Cebu City – The Supreme Court’s ruling on the Mandanas-Garcia petition which boosts local government units’ (LGU) allocations beginning in 2022, has created new and greater opportunities for the improvement of local nutrition programs.

In accordance with EO 138:  Full Devolution of Certain Functions of the Executive Branch to Local Governments, the Local Budget Memorandum No. 82 (Section 2.3) states that the DBM shall propose the waiving of personnel services limitation for the preparation of LGU annual budgets for fiscal year 2022 to allow local governments to pursue organizational and staffing changes as necessary by priority programs, including nutrition brought up new, greater chance for the advancement of the LGU nutrition programs.

The determination of a set of integrated, synchronized, coordinated, and targeted measures for the LGU's nutrition improvement depends on local nutrition planning. Additionally, it makes it easier to estimate the finances and other resources needed for the local nutrition program's successful execution.

It necessitates a whole-of-government approach and encourages participation from stakeholders across several sectors, the private sector, communities, and households. It ties nutrition planning and budgeting to local development planning.

When the programs of the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition (PPAN) are condensed into four categories, namely (1) the Philippine Integrated Management of Acute Malnutrition (PIMAM), (2) Stunting Reduction and Prevention Program, (3) the Nutrition-sensitive Program, and (4) Enabling Program, it has been demonstrated through experience from 2018 to 2020 that LGUs can do so with ease.

The four programs, projects, and activities (PPAS) fit well with the Local Nutrition Action Plan (LNAP) preparation process among LGUs, especially with the situation analysis where they acknowledge that stunting and wasting are significant issues affecting their constituents and that the actions embodied in the four PPAs are a direct and all-encompassing response to these two problems.

LNAP-based nutrition PPAs will face stiff competition from other PPAs before they are finally included in the plan and budget documents and on the list of priority PPAs. So as nutrition advocates, it is best to educate and empower our leaders on how important investing in nutrition is. // DMO II Christine Lopez, RND