Wazzup Pilipinas News and Events

Monday, January 25, 2016

DOH, UNICEF Urge More Investment On Child Nutrition; Combat Stunting

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The Department of Health, UNICEF and the National Nutrition Council led the Philippine launch of the 2015 Global Nutrition Report (GNR), a comprehensive scorecard of both global and country-level progress on nutrition; as well as vital global determinants like food security, water and sanitation, resource allocations, and institutional and policy reforms.

The 2015 Global Nutrition Report: Actions and Accountability to Advance Nutrition and Sustainable Development was prepared by the Independent Expert Group of international experts, published by the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington, DC. Dr. Lawrence Haddad, international expert in nutrition and the Report’s lead author, presented highlights on the status of 193 countries.

The report shows the Philippine score was considered “on course” in meeting the targets to reduce child stunting and overweight; while it is “off course” for child wasting and anemia.

While the country has seen slow reductions in malnutrition, Dr. Haddad said that if the Philippines and other countries want to attain the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 and the World Health Assembly 2025 Global Targets, there must scaling up of proven nutrition interventions and investment; and hold nutrition stakeholders accountable, including the government and the private sector.

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The Department of Health (DOH), through the National Nutrition Council (NNC), in collaboration with World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nation Children’s Fund (UNICEF) convenes for the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Philippine Gathering (#SUNMOVEMENTPH) to bring key players from the government agencies, developmental partners, civil society groups, business sector and the academe to identify actions in addressing malnutrition.

The SUN movement calls on member countries, including the Philippines which is the 51st country to be accepted, to scale up nutrition actions including promotion of breastfeeding and appropriate complementary feeding, management of acute malnutrition, and nutrition-sensitive interventions in agriculture, education and social welfare among others.

Globally, close to half of deaths in children under 5 years old can be directly or indirectly linked to malnutrition. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over 17 million children under age five in the world are severely malnourished and have at least 9x increased risk for death.

Malnutrition remains a significant public health concern in the Philippines with a staggering 3.4 million children who are stunted (short for their age) and more than 300,000 children under 5 years who are wasted (underweight for their age). This continues to be a serious child health problem, with the Philippines being highly disaster-prone. The risk of malnutrition increases in the aftermath of emergencies.

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It was both good and bad news for the Philippines as the status of addressing malnutrition in the world was reported in a forum held on 25-26 January 2016 convened by the National Nutrition Council (NNC), Department of Health and UNICEF Philippines.

The forum launched the “2015 Global Nutrition Report: Actions and Accountability to Advance Nutrition and Sustainable Development” which was prepared by the Independent Expert Group of international experts and published by the International Food Policy Research Institute based in Washington, D. C..

Dr. Lawrence Haddad, noted international expert in nutrition and lead author of the 2015 Global Nutrition Report, presented the highlights of the report that reviewed the status of 193 countries. In the report, the Philippines score was considered “on course” in meeting targets to reduce child stunting and overweight. On the other hand, the Philippines is “off course” for child wasting and anemia.

Like many countries, the Philippines has seen slow reductions in malnutrition. Dr. Haddad went on to say that if the Philippines and other countries want to achieve their commitment to attain the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 as well as the World Health Assembly 2025 Global Targets, countries have to end all forms of malnutrition by scaling up proven nutrition interventions and by committing and investing in nutrition as well as holding nutrition stakeholders accountable. Haddad further stressed that “Ending malnutrition will drive sustainable development forward.”