Presidential Decree 1569 states that a Barangay Nutrition Scholar (BNS) shall be a barangay-based volunteer worker responsible for delivering nutrition services and other related activities such as community health, backyard food production, environmental sanitation, culture, mental feeding, and family planning to the barangay.

The BNS Program is one of the human resource development strategies of the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition (PPAN) and is adopted by the Regional Nutrition Committee (RNC). 

As one of the Barangay volunteers and front liners, BNS must be protected, recognized, and empowered, hence the RNC XII passed Resolution no. 5 series of 2022 entitled “Enjoining Local Government Units (LGUs) of Region XII to strengthen the Barangay Nutrition Scholar program by creating local policies for BNSs security of tenure and providing for qualifications, recruitment, capacity building, and granting of benefits and incentives”.

The said resolution enjoins all LGUs to conduct regular capacity-building activities for all BNSs to produce quality reports and outputs, and be able to deliver quality nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive services at the barangay level.

In addition, it also encourages LGUs to include the provision of financial assistance, incentives, and benefits to BNSs and set guidelines for the protection against undue termination of service among BNSs, and implement the due processes in recruitment/hiring and termination of BNSs to sustain nutrition programs in the LGU and to avoid waste of resources for untimely re-training for BNS.

Strengthening the BNS program and empowering the BNS shall consequently improve the accomplishment of LGU on nutrition thereby leading to improve local nutrition situation and achieving nutrition outcomes.(AMF/RNPCRML)