PPAN launched to curb malnutrition in next 6 years

Press Release
May 5, 2017

TAGUIG CITY – All is set for the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition (PPAN) 2017-2022 in addressing malnutrition in the country for the next six years as it was officially launched on 2 May 2017 in Iloilo City. Health Secretary Paulyn Ubial led the national launch together with other members of the Governing Board of the National Nutrition Council.

Anchored on the Philippine Development Plan, the PPAN is the country’s contribution to the attainment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, particularly SDG 2 which is to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture. Moreover, PPAN 2017-2022 also aims to support the World Health Assembly Global Target to improve maternal, infant and young child nutrition by 2025.

The new PPAN is a results-based plan designed to achieve significant reductions in different forms of malnutrition such as wasting, stunting, micronutrient deficiencies and overweight and obesity in the Philippines. It was constructed based on a landscape situational analysis of nutrition in the Philippines which shows that the prevalence of malnutrition in various forms remain high.

Based on the National Nutrition Survey conducted by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) in 2015, 33.4% or 3.8 million children are stunted while 7.1% or 807,057 are wasted. It also showed that overnutrition manifesting as overweight and obesity are emerging health concerns among children and a major problems among adults with 18 million Filipinos who are overweight and obese.

Micronutrient deficiency which adversely affects a child’s survival also remains a public health concern. Among pregnant women, 24.8% are nutritionally at risk with iodine deficiency disorder affecting brain development of unborn and very young children. The cost of malnutrition greatly affects the country’s economy with a total loss of P328 Billion in 2013 due to impacts of child stunting on education and productivity.

As key to achieving improvement in nutritional outcomes, PPAN’S strategic thrusts are the First 1,000 Days of life, complementation of nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive programs, intensified mobilization of local government units and reaching Geographically Isolated and Disadvantaged Areas (GIDAs) and communities of indigenous peoples.

The new PPAN features 8 nutrition-specific programs devised to address the immediate causes of malnutrition such as inadequate food and nutrient intake, poor caregiving and parenting practices, and the burden of infectious diseases. This will be complemented by nutrition-sensitive programs which are already existing developmental programs that can be tweaked to produce nutritional outcomes. These programs will be enabled by intensive mobilization of LGUs which will involve capacity-building and mentoring on nutrition program management.