Program Coordinator Milagros Elisa V. Federizo