FEATURES OPINION A worthwhile campaign vs malnutrition, child stunting

THE Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) has just launched a campaign against malnutrition and child stunting in the country through initiatives that will complement the government’s Philippine Multi-Sectoral Nutrition Project.

This comes after a study by the World Bank showed that the country has one of the worst cases of child stunting in the world. The Philippines ranked fifth with the highest stunting prevalence among countries in the East Asia and Pacific Region. It is also among the top 10 worst countries in the world. In last week’s editorial, we traced malnutrition as one of the causes why Filipino elementaryschool students got very low marks in science, mathematics and English proficiency in Southeast Asia.

According to the World Health Organization, stunting is a growth and development impairment of children resulting from poor nutrition, repeated infection and inadequate psychosocial stimulation.

According to MAP President and BDB Law founding partner Benedicta Du-Baladad, the group’s presence in the food, retail, health care, education and logistics industries, as well as other sectors, would help leapfrog progress in resolving malnutrition through sustainable and effective interventions and actions.

Rightly so; the MAP will broaden its role beyond fund generation and philanthropy to a shared responsibility in addressing malnutrition in the country. Henceforth, it will actively participate in the programming and governance of nutrition strategies and interventions, using the much-vaunted project management skills of its members.

Dr. Cielito Habito, governor in charge for the MAP Cluster on Resilience and Recovery, said MAP’s diverse ecosystem would muster the strength of the private sector to mobilize and help the government achieve its nutrition’s objectives. He said child stunting is a “major threat” to the country’s future.

If the problem is not addressed in an urgent and decisive manner, we will be placing our country’s future in the hands of stunted children who will become adults with limited capacities to be productive, competitive and creative.

Its exponential effect on national development and progress will be calamitous.

The MAP will collaborate with the Department of Health, National Nutrition Council, and Department of Social Welfare and Development. It will also ask the government to declare stunting as a priority national agenda. Beyond words, concrete actions should be cascaded to the community level. This would allow the local government units to allocate funds for feeding programs with emphasis on maternal nutrition, babies and toddlers. Vegetable farms in the communities and vegetable gardens in the elementary schools should be encouraged again.

According to the Global Nutrition Institute, schools and educators have a role to play in reducing malnutrition around the world.