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On August 16, 2024, Multiply-Ed conducted another session of its E-Skwela Forum Series that takes on critical policy issues on education, this time focusing on nutrition.
Multiply-Ed (X-Ed), a national initiative of the Center for Youth Advocacy and Networking (CYAN) and Government Watch (G-Watch), in cooperation with various youth and student organizations that aim to strengthen transparency, participation and accountability in all levels of education decision-making, noted in its monitoring of learning continuity plans in 2022 that the feeding program of the Department of Education is a crucial support for students, especially for those coming from the poorest of the poor. This points to the importance of nutrition in learning continuity and education outcomes.
In the forum, notable experts on nutrition were invited to speak, namely Dr. Anna Melissa Guerrero of World Bank Philippines, Ms. Conchitina Enrile of the Education Commission (EdCom) II, and Ms. Ellen Ruth Abella of the National Nutrition Council (NNC).
The resource persons discussed the current situation of nutrition in the country and how the government is addressing malnutrition, stunting and wasting. The Multiply-Ed Monitoring Report on its phase 1 monitoring of the government’s learning continuity plans that mobilized about 300 youth leaders and volunteer-monitors all over the country was also finally launched in the forum. More importantly, the forum also served as a platform to call for mother and student representation in nutrition policy-making.
State of Nutrition in the Philippines, How is the Government Responding
The Philippines continues to lag behind its neighbors in Southeast Asia in addressing stunting and malnutrition. For decades, stunting and wasting rates have plateaued. The very slow decline is expected to be overtaken by population growth, signaling an impending emergency situation. In her opening remarks, Executive Director of the CYAN, Mx. Leizl Adame, underscored how the issue of nutrition is critical to education and the youth, echoing the emphasis given by EdCom in its year 1 report entitled Miseducation: the Failed System of Philippine Education.
Because of the severity of this situation, crucial questions on nutrition were asked to help lay down the current status of the Philippines on this matter.
Ms. Abella of NNC spearheaded the lineup of responses by underscoring the “triple burden” of malnutrition such as undernutrition, overnutrition, and micronutrient deficiency.
Ms. Enrile then explained further that malnutrition does not only affect the physical aspect of Filipinos, but also their cognitive development, leading to low educational performance and weakening their ability to work efficiently. This supports Dr. Guerrero’s description of malnutrition being a “silent pandemic.”
As a response to the long-standing problem, the government has established policies and programs that will combat malnutrition, including the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition (PPAN) 2017-2022 and the Philippine Multisectoral Nutrition Project, a program that is being implemented in collaboration with the World Bank.
On the other hand, despite the existence of these commendable projects and plans, one of the main concerns when it comes to nutrition governance was weak implementation, which was brought up by Ms. Joy Aceron of G-Watch in the open forum.
She asked, “What do you see as the political factors affecting the implementation of our plans and policies on nutrition? How do you strengthen accountability in that structure? Kasi mukhang maganda naman siya [policies] pero hindi pa ganun kaklaro kung saan talaga nagkakaroon ng problema on implementation.” [Because the policies and plans seem good in paper, but it is still unclear how we are struggling with the implementation.]
Dr. Guerrero then answered that it all boils down to challenges on policy translation. She explained that it is why there must be hands-on implementation support given to the poorest and most incapacitated local government units who have frontline workers that lack the resources and capacity to push the agendas set by the policies on nutrition.
Meanwhile, Ms. Flora Arellano of Education Network or E-Net raised an important topic that addresses nutrition on a broader perspective. She asked, “Do we really have a road map in the understanding of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) as well as implementing the SDGs in our particular country context? Do we have substantial development in terms of how we implement or how we translate these SDG goals into our specific program goals?”
She then added that while there are interventions at the local level, it only lasts short term, especially due to changes of newly elected officials who change plans and priorities, which affect other determinants of nutrition like agricultural development.
Monitoring the World Bank Nutrition Loan
An initiative most discussed in the forum was the Philippine Multisectoral Nutrition Project (PMNP). Funded through a loan from the World Bank, the initiative aims to reduce stunting rates by producing comprehensive nutrition interventions through strengthening the delivery of nutrition services and by implementing community-based nutrition service delivery and multisectoral nutrition convergence. In 2022, the Board of Executive of the World Bank approved a loan of US$178.1 million for the said project.
G-Watch, in cooperation with Accountability Research Center, is exploring to monitor the said World Bank loan as part of its multi-level health monitoring in PRO-Health. Promoting Rights Organizing for Health or PRO-Health is a multi-level and multi-sectoral coalition of organizations of accountability frontliners and rights defenders coordinated by G-Watch that aims to strengthen transparency, participation and accountability in public health governance. It aims to create and claim democratic spaces to monitor and advocate for pro-people and bottom-up solutions to systemic barriers and hurdles to reproductive, maternal, newborn and adolescent health (RMNCAH) services.
PRO-Health noted in its monitoring that while services under the First 1000 Days are among the most accessible health services in community health units, the availability and quality of services for mothers and children remain highly varied across the country. It also identified nutrition as a crucial health agenda that must be prioritized given the continuing prevalence of stunting and malnutrition in the country.
G-Watch opines that given the amount of loan and its multi-level operations, PMNP has the potential of making a dent in addressing the weaknesses in nutrition governance in the country if it is able to address the following questions:
G-Watch asserts strengthened transparency, participation and accountability in the implementation of PMNP will be key to its success.
Nutrition as a Convergent Agenda with A Glaring Gap in Representation
In her closing remarks, convenor-director of G-Watch, Ms. Joy Aceron, noted that the slow progress on stunting in the country despite of all the efforts is indicative of a “fundamental flaw in our political and governance system.” To fail in addressing such a basic need that has far-reaching and broad ill-effects, there must be something wrong with how we are doing things, she added.
Ms. Aceron noted that nutrition is an agenda that G-Watch only stumbled upon “as a broadly and deeply convergent agenda” as it co-implements Multiply-Ed and PRO-Health. Nutrition, indeed, is an inter-generational concern that brings together education and health stakeholders alike, as it addresses immediate concerns such as food access, medium-term outcomes in education and health and long-term goals on sustainable development, equality and democracy.
Ms. Aceron noted that nutrition affects a person’s core physiological development that, en masse, may affect the quality of democratic and political participation in a country. She asserted that addressing “nutrition governance issues need to be evidence-based, participatory and must be prioritized amid all other concerns and that makes nutrition highly political.”
During this event, Multiply-Ed and PRO-Health took the opportunity to push for their proposed solution to what they deem as a crucial gap in nutrition policy-making: the representation of students and mothers in nutrition policy-making and governance.
The joint Multiply-Ed and PRO-Health position paper disseminated during the forum states that “the problem of malnutrition and stunting can be best addressed with a holistic and integrated approach that is foregrounded on poverty reduction and empowerment…While there is representation for the private sector and non-government organizations, including those from the women’s sector in the said council, there is still a need to strengthen, in particular, the representation of mothers and students.”
Multiply-Ed and PRO-Health assert that “the representation of mothers and students in national and local nutrition councils can provide the holistic and pro-poor perspective in nutrition policy-making” as it ensures accountability to stakeholders most affected by the issue. They call on all concerned duty-bearers and policy-makers to take immediate and appropriate actions to push for the said agenda that they see as crucial in strengthening the country’s nutrition governance and policy-making.