Local governments urged to work double time vs malnutrition | Sun.Star.

LOCAL government units (LGUs) must focus and work double time in addressing malnutrition problems in Eastern Visayas, now that only four years are left before the 2015 deadline of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), a foreign-backed non-government organization said.

Plan International Philippines said the focus now must be on health, particularly malnutrition, as there is still a lot to be done to solve the problem.

“I think the government is trying its best, but there’s a lot to be done before we can really eradicate malnutrition. In Northern Samar alone, the malnutrition rate is 41.3 percent. It is still a long way,” said Dr. Esther Miranda, Plan Visayas consultant on health and nutrition, referring to the 2008 survey result of the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI).

She said the weak participation of parents on the Pabasa sa Nutrisyon, a village-level education drive for mothers of malnourished children, aggravates the problem.

“The participation rate of parents is not really ideal. We are trying to come up with ways to encourage parents because that’s where they get the knowledge on how to rear their children, select and prepare good food, and promote good nutrition,” Miranda said.

In Visayas area, Plan Philippines has been assisting the government’s children welfare program in Southern Leyte, Samar, Northern Samar, Eastern Samar, and Camotes Island.

“LGU is very cooperative to assist Plan’s initiative, but the way I see it, there are more things that they can do. Like in Samar, they’ve said that in nine years, they have no action plan for nutrition. That’s a long time just to be sitting down come with the fact that many children are malnourished,” Miranda stressed.

The 2008 FNRI survey showed that 26.4 percent of children in Eastern Visayas ages 0 to 5 years old are underweight.

The MDG targets to reduce the malnutrition rate to 18.9 percent by 2015 from 37.8 percent in 1998.

“I agree that there’s a need for LGUs to work double time. They should make a nutrition action plan and implement it soon,” National Nutrition Council (NNC) regional program coordinator Carina Santiago said.

One of the NNC initiatives for this year is to gather local chief executives and discuss how to reduce malnutrition rate in the local level. (Leyte Samar Daily Express)