Cebu City - The Human Resources for Health for Nutrition (HRH-N) of the Department of Health Central Visayas Center for Heath (DOH CV CHD) and National Nutrition Council Region VII conducted Nutrition Shepherding to four (4) selected local government units in Cebu province particularly Aloguinsan, Balamban, Catmon and Cordova on 09 December 2022.

The Nutrition Shepherding Project is a platform that involves guiding and mentoring local government units (LGUs) and a nutrition shepherding team to enhance their knowledge and skills in nutrition program management.

The twelve (12) deployed HRH-N were divided into four teams with three members each. They visited one municipality for each team where they investigated the functionality of the local nutrition committee and monitored the local government’s nutrition program implementation according to the dimensions of the MELLPI Pro.

With experience in LGU mobilization, these Nutritionist-Dietitians identified good practices the visited LGUs are implementing, identified areas for improvement according to the 8 management dimensions including coordination, advocacy, planning, implementation, monitoring & evaluation, resource generation, documentation & record keeping, and capacity building. The team also assessed LNC functionality and provided technical assistance and inputs to enhance further the mentee’s local nutrition program management.

With the shepherding efforts, NNC 7 is hopeful to have more fully functional local nutrition committees in the years to come. / ND II Franz Cassandra R. Ontina, RND