Cebu Province – The Cebu Provincial Nutrition Council (CPNC) will form its Technical Working Group to better facilitate the interagency coordination, supervision, monitoring and implementation of the nutrition policies and programs and improve the nutrition landscape of the province. Based on the 8th National Nutrition Survey of the Food and Nutrition Research Institute about 2 in every 10 Cebuano preschool children 0-5 years old were underweight, about 4 in every 10 were stunted (short for their age), and 10 in every 100 were wasted (underweight for their height).

The matter was decided on during the CPNC meeting held last 27 April 2016 at the Vice-Governor’s Conference Room, 4th Floor, Legislative Building, Capitol Grounds, Cebu City. Presided by PNAO Dr. Cynthia T. Genosolango, representatives from the Provincial Information Office, Veterinary Office, DepEd-Cebu Province, Social Welfare Office, Planning Office, Budget Office and PNC Secretariat attended the said meeting. The Technical Working Group (TWG) will be composed of technical staff from the different member agencies of the council.

Other agreements reached during the meeting were the creation of an addendum to Executive Order NO. 18 on the creation of PNC – TWG for legality purposes and, also, adding the provision of honoraria to both the PNC and PNC-TWG; PNC members to be oriented about nutrition and Nutrition Program Management; PNC to draft a 3-Year Plan and the PNC to pilot a “Nutrition Center” project where nutrition related activities would be done.

The formation of the TWG was seen as a step in reigniting the functionality of the Cebu Provincial Nutrition Council which has not convened since June 2014.

With malnutrition being a multi-sectoral problem, strategies aimed at nutrition improvement should also be multi-sectoral, and, the interventions should also be focused on the most nutritionally needy constituents in the depressed areas. Being a multi-sectoral council, different and converging inputs are needed to have an impact on the nutritional prevalence.

With the head of the different member agencies having hectic schedules, it would be beneficial to create a TWG of the CPNC so as make sure that coordination between the different agencies and it would be easier to harmonize the nutrition-related efforts. // DFB