Cebu City – The Regional Nutrition Evaluation Team (RNET) commences the 2022 Monitoring and Evaluation of Local Level Plan Implementation Protocol (MELLPI Pro) in Cebu City from 30 March to 1 April 2022. RNET Chair and MHAM College of Medicine Director Jarvis Prochina and Former Cebu City Nurse Supervisor and Nutrition Coordinator Philadelfa Gaviola of PAN Cebu Chapter, ND II Sarah Belle Antiola of DOH CV CHD, NO II Norre Jean Delos Santos and NO I Gab Flores of NNC 7 comprised the team that visited the Queen City of the South.

The RNET members met with the Cebu City Nutrition Committee (CCNC) led by CNAO Emma Seville and the staff of the Cebu City Nutrition Office to conduct the annual M&E. On the first day, the team did a desk review and visited sample barangays. On the second day, the team had their team deliberation and conducted a learning/feedback session with the members of the local nutrition committee. The CCNC Secretariat during the desk review was able to provide a lot of data with sufficient means to prove the implementation and compliance of almost all the dimensions in the MELLPI Pro except that most of the laws and national policies were not adopted.

MELLPI Pro is the monitoring and evaluation mechanism for the implementation of the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition at the local level. The MELLPI Pro is a local sub-system of the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition (PPAN) Results Framework. The results chains, activity, output, outcome, and impact are depicted in the six dimensions within a local government context. Activities and outputs in the MELLPI Pro are the local translation of the identified priority policies, services, and training expressed in the PPAN Results Framework. The outcome and impacts in the sub-system, on the other hand, refer to the conditional and behavioral changes in the specific areas/ target groups and their contribution to the national targets.

The NNC 7 thru the RNET conducts the annual MELLPI Pro to monitor and evaluate local nutrition program implementation, determine the progress of implementation of PPAN priorities at the local level, monitor and evaluate the performance of Local Nutrition Focal Points (LNFPs), determine good practices and challenges faced by LGUs and LNFPs in local nutrition program implementation, and identify action lines for the local, regional and national level for improvement of PPAN implementation.

During the learning/feedback session, the evaluators expressed the importance of documentation and keeping records and accomplishment reports. This dimension was also an area that Cebu City needed to finish strong on especially with the MELLPI Pro tool being an evidence-based type of assessment.

With Cebu City Nutrition Office fully organized and supported by a complete staff complement, we can expect even better outputs from them in future evaluations since the MELLPI Pro after all makes sure that all nutrition-based programs/plans/activities are at all full display. // NO I Gab Flores, RND