Text and Photos by Henrylito D. Tacio
There has been slight progress towards achieving global nutrition targets in Asia, according to the global nutrition report (GNR).
“The global target for overweight, stunting, and wasting among children under 5 years of age have several countries on course to meet it, including exclusive breastfeeding among infants aged 0 to 5 months, which has ten countries on course, while low birth weight and diabetes among women each have three countries on course,” the report said.
The bad news: Not a single country in the region is on course to meet the targets for anemia in women of reproductive age (15 to 49 years old), diabetes among men, obesity among men, and obesity among women.
The Philippines is among the countries described as “on course” to meet one target for maternal, infant and young child nutrition (MIYCN). This development may be attributed in part to a nutrition program developed as a result of a national survey, the report said.
The country’s Malnutrition Reduction Program (MRP) was launched by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) in 2011 to ensure Filipino children aged 6-23 months achieved their optimal nutritional status during the crucial first 1,000 days of life.
In MRP, the concerns of young children and their mothers are being addressed through complementary feeding, nutrition education nutrition advocacy and capacity building of community workers.
Curbing malnutrition
The “on course” was not achieved overnight, though. The country’s fight against malnutrition has been around for decades and FNRI – a line agency of the Department of Science Technology – continuously develops food technologies which can help improve nutrition using scientific data.
“The government’s program in malnutrition took off based on the 2008 National Nutrition Survey (NNS) results of the FNRI, which showed that the prevalence of underweight among 0-5 years old children was 20.7%, which is considered high in magnitude and severity based from the World Health Organization (WHO) cut-off points,” read a DOST report.
The said period is critical, thus proper nutrition intervention is needed to ensure proper physical and mental well-being of young Filipino children who will comprise the workforce in adult years.
In 2011, the FNRI came up with the Malnutrition Reduction Program (MRP), a science-based nutrition strategy that has been helping address the high prevalence of underweight among infants and young Filipinos. It has been helping fight malnutrition, in partnership with the local government units, national government agencies, and private sector partners.
As part of the DOST’s efforts in countryside development, which include improving the health and nutrition of children, the FNRI initiated a package of intervention for young children and their mothers.
This nutrition strategy comprised of complementary feeding of 6 months to below 3 years old children, and nutrition education of their mothers/caregivers that addresses child undernutrition, by encouraging the local government units (LGUs) and entrepreneurs to adopt the interventions in order to localize the production of complementary foods.
The strategy involves conduct of research and at the same time implementation of a social program that will help these young children in the countryside. The nutrition intervention was initially pilot-tested in four provinces with high prevalence of malnutrition among this group of young children. With the favorable results of the pilot testing in increasing the weight of children and improving the nutrition knowledge of mothers/caregivers after 120-days intervention, the MRP was rolled-out in various regions of the country with the slogan, “local technology works”.
Food technologies
In its commitment to continuously develop food products that help improve the nutrition of the Filipinos and help in the livelihood of entrepreneurs and in employment of community folks, FNRI came up with eight new food technologies that are ready for technology transfer.
The DOST line agency is not into food manufacturing, but only into food technology development.
“Translating these food technologies into commercial products is the important role of local entrepreneurs, cooperatives, other groups who may be interested in manufacturing the product on a large scale and becoming the supplier of these nutritious products in their community or provinces,” the DOST explained.
“The food manufactured by the private sectors are the ones that are government-subsidized and are given for free to mothers and children in selected areas where malnutrition is quite higher,” it added.
Malnutrition is one of the biggest health problems, particularly among the young ones. Based on a survey conducted by the FNRI in 2015, chronic malnutrition is at its worst in 10 years and this may get worse unless necessary steps are soon taken.
The FNRI data showed chronic malnutrition rate among children aged zero to two was at 26.2%, the highest in 10 years. From 2013 to 2015, 10% of the stunting children increased to an average of 40% and is expected to increase in the coming years.
Stunting, the worst form of malnutrition, has been a pervasive concern among Filipino children. In 2019, 28.8% of children below five years old experience malnutrition due to prolonged hunger while the stunting rate among children two years old and below is at 21.9% according to the FNRI report.
“Stunting is an irreversible condition which leads to the severe damage and impairment of a child’s physical and brain development, and adult productivity,” deplored Atty. Alberto Muyot, chief executive officer of Save the Children Philippines. – ###
