Koronadal City—South Cotabato maintained a high score of 90 percent during the national validation of the Evaluation Team led by the National Nutrition Council (NNC) which maintains the Consistent Regional Outstanding Winner in Nutrition for the first year towards the National Honor Award journey.
Alona Teo, NNC Nutrition Officer II and team leader, said the score is based on the 60 percent program efficiency and 40 percent program effectiveness.
“We commend the strong support of local chief executives and the legislative body by providing sufficient budgetary allocation for the nutrition program,” Teo stressed out during the exit conference.
The team observed the high level of awareness of committee members, of their roles and responsibilities from the province down at the barangay level. They also noted that there is a deployment of Barangay Nutrition Scholars in every barangay.
Dr. Azucena Dayanghirang, NNC Deputy Executive Director, supported the good partnership of the provincial government with NGOs, business sector, religious groups and people’s organizations.
“The cooperation of all stakeholders means a lot to the government in addressing malnutrition problem in the province. What is good is, you have pulled resources from partners” Dayanghirang said.
Nutripan Bakeries, a joint project of LGU and private partner Mahintana Foundation, scaled up as strategy to address malnutrition among school children.

However, the NNC team recommended the shift of supplementary feeding program to evidence-based intervention and the conduct of impact assessment of various strategies or programs for baseline and end line data.
In the last three years (since 2014), the prevalence of underweight preschool children is declining from 7. 25 percent in 2014 to 5.15 percent in 2016. The data also recorded a decrease in the prevalence of underweight school children, from 13.26 percent (2014) to 11.81 percent (2016).
As part of the validation process, the National Nutrition Evaluation Team (NNET) assessed the program efficiency and effectiveness in the towns of Surallah and Polomolok.
Maria Ana Uy, Provincial Social Welfare and Development Officer-In-Charge, said the focus now is to make everybody take part in addressing malnutrition problem.
“We are slowly getting out of the bondage of malnutrition and we are getting better in saving the brain development of our future generation,” Uy said.
Uy, who is the Provincial Nutrition Action Officer, earmarked the use of the traditional and millennial medium of communication in promoting good nutrition.
“One thing that is very challenging now is to make the nutrition program LGU-driven,” Uy added.
By Anna Liz Cabrido| Nutri-DOSE