RDC-1 enjoins stakeholders to support RPAN implementation
SAN FERNANDO CITY, Feb. 27 (PIA) -- The Regional Development Council - Regional Nutrition Council (RDC-RNC 1) enjoined its stakeholders to support the Regional Plan of Action for Nutrition (RPAN) 2019-2022 implementation, here.
Through Resolution No. 101, series of 2019 signed and attested by National Economic and Development Authority Regional Director Nestor G. Rillon, stakeholders such as local government units (LGUs), the academe, civil society organizations (CSOs) and non-government organizations (NGOs) are encouraged to respond to pressing nutritional issues and problems in the communities.
RPAN is a plan that commits regional sector agencies to action and resources to contribute to their proportionate share of malnutrition burden and corresponding targets in the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition (PPAN).
The key strategies of the plan are focused on the first 1000 days of life (F1K), complementation of nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive programs, intensified mobilization of LGUs, reaching geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas (GIDAs) and communities of indigenous peoples and convergence of actions of the national, sub-national and local governments.
“The cooperation of our stakeholders on the RPAN implementation will support the prevalence of malnutrition and increasing incidents of non-communicable diseases in the region,” said National Nutrition Council (NNC-1) officer-in-charge nutrition program coordinator Kendal Pilgrim Gatan.
NNC-1 reiterates that levels of undernutrition has been continuously high through the years in the country, with a significant level of underweight at 19 percent, stunting at 31.3 percent and wasting at 6.6 percent as a result of the Updating of the Nutritional Status of Filipino Children and other Population Groups by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute of the Department of Science and Technology (FNRI-DOST).
These nutritional problems are caused by immediate and underlying causes ranging from inadequate food intake, poor participation in health programs or services, food insecurity, and inadequate health services.
At the root of this, basic problems such as poverty and lack of education are seen as factors.
For this year, Gatan said that RNC-1 has proposed two advocacy activities such as a stakeholders’ forum on stunting for the provinces of Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte and another forum on mobilizing the barangays (villages) of the cities in the region to be ‘F1K Days Champion’ on Early Childhood Care and Development (F1K-ECCD) program.
Both activities are aimed to increase awareness, encourage stakeholders to implement nutrition activities and an avenue to share best practices of nutrition advocates which is expected to be conducted on the second quarter of 2020.
The RPAN 2019-2022 was approved on December 19, 2018 following the issuance of RNC Resolution No. 2 series of 2018 adopting the RPAN of the Ilocos Region. (JCR/JNPD/AHFF/PIA-1)
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