One of the goals to help prevent the worsening of malnutrition in the country is through ensuring that households achieve food security. Many people around the world continuously suffer from hunger, thus achieving food security and improved nutrition is part of the Sustainable Development Goals by the United Nations envisioned to be achieved by the year 2030.

In the country, one of the programs being implemented to contribute to achieving zero hunger is the Local Nutrition Early Warning System for Food and Nutrition Security (LNEWS FNS) under the Philippine Food and Nutrition Surveillance System (PFNSS). The LNEWS FNS is one of the programs that can foretell the condition of food supply in a municipality or city through anticipating the possible crisis that can such as food shortage or health problem. Through the LNEWS FNS, timely warning and intervention and early forecast is made possible when it comes to supply of food, as based on current information trends. This allows the local government to make timely and relevant decisions, identify priorities, and plan out allocation of resources.

In the MIMAROPA Region, two LGUs being monitored for the LNEWS Implementation are the
municipalities of Abra de Ilog, Occidental Mindoro and Narra, Palawan. To monitor their program implementation and provide technical inputs, a back-to-back session was conducted on 10 November 2020. The morning session was an online refresher course participated by the members of the LNEWS Household Data Collectors (Barangay Nutrition Scholars) of Abra de ilog, Occidental Mindoro. The BNSs were reviewed and guided on how to properly conduct an interview and collect data from the chosen households in the sentinel barangays.

On the other hand, the afternoon session was arranged for the members of the LNEWS Municipal Core Group of Narra, Palawan. It was attended as well by the Acting Mayor of Narra, Palawan, Hon. Crispin O Lumba Jr. This meeting served as venue in giving technical assistance on managing the LNEWS monitoring tool that provides opportune results to determine appropriate course of action.

NNC MIMAROPA aims to establish a food secured community to address prevalence of malnutrition in the region. Through the LNEWS-FNS, LGUs under the program are provided additional assistance in mitigating and preventing the prevalence of malnourished in their respective communities. (AVETPatriarca)