A POLICY ANALYSIS ON THE PHILIPPINE PLAN OF ACTION FOR NUTRITION

(2011-2016)

Chiara Marie Ruffastella S. Bertillo

Department of Political Science , College of Social Sciences and Philosophy, Bicol University, Daraga
Albay, Philippines

I. INTRODUCTION

Hunger incidence in the country remains a serious concern. Official government

statistics and data from hunger surveys show an increasing trend in hunger incidence

among Filipino households that intensified the need for Proper nutrition and well being

which are considered as resources that would enable individuals to thrive and reach their

full potential (Ignacio,2016). Thus, better health and nutrition is central to human

happiness and well-being. It also makes an important contribution to economic progress,

as healthy populations live longer, are more productive, and save more.

On the other hand, many factors influence health status and a country's ability to

provide quality health and nutrition services for its people. Ministries of health are

important actors, but so are other government departments, donor organizations, civil

society groups and communities themselves. For example: investments in roads can

improve access to health services; inflation targets can constrain health spending; and

donor organization can hold feeding programs. (WHO, 2018)

Furthermore, the implementation of the Local Government Code of 1991 resulted

in the devolution of health services to local government units (LGUs) which included

among others the provision, management and maintenance of health services at different

levels of LGUs. What used to be a centralized national health system became many

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independent local health systems. After more than seventeen (17) years of devolution,

improvements in health status of populations show marked variations across LGUs.

Variations in health status were associated with variations in the performance of health

care providers and health care professionals in localities.

In line with this, the government promulgated the Philippine Plan of Action for

Nutrition (PPAN) as the country’s directional framework for nutrition improvement. It is

a systematic integration of efforts of government and private agencies and institutions to

address and prevent malnutrition through direct nutrition interventions and development

measures (NNC, 2013). PPAN is part of the Philippine Development Plan under the

Human Development Chapter. The National Nutrition Council (NNC), an intersectoral

national policy-making and coordinating body on nutrition, provides overall leadership in

formulating, monitoring and coordinating the implementation of the PPAN.

The PPAN is periodically updated to be more responsive to current socio-political

and economic developments. To date, NNC has formulated eight national plans since

1974 yet the nutritional situation of the country has not improved significantly. Like the

earlier national nutrition plans, it aims to reduce the prevalence of malnutrition in the

country. The goal of PPAN 2011-2016 is to contribute to improving the quality of the

human resource base of the country and to reducing child and maternal mortality. It is

also envisioned to contribute to the achievement of the UN Millennium Development

Goals as well as poverty reduction. (NNC, 2011)

. Local government units (LGUs) play a crucial role in implementing PPAN 2011-

2016. Local nutrition committees replicate the inter-agency composition of the NNC to

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serve as the coordinating structure for nutrition action as the local level. Local chief

executives provide leadership in nutrition planning, implementation, monitoring and

evaluation of nutrition programs at the local level.

In order to strengthen the implementation of PPAN at the local level, the

Department of Interior and Local Government as one of the stakeholders of PPAN issued

a Memorandum Circular No. 2012-89 mandating all LGUs to: translate the priorities for

action of PPAN 2011-2016 into specific programs and projects; organize, re-organize,

and strengthen functional local nutrition committees; designate nutrition action officer

with adequate office and staff support and provisions for continuous capacity building;

sustain, recruit and deploy Barangay Nutrition Scholars, formulate, implement, monitor

and evaluate local nutrition action plans and implement programs and projects to achieve

nutrition targets. It is in this context that the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC)

with funding support from the United Nations Development Program, saw the need to

assess the implementation of nutrition programs at the local level.

Thus, this paper will analyse and assess the aforementioned policy. At the same

time it seeks to provide answers to the following questions: 1. What is the impact of this

plan to the local governments? 2. What financial strategies were employed in the

implementation of the program? 3. What measures were undertaken to enhance the

nutrition status of the country?.

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II. Methodology

Purely Document review will be employed in answering the abovementioned

questions. The Collected data will be consolidated, summarized and analysed..

