Cebu City – The Regional Nutrition Committee (RNC) is the highest policy-making and coordinating body for nutrition in the region. It consists of 11 National Government agencies, six non-government organizations, and representatives from the four provinces of Central Visayas and its HUCs (highly urbanized cities). Its technical arm, the RNC – Technical Working Group (TWG), consists of nutrition focal persons of each member agency. Its membership includes 20 National Government agencies, seven non-government organizations as well as representatives of the four provinces, and three HUCs of Central Visayas.
The RNC and RNC-TWG formulate, execute, and approve policies; draft and approve the Regional Plan of Action for Nutrition; act as the Regional Nutrition Evaluation Team (RNET) that will assess the effective and efficient implementation of nutrition program of local government units; provide technical assistance to program implementers at the local level based on their agency/organization’s mandates; and ensure that developmental programs implemented by their agency will have nutrition objectives, considerations, or components and/or their programs are tweaked to contribute to the achievement of the nutrition outcome as defined in the Regional Plan of Action for Nutrition (RPAN).
Furthermore, the RNC and RNC-TWG conduct activities that would help disseminate the implementation of nutrition programs at the regional, provincial, city, municipal, and barangay levels. The RNC meets every semester while the RNC-TWG meets thrice a year. Other RNC-related activities are done based on the approved RNC workplan. With the height of the COVID-19 pandemic since 2020, the attendance of the RNC and RNC-related activities increased from 43% during face-to-face activities to 70% during virtual activities.
Thus, activities done in the virtual platform are highly recommended to encourage the attendance of each member agency. However, strong internet connection among the participants should also be considered when deciding to choose a virtual type of platform in all RNC-related activities. // ND II Labastida
