The National Nutrition Council-NCR (NNC-NCR) hosted a meeting with the members of the Navotas City Local Nutrition Early Warning System for Food and Nutrition Security (LNEWS-FNS) Core Group and Household Data Collectors on February 14, 2023 at Navotas Medical and Wellness Center, Navotas City.

A total of 17 participants attended the meeting: 6 members of the city core group from the planning, agriculture and nutrition offices and 11 household data collectors from the five (5) sentinel barangays of NBBS, Tangos, Tanza, Daanghari and San Roque.

The meeting was conducted as part of the monitoring of the LNEWS-FNS Project in the city. The main agenda was to plan for activities for 2023 since no data collection and other related activities were done from 2020 to present.

Facilitated by Development Management Officer II Theresa A. Rivas, the following were tackled during the meeting: 1) Assessment of LNEWS-FNS Implementation in 2022; 2) Obligations of NNC and Navotas City based on signed Memorandum of Agreement; 3) Review of household and secondary data collection, and 4) Planning for LNEWS-FNS implementation in 2023.

One of the problems encountered by the city was the separation of the three (3) sentinel barangays into smaller barangays: NBBS to NBBS-Proper, NBBS-Kaunlaran and NBBS-Dagat-Dagatan, Tangos to Tangos North and Tangos South and Tanza to Tanza 1 and Tanza 2. As agreed, the members of the city core group recommended to change the sentinel barangays.

Moving forward, the members of the city core group will conduct a meeting within February to finalize the steps in changing the sentinel barangays. The results will be presented to the members of the city nutrition committee headed by Mayor John Rey Tiangco. Social preparation activities will be conducted with the barangay nutrition committees of the sentinel barangays and data collection will resume once the barangays are finalized.

The LNEWS-FNS is the regular and periodic collection of relevant data to determine the status of food supply and security in the area. It 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. Navotas City is the lone LNEWS-FNS area in Metro Manila since 2015. 

Written by: DMO II Theresa A. Rivas and NPC Milagros Elisa V. Federizo