According to the Republic Act (RA) 7160 or the Local Government Code of 1991, local government units (LGUs), specifically the cities and municipalities, have the critical role of providing basic social services to its constituents. Specifically, LGUs should “Ensure and support, among other things, the preservation and enrichment of culture, promote health and safety, enhance the right of  the people to a balanced ecology, encourage and support the development of appropriate and self-reliant scientific and technological capabilities, improve public morals, enhance  economic prosperity and social justice, promote full employment among their residents,  maintain peace and order, and preserve the comfort and convenience of their  inhabitants.”

The Seal for Child-Friendly Local Governance was proposed as a recognition and audit system for the LGUs that deliver clear and outstanding positive results for children. It is further seen as a shift from the voluntary assessment to a mandatory audit of LGU’s child friendly governance. The assessment criteria of the area in cognizant of the LGU functions, national plans, and international commitments, where all City and Municipal LGUs are assessed using the following indicators categorized under the four (4) core rights of children (survival, development, protection, and participation) and governance.

The Regional Inter-Agency Monitoring Task Force (Regional-IMTF) was composed of the following agencies: Department of Interior and Local Government Regional Office III (DILG RO III) and Department of Social Welfare and Development Regional Field Office III (DSWD FO III) as the chair of the Regional Sub-Committee for the Welfare of Children (RSCWC-Region III). The Regional IMTF also include the Department of Health-Center for Health Development (DOH-CL CHD), Department of Education Regional Office III (DepEd RO III), National Economic Development Authority Regional Office III (NEDA-RO III), National Nutrition Council-Region III (NNC-R III), and the Family Planning Organization of the Philippines (FPOP) as member-agencies and evaluators.

Part of the Regional-IMTF’s tasks were to review all submitted forms from the LGUs specifically, in ensuring the completeness of submitted forms, encoding the data using the prescribed template and ensuring that all entries and computations are correct. Discrepancy regarding the submitted documents and data inputted by the LGUs was communicated to the Provincial-IMTF for verification.

The NNC-Region III as a member of the Regional Inter-Agency Monitoring Task Force (Regional-IMTF) was tasked to evaluate the Survival 1.2 indicator which focused on the prevalence of malnutrition among children aged 0-59 months old of all 137 cities and municipalities of Central Luzon. Specifically, NNC-Region III was tasked to check on the actual number of children 0-59 months old measured. Stunting, wasting, and overweight/obesity values were evaluated and audited based on the submitted OPT Plus Form 2A - Municipality/City Summary Report on Operation Timbang Plus as the reference document.

Prior to the audit, an orientation for the Regional IMTF was held last July of 2021 while the enrollment, orientation, and tutorial on the website was held on the last week of October 2021. The evaluation proper started on the last week of October 2021 until the 2^nd week of January which included an initial evaluation and a final evaluation. After the final assessment, the Regional-IMTF chairperson presented the initial results of the audit to the members. Comments and suggestions were also submitted and noted. The confirmed initial results were then submitted to the national team for further review and evaluation.

Having nutrition indicator as part of the Seal for Child-Friendly Local Governance, NNC-Region III encourages LGUs to pursue generating accurate and timely data through the Operation Timbang Plus held from January to March of each year.


By: Ms. Antonette Gail D. Garcia, Nutrition Officer I