The National Nutrition Council (NNC) is on a mission to enable all local government units to manage their local nutrition program effectively and efficiently for the welfare of all Filipinos to be adequately nourished. As such, a sound and feasible Nutrition Action Plan is required as the roadmap to successful implementation of the nutrition services. As the saying goes” Failing to plan is preparing to fail” thus, it is imperative that a plan should be geared on the salient aspects of the problem and not a generic or a “looks good on paper” plan. In Bicol Region, OPT Plus 2022 results ranked Catanduanes on its top in terms of prevalence rate on stunting, ranked 3rd in underweight, and 4th in wasting for Under Five children (U5) among the six provinces. The 2022 OPT Plus results showed that 4 of its 11 municipalities were included among the top 20 ranking LGUs with high prevalence rate of undernutrition for children less than five years old in the region.
As part of NNC ROV’s commitment in capacity building and LGU mobilization, a 2-day Local Nutrition Action Planning-Workshop and Integration of Budgets in the PDPFP, CDP, LDIP and AIP was conducted in Catanduanes for the members of the 11 Local Nutrition Committees on August 30 and 31, 2022 held at Queen Maricel Inn in Virac. Resource persons from CHD Bicol, NNC and DILG led by Marilyn Valeza OIC of NNC RO V together with Ms. Jessa L. Encarnacion, LGOO II from the DILG Catanduanes conducted the Workshop.
The main objective of the workshop is to enhance the capacity of the LNC members with additional knowledge and skills in nutrition program planning and management and advocating for nutrition in their respective LGUs and stakeholders, so that they may be able to effectively address the malnutrition problem in the community. By taking apart the roots of the problem, and analyzing their causes, the participants identified the main problem of malnutrition and crafted their own plans for 3- years (2023-2025). Each municipality presented their nutrition plans and at the end of the workshop, a re-entry planning session was done to enable them to skillfully present to other nutrition committee members, advocate and finalize the Local Nutrition Action Plan (LNAP).
After the workshop, roll-out trainings on BNAP Formulation Workshop were conducted in Virac, Panganiban, Baras, Bato, San Miguel and Bagamanoc with technical assistance from NNC. It is with fervent hope that through these planning-workshop on nutrition program, the nutrition situation in Catanduanes will improve with concerted effort of elected officials, workers, and stakeholders.
(PNFP Sesalim/NO III Valeza, NPC ARR, NNC ROV)
