01 October 2020 – Davao Region nutrition policies took center stage as National Nutrition Council (NNC) in cooperation with the LGUs, Nutrition Officers Association of the Philippines (NAOPA), UNICEF Philippines and Nutrition International, launched its first ever online portal on Compendium of Local Ordinances and Issuances on Nutrition, during the Part 1 of 6th NAOPA Conference, held virtually.
There were a total of 208 local ordinances and 45 executive orders initially uploaded in the portal that were submitted by local governments across the 17 regions of the Philippines. Out of these total number of policies, Davao Region dominates with 27 local ordinances and 13 executive orders included in the database. In addition to this, two (2) policies from Davao Region were selected to be part of the twenty (20) local ordinances that will be featured in the printed publication of Compendium of Local Ordinances on Nutrition.
The first Davao Region local policy that will be featured in the publication is the Tagum City Ordinance No. 2017-815 or an Ordinance Granting Incentives to All Qualified Barangay Nutrition Scholars (BNS) in the City of Tagum and Providing for its Policies and Guidelines and Funds thereof otherwise known as “The Barangay Nutrition Scholar Welfare Code of the City of Tagum”. The second local policy to be included is the Davao City Ordinance No. 2019-049 or an Ordinance Further Amending Ordinance No. 0292-06, series of 2006, “The Comprehensive Children and Family Support System in Davao City, as Amended” otherwise known as “Davao City Children’s Welfare Code, as amended”. Other Davao Region nutrition policies can be accessed through the online portal: https://www.nnc.gov.ph/compendium
The uploaded local ordinances and issuances in the portal have been selected based on four criteria namely: Responsiveness, Coverage and Reach, Impact, and Replicability. The NNC Regional Offices and the National Project Team composed of representatives from NNC Central Office, NAOPA, and the NTEAM TAN Providers, conducted a rigorous review process to determine the final ordinances uploaded in the online portal and those that will be featured in the printed publication.
Born out of the need to increase the number of performing local government units in nutrition, the Compendium of Local Ordinances and Issuances on Nutrition was developed to serve as a knowledge-sharing platform for local government units. It is expected to impart learnings and insights from initiatives of local government units who have successfully harnessed the strength of policies in scaling up nutrition. It aims to widely disseminate actual examples of effective local policies on nutrition through the form of an electronic online compilation and a printed publication, that can be publicly accessed and used as reference by local governments aspiring to improve their implementation of nutrition programs.