Document review includes the Accomplishment Reports, Statistical Data and other

sufficient documents that can help in this study.

III. Results and Discussion

To answer the first question, Since implementation of the Philippine Plan of

Action for Nutrition (PPAN) has been devolved to the local government units, political

support is a key element in effective implementation. Political support takes many forms,

there is adequate budget, passing of laws and ordinances related to nutrition and overall

staff support.

The passage of municipal resolutions and ordinances in support of nutrition

programs is another indicator of political will to address the nutrition problems of the

municipality. For the municipalities with active Municipal Nutrition Council(MNC),

many nutrition related resolutions and ordinances have been promulgated by their

respective Sangguniang Bayan. An example of resolutions passed annually is the approval

of the Municipal Nutrition Action Plan (MNAP). For them, the resolution is important so

the nutrition component of the programs of the line agencies can be assured of funding.

(Ignacio and Bullecer,2016)

The role of the Municipal Nutrition Action Office (MNAO) is to bring to the

attention her nutrition related concerns to the Committee on Health and the head

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committee will propose the specific resolution or ordinance. If the needed

resolution/ordinance is related to budget, then the Budget Officer is approached.

Sometimes concerns are brought directly to the Mayor who in turn will discuss with the

people concerned so that it is elevated to the Sangguniang Bayan.

This implies that the adoption of the plan in the Local Government units helped all

the MNAOs who are aware of the presence of the PPAN acknowledged its usefulness in

formulating their Municipal Nutrition Action Plan (MNAP). They use the suggested

activities under each impact programs as guide in planning. They consider it as an

“activity shopping list”. They also orient their MNCs about the PPAN or sometimes they

invite the PNAO to meet their MNC and discuss the PPAN. Two MNAOs from the low

prevalence municipalities however qualified that with or without the PPAN, they will still

come up with similar interventions suggested in the PPAN.

Second, Having strong financial management systems is of utmost importance,

especially in the health sector. This ensures that scarce resources are used optimally and

that necessary controls are established. Among the crucial processes involved in financial

management are financial planning, budget formulation, budget execution, accounting,

financial reporting, and internal control.

Even though promising systems are already in place, the following limitations

continue to impede effectiveness and efficiency in financial management:

1. Inconsistent implementation of financial processes, procedures, and guidelines

at both national and local levels

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 2. Lack of integration of the financial management systems;

3. Lack of a budgeting system that follows medium-term budget planning and

prevents resource gaps in implementing multi-year priority health programs and activities;

4. Poor monitoring and evaluation of financial management

5. Absence of an efficient information system that links NNC office and LGUs.

As a response to these limitations, internal financial control ensued, it involves

establishing and maintaining a network of systems to ensure effective operations;

economic and efficient use of resources; compliance with policies, procedures, laws,

and regulations; safeguarding of assets and interests from losses; and integral and

reliable information. Significant strides under this goal include the following reforms:

1. Operationalization of a Monitoring Unit within the Financial and

Management Service.

2. Development of the Financial Management Services Operations Manual and

Internal Audit Manual

3. Upgrading the Internal Audit Division into the Internal Audit Service, a

move to implement the shift from the traditional to a risk-based and process-focused

approach towards internal audit.

4. Integration of procurement, logistics, and financial management information

systems.

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 Cutting across all these proposed reforms are the key concepts of

collaboration, integration, and enhanced monitoring and evaluation. It is of utmost

importance that stakeholders work together during the planning and appropriation

phases – priorities must be identified and addressed, resources must be allocated

appropriately (i.e., prevent underestimation and overestimation). Moreover, systems

must be utilized optimally and integrated to ensure that financial information flows

across agencies, thereby promoting transparency, accountability, and enhanced

decision-making. Integrated systems also pave the way for better monitoring and

evaluation.

Lastly, The goals and objectives of the MTPFNP/PPAN will be achieved

through the promotion of household food security and the prevention, control, and

elimination of micronutrient deficiencies. The use of these strategies shall strengthen

the nutrition in development (NID) approach which combines long-term

developmental measures addressing the root causes of malnutrition with direct

interventions aimed at alleviating the malnourished within the framework of

socioeconomic development.

