Cotabato City. Dr. Kadil M. Sinolinding Jr. of National Nutrition Council BARMM meets with Nutrition Specialist Juliane Friedrich and Mishael Argonza, Head of World Food Programme in Cotabato.  The meeting aims to have a brief but realistic initial assessment of BARMM's nutritional situation including the regional efforts to address high rate of malnutrition in the region being the highest in the country.

Both Argonza and Friedrich opened the possibility of long-term support and partnership between BARMM and the WFP in terms of technical assistance and other related areas of cooperation. Since 2018, WFP have been working vigorously with Regional Nutrition Committee on the formulation of 1st RPAN for ARMM.

Sinolinding shared the RPAN's  9 nutrition-specific interventions, 16 nutrition-sensitive projects and 1 enabling program specific for mobilization of LGUs.  He added 538 BNS out of 2, 590 barangays have underwent 5-days Basic Course Training for Barangay Nutrition Scholars and now officially enlisted in the roster of active BNS all over the country. Further, due to low numbers of LGUs with functional local nutrition committees, RNC BARMM worked with the Ministry of Interior Local Government (MILG) to enjoin Local Chief Executives in the creation of nutrition plans and enhance investment for health and nutrition in their respective localities.

Author: NO II Maleja Daud Jaamil