Dumaguete City - The participants of the 2nd Regional Management Conference were warmly welcomed by the National Nutrition Council Region VII secretariat as the group gathered on 9 June 2022 at Southview Hotel, Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental.
The conference was held in a two-day event on 9-10 June 2022 in a blended mode with 27 participants attended in person and 10 Regional ManCon members joined via zoom platform. It was a noteworthy meeting as most participants were able to physically meet for the first time after their last physical meeting in 2019 when the pandemic hit the region and social gatherings became a luxury.
RNPC Dr. Parolita A. Mission presided the conference. NO II Norre Jean V. delos Santos started the discussion with concerns about nutrition policy, planning, and multi-level program formulation in the region including the 2022 RNC resolutions, LGU mobilization activities, status of the LNAP budget tracking, and LGU shepherding. One major agreement during the session was the conduct of advocacy visits/activities with the newly elected officials and encouraging them to attend the nutrition orientation sessions as part of NEO or done independently by DILG 7 and NNC 7.
NO III Nasudi G. Soluta also elaborated on matters along nutrition surveillance and management information system where initial findings of the 2022 MELLPI Pro and 2022 OPT Plus were tackled. She urged the provinces, cities, and municipalities to review the findings and recommendations of the RNET during the recent evaluation, strive to cover at least 80% of eligible preschool children and perform quality check of OPT Plus data before submission. During the sharing of the OPT Plus, Canlaon CNAO Dr. Elmer Empiales suggested to saturate deployment of BNSs during the OPT Plus period to reach the target. Tanjay CNAO Stephanie Reyes for her part opined to reinforce the number of nutrition staff to cover more ground and expedite the vital surveillance work of the nutrition office. Bayawan CNPC Sharmaine Ferraren added to use the Devolution Transition Plan (DTP) as an opportunity to hire additional Nutritionist-Dietitians (NDs) to advocate good nutrition and speed up the delivery of nutrition services in the LGUs. The positive development of Cebu City was also shared where the LGU was able to hire eight (8) NDs on a permanent plantilla position and establish a nutrition office courtesy of the DTP.
PNFP Siquijor Gabriel M. Flores then presented the agenda on nutrition information education covering the upcoming 48th Nutrition Month Celebration and Social and Behavior Change Communication. The group then individually shared their plans for their local nutrition month campaign. Wherein most LGUs will have a motorcade launching, zumba and nutriwalk in the morning, and city feeding targeting the malnourished children. Canlaon City through Dr. Empiales proudly shared that the City plans to showcase organic products such as organic lechon, organic rabbit meat, organic salad to be incorporated in an organic fair showcasing the local retailers and farmers. Proceeds of the organic buffet will be added in their city nutrition budget.​
The sharing of updates on Tutok Kainan Supplementation Program, Typhoon Odette Nutrition Clusters’ response and MELLPI Pro guidelines capped the 2-day conference. The participants went home with renewed enthusiasm to better the nutrition program management in their respective areas.
The Regional Management Conference is a quarterly activity initiated by NNC 7 that serves as coordinative mechanism in the region. The conference aims to appraise nutrition managers and implementers on current policy issuances on health, nutrition, provide nutrition and related updates and discuss policy, operational and administrative issues as experienced by LGUs. The event also serves as a platform for sharing good nutrition projects and practices of local governments that can be emulated by other implementers. Integral to the meeting is the information sharing session based on gaps identified in routine capacity mapping of local nutrition focal points in Central Visayas. Calling all Regional ManCon members to block off the 3rd week of September for the 3rd meeting for the year. ND II James Aaron S. Perez, RND
