Philippine government sets out to join SUN following civil society nudge

By Monalinda B. Cadiz, Child Health Now Communications Specialist, World Vision Philippines

Quezon City, Philippines—  World Vision, with civil society nutrition-focused coalition, Koalisyon para Alagaan at Isalba ang Nutrisyon (KAIN), continues its support for the registration of the Philippines to the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) movement, following an encouraging government pronouncement at the start of the national Nutrition Month in July.   

Speaking for the Health Secretary in a nutrition summit dubbed ‘End Hunger Summit’, Assistant Secretary David Lozada encouraged all sectors to “work together drastically to end hunger and malnutrition in the soonest time possible.”

Lozada emphasized the government’s intent to join SUN, as this as an opportunity to “help mobilize resources to scale up nutrition action and nutrition sensitive development programs at the national down to the community level.”

He further added that the nutrition secretariat of the National Nutrition Council (NNC) was instructed to “accelerate registration of the Philippines to the SUN Movement,” and revitalize the Philippine Plan of Action on Nutrition.  This is to “ensure that they are able to accelerate the slow progress reducing hunger and malnutrition in our country,” said Lozada.   

The prevalence of underweight children below five is one measurement for both hunger and malnutrition status- 2011 data showed that 1 in every 5 children in the Philippines is underweight and 1 out of 3 are short for their age- an occurrence called ‘stunting’.  The MDG 2015 target to halve underweight children below 5 in the country has only a medium probability of being attained.    

The government’s pronouncements of support for the SUN Movement were given in a series of events celebrating the National Nutrition Month in the Philippines.  Organized by NNC in partnership with the civil society coalition KAIN, the month’s thematic focus, vowing to end hunger and malnutrition, was an appropriate springboard to usher in the country’s SUN membership.

“Like the 40 countries that signed up and are now benefitting from the gains, the membership can bring in global partners to support the country and also high level support to the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) action,” added NNC head Maria-Bernardita Flores.

7 multisectoral representatives led by Lozada, reinforced the announcement of Flores through commitment statements and signing of sectoral support to SUN registration during the launch of the nutrition month.  This was subsequently followed by another signing of declaration of support to end hunger and malnutrition led by new Senator-elect Grace Poe at the End Hunger Summit which culminated the nutrition month.  KAIN represented the civil society in both occasions.

“KAIN members can leverage on their programming so they can complement government in terms of addressing issues on undernutrition,” says World Vision Interim Country Director Filomena Portales at a press conference, elaborating on the individual and unified strength of non-government organizations considering their dedicated work and resources for nutrition, with global support from their networks.

Government’s membership and commitment to the SUN movement is the primary call to action of World Vision through the Child Health Now campaign, looking at it as an opportunity to muscle high level leadership in government to improve nutrition outcomes. 

The CHN call to action anchors on recommendations from the Nutrition Barometer Report jointly published by World Vision International and Save the Children International in 2012. 

At the November 2012 Philippine launch of the Barometer Report in a forum hosted by World Vision, government’s global commitment to movements like the SUN was reiterated as a necessary step to improve nutrition status.      

The report provides a snapshot of national government’s commitments and progress in addressing nutrition and child survival. In the report, the Philippines fared sound on outcomes but frail on commitment. 

Results of the Barometer forum included pronouncement by the health department to work on problems on undernutrition and improve Philippine rating to sound-sound, indicating ample government investments on nutrition. 

This result prompted World Vision to coordinate with regional and global partnership for technical advice on SUN.  The Child Health Now policy brief was then revised to include the call for government to register and commit to the SUN movement. 

World Vision also directly inquired from NNC on why the Philippines is not a member of the global movement, prompting the council to discuss the matter within their technical working group. In June, World Vision hosted the KAIN strategic planning workshop where it was proposed that Philippine commitment to SUN be one of the coalition’s priority advocacies. 

When NNC gave pronouncements about its intents to register the country as a SUN member, the coalition has been continually seeking support from regional and global partners to ably assist the government in the membership process. 

The Philippine Plan of Action on Nutrition was also circulated by NNC to World Vision and others of the 12-member KAIN coalition for review and inputs.