DoH focuses nutrition program on Region 6
ILOILO CITY — Five local government units (LGUs) in Western Visayas where stunting is prevalent will be the priority beneficiaries in the implementation of the Philippine Multisectoral Nutrition Project (PMNP).
The Department of Health – Western Visayas (DoH–6) announced that the identified LGUs in the region include the towns of Badiangan, Duenas and Carles in Iloilo, and Don Salvador Benedicto and Calatrava in Negros Occidental.
“We have one of the smallest numbers of pilot areas since this is a nationwide coverage. The DoH is looking into areas who have many concerns in terms of nutrition and some regions have so many. In Western Visayas, we only have five,” said DoH–6 Director Dr. Adriano Suba-an.
He added that the five towns were determined based on the reported nutritional status, particularly incidence of stunting or when a child is too short for his or her age due to chronic or recurrent malnutrition.
The PMNP is a four-year project that adopts a bold multisectoral approach to achieve nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions across LGUs in the country.
Suba-an explained that the primary beneficiaries of the PMNP are households with pregnant and lactating women, children ages 2 to under 5 with stunting, and adolescent girls.
The LGUs will receive financial assistance and logistical support from the DoH to help in the first 1,000 days of life from a mother’s pregnancy up to a child’s second year of life.
According to the DoH–6, the financial support will be disbursed in three tranches. In the first tranche, each LGU is allocated around P14 million while future budget allocations for subsequent tranches are yet to be determined.
Suba-an said that although the stunting rate in the region is not alarming, the situation could be different, especially at the grassroots level.
“If we look at our stunting rate, it may not be very concerning, but we acknowledge that in the municipalities, barangays and puroks there is a need for support,” he stressed.
By the end of the PMNP in 2026, Suba-an said the DoH–6 is targeting to reduce the incidence of stunting in the region from 27 percent to 13.5 percent.
“From the target of less than 21.4 percent, we have already reached an accomplishment of 3.32 percent in 2023,” he said.