President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. said the government would be providing incentives to local government units (LGU) in implementing the provisions of the Philippine Multisectoral Nutrition Project (PMNP) to combat malnutrition in their localities.
In his speech during the launch of the PMNP on Wednesday at the Manila Hotel, the President said the measure would ensure the PMNP would be enforced at the grassroots level.
“The program will also incentivize the participating LGUs…And we were just having a very quick discussion about how that should be—how we can achieve that,” Marcos said.
The President noted how LGUs usually opt not to prioritize anti-malnutrition initiatives due to lack of available capacity, ability, skills or manpower.
“So we have found a way to bring the LGUs in. Because it is without their partnership, we do not get to what is often referred to as the last mile,” Marcos said.
“And that is always the problem when you try to translate a program from the national level, a program of the national government, all the way down to the local government, down to the barangay level,” he added.
Multisector approach
The PMNP, which was crafted with the funding aid from the World Bank, is a “multisectoral community participatory approach,” which aims to address the “multi-faceted” problem of malnutrition.
Aside from LGUs, it would also be implemented by the Department of Health, Department of Social Welfare and Development, National Nutrition Council, and the Department of Science and Technology-Food and Nutrition Research Institute.
Among the interventions under the initiative are providing LGUs access to primary health-care support and nutrition services, including Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) services as well as access to clean water and sanitation, technical information, training and financing.
He stressed the importance of addressing malnutrition since it could have negative effects not only on the health of those affected by “stunting,” but also on the country’s socioeconomic development.
“Malnutrition is, in turn, linked to long-term adverse developmental impacts, taking its toll on our people’s learning ability, academic performance, all the way to productivity and employment opportunities—and it also carries with it hereditary implications,” Marcos said.
“Therefore, as we aim for food security, we must also pursue with the same vigor and consistency the remedies to this grave problem of [malnutrition]. In fact, whatever solutions we adopt in these two areas, they must be strategically related and mutually reinforcing,” it added.
