Cebu City – Aiming to enable local government units to effectively and efficiently manage their local nutrition programs, the National Nutrition Council Region VII conducted one (1) batch of the Nutrition Program Management training for Cebu Province last 20 to 24 January 2014 at the Golden Valley Hotel, Cebu City. This was in addition to the two batches held last year.
NNC recognizes that the slow reduction in malnutrition and the persistent problem of hunger can be partly due to the insufficient abilities of local governments in nutrition assessment and in planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of nutrition programs. Because the problem of malnutrition and hunger is complex, the solution lies on the critical analysis of the nutrition situation at the local level and finding appropriate interventions that directly address the multi-factorial causation of malnutrition.
Around twenty (20) participants from the province of Cebu and Cebu City attended the four (4) day training. Participants of the training were composed of Municipal Nutrition Action Officers (MNAOs), Municipal Nutrition Program Coordinators (MNPCs), Public Health Nurses, Rural Health Midwives and District Supervisors. Facilitating the training were Bohol Provincial Nutrition Program Coordinator Ms.Julieta B. Manliguez, Mandaue City Nutrition Program Coordinator Ms.Florita G. Olandria, NNC 7 NO III Ms. Susan Y. Orpilla and NO I Ms.Nasudi G. Soluta.
The training covered topics such as an overview of the millennium development goals, understanding food and nutrition, improving leadership skills, enhancing communication skills, honing advocacy abilities, planning skills, as well as, documentation and report writing.
After the end of the training, the participants were able to craft a one-year re-entry plan focused on the organization and/or the reorganization of their respective Municipal Nutrition Committees.
With the improved capacities of local government units to manage their nutrition programs, it is foreseen that Cebu’s prevalence of undernutrition which is 7.28% (OPT, 2013) will be further reduced. /DFB
