Local Nutrition Early Warning System or also known as LNEWS is a strategy used to capacitate the local government units along nutrition assessment toward achieving food and nutrition security. Its establishment and the creation of LNEWS core group within city and municipal nutrition committees aims to strengthen capacity for data collection, analysis and interpretation, and the use of data for nutrition program planning and decision-making. The system enables the communities to act early, based on early warning information, to counter any threat, natural or human-induced that affects the ability of communities and households to obtain sufficient food.
Training on LNEWS was conducted on September 21-22, 2017 for data household collectors of Palompon, Leyte. The two-day workshop was done for the household data collectors of the five (5) sentinel barangays on proper techniques of data collection and anthropometric measurement.
“In order to ensure the quality of the data that will be collected, it requires a certain level of skill for the persons who will be getting the data or taking the measurements,” Nutrition Officer III Niño Archie S. Labordo remarked during his overview orientation of the system. He further explained that participants will be trained in the use of the survey questionnaire as well as interview and measurement techniques. Each barangay has their local health workers such as Rural Health Midwife (RHM), Barangay Health Worker (BHW), and Barangay Nutrition Scholar (BNS) who were present during the training. This core teams are the ones responsible for conducting the household survey quarterly.
Participants were given training kits which consist of the survey questionnaires and Child Growth Standards (CGS) Table which is an important tool in determining the nutritional status of a child. Resource speakers who discussed the guidelines and the use of the survey questionnaires were Nutrition Officer II Alona E. Teo of National Nutrition Council – Central Office (NNC-CO), Nutrition Officer III Niño Archie S. Labordo of NNC VIII, and the Municipal Nutrition Action Officer (MNAO) of Palompon, Ms. Lovelyn O. Nuñez. At the end of the training, participants were able to get familiarized with the instruments used for the household survey and conduct proper weighing and height taking.
The LNEWS is a component of the Philippine Food and Nutrition Surveillance System (PFNSS) of the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition (PPAN) to aid local governments. (NDR)
