4 November 2020, Cagayan de Oro City — the Regional Nutrition Committee (RNC) of Northern Mindanao paved the way to show their lofty favor to nutrition by inking RNC Resolution Numbers 2 and 3, series of 2020. Both resolutions were approved during the Joint Second Semester RNC, Regional Nutrition Cluster (RNCl) and RNC-Technical Working Group (TWG) Meeting held virtually last 20 October 2020.
Maternal and child undernutrition remains to be a problem. With the rising positive cases of COVID-19 in the country accompanied by the dwindling economy, occurrence of malnutrition will remain as is or will even get worse if no nutrition actions will be done. Nobody is certain of when COVID-19 pandemic will end. With pandemic or not, Local Government Units (LGUs) must be resilient and mobilized in addressing nutrition problems for the benefit of their populace, especially the children, pregnant, lactating women and other vulnerable groups.
To ensure that nutrition programs and activities are well-funded and well planned for the next two (2) years to come, RNC X approved Resolution Number 2, series of 2020 entitled, “Resolution enjoining all local government units to finalize their local nutrition action plans and pursue the integration of the nutrition and nutrition-related programs and projects in the local 2021-2022 annual investment programs to improve nutrition situation and address the effects of COVID-19 pandemic.”
Iodine Deficiency Disorder (IDD), caused by lack or low consumption of iodine-containing foods continues to be a public health concern. Iodized salt is one of the cheapest source of dietary iodine. To help address IDD-related problems, Republic Act8172 known as “An Act for Salt Iodization Nationwide" or ASIN Law was passed on 14 July 1995 by former President Fidel V. Ramos. To apply and monitor effectively the region’s compliance to the law making sure that only iodized salt reaches every household in Northern Mindanao, Regional Bantay Asin Task Force (RBATF) X was established by virtue of RNC X Resolution number 1, series of 2016.
Approval of the RNC X Resolution Number 3, series of 2020 entitled, “Reorganization and expansion of Regional Bantay Asin Task Force X to include the Cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan” was made to update and expand the organization’s membership by including the sanitary inspectors of the aforementioned cities to further strengthen the promotion, advocacy and reinforcement of Salt Iodization Program (SIP) in the region. To date, RBATF X has twenty-two (22) members coming from both public and private sectors in Northern Mindanao.
COVID-19 pandemic may pose a threat to the country from achieving the malnutrition reduction targets of the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition (PPAN) 2017-2022 thus, key nutrition actions must be done to prevent this from happening. As the world moves forward to adapting to the “new normal”, RNC X commits to constantly coordinate nutrition actions and provide technical assistance to all levels of local nutrition committees in the region amid pandemic, making sure that national mandates, programs, and activities are properly linked and complied all the way down to the local level, and vice versa. (PNC Stephanie C. Barrio)
