25 March 2021, Davao City – The National Nutrition Council XI facilitated the conduct of the D/CNPC Federation Officers and Provincial, City, Municipal and District Nutrition Coordinators of Region XI’s 1st Virtual Meeting. The meeting aims to give updates on the D/CNPCAP XI and discuss nutrition related developments to guide nutrition coordinators with their continuous efforts in implementing the nutrition programs, projects, and activities in their respective areas amidst the COVID 19 pandemic.
Among the matters discussed in the meeting were “2021 Nutrition Month Campaign Strategy with the theme: “Malnutrisyon Patuloy na Labanan, First 1000 Days tutukan”. Regional Nutrition Program Coordinator Dr. Maria Teresa L. Ungson discussed the rationale of the theme and highlighted its campaign objectives to: EDUCATE, ENCOURAGE and ENGAGE. She then requested the nutrition coordinators to conduct activities that will increase the understanding of PPAN first 100 days, facilitate collaboration among stakeholders and generate interactions among stakeholders in nutrition. “By working together, we can end all forms of malnutrition. Let us scale-up critical actions in the first 1000 days of life” RNPC Dr. Ungson emphasized the positioning statement of the theme. She assured the group that the NNC XI Secretariat will disseminate all material relative to the 2021 Nutrition Month Campaign via the official webpage and Facebook account.
ECCD F1K PNC Cosico presented and discussed some of the updates on the Dietary Supplementation Program for children or the Tutok Kainan Supplementation program. She reviewed the country’s nutrition situation and highlighted the problems on stunting, which remains to be high among under-five years old PS children. She thoroughly explained the program’s objectives, updates, guidelines, reporting system and process of the implementation of DSP. PNC Cosico then discussed several roles of the LGUs and responsibilities of BNS’s and BHW’s on the program.
OIC-NO III Teo presented and discussed the OPT Plus Interim Guidelines in the context of COVID-19 and some critical updates on the newly revised electronic Operation Timbang tool for use at the community level. She highlighted the key features of the latest e-opt plus tool especially the incorporation of the area-specific 2020-2025 Population Projections released by Department of Health in the latest tool. She conducted a short demonstration on the use of the updated e-opt plus tool. OIC-NO III Teo also assured that National Nutrition Council Davao will provide technical assistance as needed by the LGUs about the tool.
NO I Jickain presented and discussed some updates on the target virtual 2021 NIE-IM Training. She discussed a brief background and objectives of the virtual training. The 2021 NIE-IM Training, which is targeted to be conducted in August will adopt the virtual blended style of learning. Target participants are LGUs (NAOs, DRRM Officer, Health Officer, Social Work, Nutrition Officer/Staff) and Regional nutrition cluster members who are not yet trained on NIE-IM.
RNPC Dr. Ungson presented the six (6) newly approved RNC Resolutions, RNC Resolution No. 1 s. 2020: “Resolution adopting the Regional Plan of Action for Nutrition CY 2019-2022”; RNC Resolution No. 2 Series 2020: “Adopting the Early Childhood Care and Development for the First 1,000 Days Program to Address Stunting in Davao Region”; RNC Resolution No. 3 Series 2020: “Enjoining All Local Government Units (LGUs) to Support the Early Childhood Care and Development for the First 1,000 Days Program through Classifying the Nutritionally At Risk Pregnant Women”; RNC Resolution No. 4 Series 2020: “Approving the Extraction of Data on IP Children from Operation Timbang Plus as Regional Baseline on the Nutritional Status of IP Children Aged 0-59 Months Old”; RNC Resolution No. 5 s. 2020: “Resolution Adopting the National Policy on Nutrition Management in Emergencies and Disasters”; and 2. RNC Resolution No. 6 s. 2020: “Organizing the Nutrition Clusters at the Regional and Local Levels to Manage Nutrition Interventions during Emergencies and Disasters in Davao Region”. She requested the D/CNPCs to support these resolutions by encouraging local chief executives, program implementers and other stakeholders to formulate their own resolutions and implement activities accordingly. She assured that NNC Davao secretariat will be disseminating copies of the resolution to local government units to serve as guide for the drafting of their local resolutions.
Other matters discussed were the Philippine Multi-sectoral Nutrition Project (PMNP) which is a project in partnership with DSWD KALAHI-CIDDS. PNC Cosico discussed the objective, design approach and impact of the project. She emphasized that the project areas covered in Region XI is Davao del Sur particularly Municipalities of Malalag and Magsaysay; and Davao Occidental particularly Municipalities of Sta. Maria, Don Marcelino, Malita and Saragani. The project areas were selected based on the following criteria 1) municipalities with stunting rate higher than or equal to 17.5%, 2) covered by KALAHI-CIDDS areas and 3) covered by HDPRC/PPAN priority areas, PNC Cosico emphasized.
RNPC Dr. Ungson reminded the group on the upcoming National MELLPI activities particularly Tagum City and Municipality of Maco, Davao de Oro which are targeted to be evaluated by the National Evaluation Team on May this year. She assured that NNC Davao secretariat will coordinate with the LGUs regarding the matter. Lastly, she requested nutrition coordinators to conduct all necessary preparations relative to the conduct of MELLPI.
D/CNPCAP XI President Demaisip, in her closing remarks expressed her heartfelt gratitude to the attendees and NNC XI especially to RNPC Dr. Ungson for facilitating the 1st D/CNPCAP Federation Officers and Nutrition Coordinators for this year. She emphasized that the presented topics would help them improve the implementation of nutrition services in their respective areas particularly to their target beneficiaries amidst the pandemic. She also encouraged fellow nutrition coordinators to help in the dissemination and discussion of the updates to other colleagues during her closing message.
The meeting was attended by D/CNPCAP XI Officers, Provincial, Municipal, City and District Nutrition Coordinators of Region XI and NNC XI Staff.
By: Charlane Y. Jickain, NO I, NNC XI
