PIDS DEVELOPMENT I I
RESEARCH_WS III _
4
MARCH-APRIL
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1986
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tion of food assistance, thus they selected depressed areas for data collection. At present, most municipalities collect simi. lar data to be used in their action plans, but not as a basis for evaluating national nutritional •status.
rural areas. This is a marked shift from the 1978-1982 pattern, where urban areas had both higher nutrient adequacies and a greater degree of improvement. The 1983 economic crisis seems to have had a greater effect on urban areas, since it hit
design of appropriate intervention strategies. The data gaps suggest that there• are( deficiencies in the country's monitoring system which can be remedied 0nly by the collection of timely and representarive data available to both the public and
To fill'in the need for a short-term nutritional status indicator in between the
the largely urban industrial and service sections badly. Increased unemployment as well as the decline in real wages have more severe nutritional effects in
policymakers.
the urban areas, where workers rely mostly on wage income for their livelihood. In contrast, •most of the rural folk are dependent upon their own produce for subsistence. Some predominantly
An evaluation of the Philippine Food and Nutrition Program vis-a-vis its objectires is now in order. Florencio (1985_ in a review of the Philippine nutrition program within a decade of implementation,
rural areas, however, showed up with high prevalence of malnutrition, particularly Western Visayas, which has been drastically affected by the sugar crisis,
agrees that the program has indeed accomplished a lot in terms of programs, administrative mechanisms and nutrition awareness at all levels of govermnent and
The results of two FNRI studies in Metro Manila (Valdecanas et al., 1984; Villavieja et al., 1985)also reveal sharp reductions in consumption and nutrient intake, particularly in depressed areas, More data need to be gathered in order to obtain a regional and locational perspectire of the nutrition situation to aid in the
among many sectors of society. There has also beer_, admittedly, •greater participation of government and private entities and the local populace in nutrition planning and implementation, The pressing question, however, is whether the program has in fact succeeded in improving nutritional status. Here, the evi-
FNRIbaselinesurveys, the NationalNutrition Council instituted the Index Monitoring Project (IMP)(NNC, 1985a). This project gathered weight-for.age data from index areas. The IMP results are presented in Table with1978 the corresponding FNRI data4 along from the and 1982 surveys. Note that the percentage of severely, moderately and mildly underweight are larger for the IMP surveys, indicating that sampling procedures are not comparable. Nevertheless, an examination of the trends they reveal is insightful. The FNRI data do not indicate a change in the proportion of the severely underweight, but there has been a reduction in those who are moderately underweight. In the IMP's index areas, both the incidence of severely and moderately underweight has declined, which may be a sign that intervention programs may have iraproved• the nutritional status Of preschoolers in index areas, but not necessarily in the nation as a whole. The IMP was later replaced by the NNSS due to non.reporting of data by field personnel.
25 g <
ful in assessing the nutritional impact of the 1983 economic crisis. A comparison
o __
of the two FNRI data points in Table 5 (1978 and 1982) shows that the p revalence of undernourished children has dec-
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mased from 1978 to 1982. The improve.
1=_
ment in nutritional status has been re•versed after 1982, even after taking into account differences in the methodology of FNRI and NNSS surveys. The percen-
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rage of pre.sehoolers below 85% of the weight.for-height standard increased from 13.•3% in the third quarter of 1984 to 14.3% in the last • quarter of 1985. This deterioration was also observable from the weight-for-age data. Disaggregation by rural-urban categaffes reveals that some areas were more severely affected by the economic crisis than other areas. According to weightbasedindicators, urban areas.havea higher initial prevalence as well as a greater degree of deterioration compared to the
of Program Aeeom-
TREND IN WEIGHT-FOR-AGE OF UNDERNOURISHED 0-6 YEAR OLD CHILDREN, PHILIPPINES
help:
The NNSS data are particularly
3. An Evaluation plishments
_ = _ _
_ _ ® _
20
__%_
_ 15
IO
5
Source:
......
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_ .
0
,
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_-.'_' _ :_-_ -__ .c-e_ _ _;_ 5_." _ ._'('_q _.:.:t _,_'/_A 1978 (FNRI)
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_;; S_L--Z
y__ _:_ ,_ .._
_._._ :..... ___x.'.. ............
c_i ::_':7 .-_-
_ .... _ ._-_-_ z_ .... __"_-_.._. __'_'-"_'_ _'='_z_%_,_ _:_ ....... _._................ _ .1982 (FNRI)
:_,-_',_ 1984. (NNSS)
1978 and Nutrition 1982 Nationwide Surveys, FNRI National Council, Nutrition Menogement Information
,_Es _,_/ ,_ ;:-::.: -'_:" 1985 (NNSS)
(1981, Service_1984) Oivi_ioa.