Natural and human-induced emergencies still affect the country and continuously disrupt the lives of the affected populations, especially the vulnerable groups— infants, children, pregnant and lactating women, elderly, people with disabilities, and people living with debilitating conditions. These emergencies put the lives of these people at risk of developing various undesirable health and related conditions and threaten their nutritional status. Hence, making nutrition a key public health concern in emergencies and disaster management.
In line with this, the National Nutrition Council (NNC) Governing Board through Resolution No. 1 Series of 2009 provided that the local nutrition committees (LNC) shall serve as the local nutrition clusters (LNCl). The Nutrition Cluster aims to ensure that the nutritional status of affected populations will not worsen during disasters and emergency situations. Basically, the nutrition cluster facilitates the strategic collaboration and comprehensiveness of the emergency management as well as resource mobilization and integration of cross-cutting nutrition concerns with other clusters. The members of the LNCl comes from the local offices and NGOs present in the area and are responsible for nutrition management in emergencies. The LNCl ensures that its efforts and initiatives are linked with those of the other local clusters such as WASH, psychosocial, social protection, food and non-food clusters all of which are also under the local disaster coordinating council.
Through the LNCl, the Nutrition in Emergencies (NiE) program under the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition (PPAN) 2017-2022 is operationalized. This program aims to capacitate the Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (LDRRMC) and LNCl to integrate nutrition in their DRRM plan in their Local Government Units (LGUs). NiE provide nutrition services that are part of emergency preparedness, response and recovery to prevent deterioration of nutritional status and death. The nutrition services can include nutritional assessment; infant and young child feeding promotion, protection and support; management of acute malnutrition, micronutrient supplementation and other interventions which can be food or non-food-based interventions. These services are significant in order to prevent deaths and protect the peoples’ right to nutrition.
Moreover, during emergencies and disasters, the importance of breastfeeding is given utmost importance since breastmilk is considered as a protective food for infants to guard against infections which are common during emergencies. Likewise, infants who are not breastfed are more at risk to diarrhea, acute respiratory tract infection, malnutrition and even death. This is why the practice of exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of the baby’s life should be promoted. Feeding infants with breastmilk substitutes such as milk formula increases the risk of illness or even death because of possible contamination caused by poor hygiene and sanitation conditions.
Further, under Executive Order (EO) 51 or the Milk Code and its Implementing Rules and Regulations, donation of products covered by the law including infant formula, bottles and teats is not allowed. The Department of Health also issued Administrative Order 2007-0017 “Guidelines on the Acceptance and Processing of Local and Foreign Donations during Emergencies and Disasters”. The order provides that infant formula, breastmilk substitutes, feeding bottles, artificial nipples and teats shall not be items for donation.
From the several disasters that the country had gone through, nutrition response continues to evolve to be better prepared and provide enhanced response strategy; with this the NNC X continues to lobby to the LGUs for the organization of their LNCl and capacitate them through trainings and various technical assistance. These actions and initiatives are done to ensure that no one is left behind, especially during emergencies and disasters; gearing towards the region’s goal as one region in nutrition and to eventually contribute to the PPAN thereby ensuring that sa PPAN, panalo ang bayan! (NO I Liezel Joy D. Reyes)
References:
National Nutrition Council. (2009). NNC Governing Board Resolution No.1, series of 2009. Retrieved on 13 May 2022 from https://www.nnc.gov.ph/phocadownloadpap/userupload/elavapie/NNC%20GB%20Reso%20no.%201%20s2009_NiEm.pdf
National Nutrition Council. (July 2014). 2014 Nutrition Month Talking Points. Retrieved on 13 May 2022 from https://www.nnc.gov.ph/phocadownloadpap/userupload/elavapie/2014_nm_talking_points.pdf
National Nutrition Council. (18 September 2017). Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition 2017-2022 Executive Summary. Retrieved on 13 May 2022 from https://www.nnc.gov.ph/phocadownloadpap/PPAN/18Sept_PPAN2017_2022Executive%20Summary.pdf
World Health Organization. (n.d). Nutrition in emergencies: the importance of exclusive breastfeeding. Retrieved on 16 May 2022 from https://www.who.int/philippines/news/feature-stories/detail/nutrition-in-emergencies-the-importance-of-exclusive-breastfeeding
