Bohol Province - The Provincial Nutrition Council of Bohol province build the capacities of new nutrition program managers by conducting training on Nutrition Program Management (NPM). Said activity was held on 6-8 April 2022, at the Alta Bohol Resort and Convention, San Isidro, Baclayon, Bohol. It was participated by forty-seven (47) attendees composed of new municipal nutrition action officers (MNAO) and municipal nutrition program coordinators (MNPC) from all the 47 municipalities of the province. The training also served as refresher course for older MNAOs and MNPCs.
The Provincial Nutrition Council secretariat assisted by NNC 7’s NO III Nasudi G. Soluta and the Human Resources for Health in Nutrition assigned to the province served as trainers and workshop facilitators.
The session covered eight modules, including several activities, exercises, worksheets, and workbooks, answered by the participants. This 3-day training was conducted hybrid with all attendees required laptops each to register and make their account in the system. Through their account, they read the manuals (aside from listening to the speakers discussing the different topics in the modules) and answer the different quizzes after each lesson. The attendees were then required to submit the different answer sheets, exercises, worksheets, costing workbook, and 3-year draft local nutrition action plan, on top of the participant’s profile, credential, and progress, which they downloaded upon their registration. After successfully answering 80% of the final exam, they received certificates and CPD units.
The NNC offers both an online and an offline on NPM training. This is part of the agency’s capacity development strategy to assist its stakeholders in contributing to improved nutrition situation of the country. A new feature of the NPM training is the synchronization of local nutrition planning with the development planning of local government units every 3 years and the development of the annual investment plans to include annual targets in the three-year nutrition action plan.
The training program aimed to empower the program managers to organize their local nutrition committees, assist the LNC members in formulating local nutrition action plans, ensuring the plans’ effective and efficient implementation, monitoring their progress, and evaluating their outputs and/or outcomes against set targets.
With the completion of the NPM training session attended by key nutrition stakeholders from all municipalities, the PNC is hopeful for an improved implementation of nutrition specific, nutrition sensitive and enabling programs of the entire province. // ND II Marcel John J. Cartin, RND
