Cebu City - Earlier today 06 March 2023, the National Nutrition Council Region VII (NNC 7) had a virtual meeting with the Regional Nutrition Committee-Technical Working Group (RNC-TWG) members: Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI) and Feed the Children along with their respective communication specialists. This was to help the Nutrition Information and Education team of NNC7 in fine-tuning the key messages and strategies of the 2023 Social Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) plan.
The meeting was headed by the Regional Nutrition Program Coordinator Dr. Parolita “Letlet” A. Mission of NNC 7. An overview of the planned SBCC and the 49th Nutrition Month plans and activities were presented by NNC 7’s DMO II Gabe Henriel P. Sucalit, along with the 2022 results nutrition messages recall survey.
With the baseline data and plan presented, the members of the body gave out their suggestions for further identifying targets and pinpointing angles where the key messages can be applicable to the identified target audience. A suggestion was made to consider the “Theory of Change” as a basis for making the plan. Another recommendation was that: in identifying the target audience it is good to have a key message starting from the age where women are capable of reproduction, to pregnancy and lactating life stages, to fathers and caregivers, volunteer health and nutrition workers, healthcare professionals, and the general public, which can impact on how an individual can obtain optimum health and nutrition.
As the buzz session reached its conclusion, the NNC 7 identified the next steps to repackage the key messages and translate them into Cebuano for a better understanding of the target audience. Another action point is for NNC 7 with the help of Scaling Up Nutrition Networks: Civil Society Alliances and Academe to have a local recall survey to look into the gaps of the previous SBCC campaigns and tailor-fit the messages and strategies to the needs of the target audience.
With the inputs from expert partners, the region can provide more accurate, clear, relevant, and timely information so that behavior change communication that the RNC hopes to achieve can be put in place. // DMOII Christine April M. Lopez, RND
