Cebu City – Central Visayas Center for Health Development cand the National Nutrition Council Region VII welcomed the 33 new Information Management Officers as they attended the 5-day training on Nutrition in Emergencies Management and Information Management.
The training held on 18-22 July 2022 was organized by Dr. Shelbay B. Blanco Chief of Regional Health and Emergency Division and Mr. Fredric Carl L. Te Nutritionist-Dietitian IV of Central Visayas with NNC 7 as part of the resource persons. The 33 participants came from the local nutrition clusters, disaster risk reduction management council and/or local nutrition offices of Bohol, Cebu and Siquijor.
The activity aimed to capacitate IMOs and members of the Nutrition Clusters to ensure prompt and effective response during disasters and emergencies most especially to the most vulnerable groups such as infants, children, pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers, older person and people with disabilities and provide guidance on managing information during emergencies and disasters.
The capacity building activity also served as one of the highlights of the 48th Nutrition Month and 2022 National Disaster Resilience Month celebrations in Central Visayas which carried the themes “New Normal na Nutrisyon, sama-samang gawan ng Solusyon” and “Sambayanang Pilipino, nagkakaisa tungo sa katatagan at maunlad na kinabukasan’, respectively.
To fully operationalize Nutrition Cluster, it requires correct, reliable, and most recent data about areas and the people affected and essential capacities to respond generated through an efficient information management system. Such information is imperative in formulating Nutrition in Emergencies Plan and in providing appropriate and timely nutrition interventions, the minimum nutrition services during emergencies or disaster like provision of IYCF-in-emergencies, management of acute malnutrition, supplementing micronutrients in emergencies and establishing dietary supplementation activities targeted to the vulnerable groups.
Takeaway outcomes to the partakers were identified during the 5 day training including identification and designation of Information Management Officers as important member of the Local Nutrition Clusters, and to develop and formulate DRRM-H-NIE plan which will be integrated to the Local Development Plan and to prepare Data Repository (updated eOPT results, accomplished FHSIS, total Population, etc) for their respective localities. // Cebu IMO Gabe Henriel P. Sucalit, RND
