Gov't seeks to reduce stunting as Marcos OKs pilot of food stamp program
By Robina Asido
The government wants to reduce the stunting problem in the country to half in the next five years as President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. approved on Tuesday the pilot implementation of the food stamp program, which is funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Asian Development Bank and the French Development Agency.
The approval of the pilot implementation of the food stamp program was announced by Social Welfare and Development Secretary Rex Gatchalian in a media briefing following the cabinet meeting with Marcos in Malacanang.
"The President approved the run of the pilot, which is fully funded through grants from the (Asian Development Bank) ADB, JICA and the French Development Agency. So that will be US$3 million all in all," he said.
"There’s a provision to expand it; ADB is still working on other trust fund so that we can expand the pilot. But other than that, it’s all green lights, we will go for the pilot which will take place shortly. From the pilot, we will see the nuances, what needs to be improved, what needs to be enhanced, what needs to be discontinued and run for six months," he added.
Gatchalian said the program will start as a pilot test to prevent wasteful spending.
"We are doing the pilot so that we don’t end up with wasteful spending. We want to make sure that when we do expand the program on its regular run, even if the President already approved, we want to learn from the pilot and we want to start right, that was the takeaway," he said.
"Speaking with the economic team last Friday, the main take away is tighten the design. It is important we start the program right, and that is the take away," he added.
Gatchalian said as the government started to look into the stunting problem in the country, Marcos also wants to include pregnant and lactating mothers in the program.
"The President also wants to bring in pregnant, lactating mothers. We have to start looking at stunting in this country, and the first 1,000 days program is very important,'' said Gatchalian.
Health Secretary Ted Herbosa said the stunting rate "for ages 0 to 23 months old, it’s 21.6 percent, that’s one in five children. It’s actually very high. For under five, it’s 28.7 percent, that’s high."
"If you ask me, I want to hit 50 percent of that... decrease, we cannot zero that because there will (be) hard to reach areas. But you know it’s a nice target, Sec. Rex is to say at the end of this program it will be reduced to 50 percent, I mean to cut our problem on stunting and poor nutrition to half," he said.
Herbosa said "stunting is a multifaceted problem that requires multidimensional solutions."
"Our problem in stunting is deep. We need an all-of-government approach to address this," he said.
"The fight for hunger and nutrition is the number two priority of the sustainable development goals of 2030," he added.
In her speech during the launching of the Philippine Multisectoral Nutrition Project in Manila last March, Health Undersecretary Ma. Rosario Vergeire said "last year the Philippines was 69 out of 121 countries in the global hunger index after garnering a score of 14.8."
"Although considered as having a moderate level of hunger we still face significant issues with indicators 29.5 percent of Filipino children under five are stunted," she said.
"Our issues with nutrition go beyond access to food. These are affected by an interplay of various factors such as health education, livelihood, social welfare and governance. We are also aware of the intergenerational effect of malnutrition," she added. DMS