Along this line, five impact programs shall be implemented drawing support

from the necessary enabling mechanism that will insure achievement of the PPAN

goals.

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 Home and community food production

Home and Community Food Production will help ensure home food security

through home, school, and kitchen gardens which would yield food rich in calories,

protein, vitamin A, and vitamin C. the consumption of foods produced from these

gardens shall likewise be promoted.

Food Fortification

Food fortification, on the addition of nutrients in food will be pursued as

private-sector led. Government will help by the institution of policy measures to

attract the food industry to invest in fortifying their products.

 Nutrition Education

 Nutrition Education aims to promote the adoption of desirable practices which

insure nutritional well-being. It will use a wide range of approaches-individual and

group quality nutrition counseling, multimedia, community-based information

campaign using indigenous media, and integration of nutrition concepts in the school

curriculum.

Furthermore, the adoption of healthy lifestyles will be promoted to address the

emerging nutritional problem of obesity and the rise in diet-related non-communicable

diseases such as diabetes mellitus, hypertension, diseases of the heart, and diet-related

cancers.

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 Multimedia Campaign

Individual counseling efforts will be reinforced by multimedia campaigns to

be taken both at the national and local levels. Specific behavior-oriented messages

will be developed depending on the needs of the locality. The print and broadcast

(radio and television) media will be used extensively together with other collateral or

merchandising materials like t-shirts and fans. Planning and management of the

multimedia campaign will be done at the nation and regional levels in close

consultation with those at the lower geoadministrative units, including the target

audience.

Integration of Nutrition Concepts in the School Curriculum

  Nutrition concepts will be integrated in the school curriculum at all levels.

For the elementary and secondary school level, nutrition education will use the TCP

approach. Under the TCP approach, nutrition messages will be relayed from the

teacher through the children to their parents who are expected to put these messages

into practice at home. Through the TCP approach teachers, pupils, and parents will

learn, appreciate and practice good nutrition and health. Members of the community

will also be motivated to participate in health and nutrition activities.

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IV. Conclusions

The output of this project helped the various stakeholders, especially the LGUs

that are being considered as the frontline institutions that can address the problem of

poverty and inequity in their respective areas. Harnessing support and providing technical

assistance and guidance to the LGU was envisioned to be very useful in as much as they

spearhead the process of collaborating with national government agencies (NGAs), civil

society and private sector, to fight against poverty and hunger.

It contributed to the government initiatives through development of policies on

nutrition and initiated multi-sectoral participation. The importance of children nutrition

and its impact on social development and to the achievement of the MDGs cannot be

overemphasized. Clearly no significant results could be expected to be achieved over such

a short timeframe. Secondly, the interventions did not have sufficient convergence.

. It seemed plausible to conclude that because of the the municipality undertook

evidence-based decisions by providing food insecure households with supplementary

feeding and seeds to supplement their food resources, thereby achieving better

improvement in indicators. if this were indeed the case, then a major lesson would be on

the need to complement nutrition interventions with more specific livelihood and poverty

reduction interventions. This underscores the importance of addressing child malnutrition

from a multi-sector perspective; as well as the importance for building synergies with

other joint programmes

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 V. Recommendations

The importance of children nutrition and its impact on social development and

to the achievement of the MDGs cannot be over emphasized. In relation to this,

several recommendations were formulated by the researcher,

1. The researcher recommend that the plan should be continued through the

programmes of partner LGU’s, either individually or collectively.

2. Programme interventions should be based on a clearly defined ‘pathway to

change model’, which takes into account all dimensions and manifestations

of the development challenge.

3. Pilot interventions should be linked and implemented jointly in target areas

so that their collective impact can be objectively determined. the design in

order to optimize the impact of the programme.

4. Child nutrition should be addressed in the context of the broader

household food security, including access to quality food, and livelihood

opportunitie.

5. Strengthen follow-up mechanisms in monitoring and evaluation systems

6. Evaluate helpful strategies and elevate it.

References

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