Friday, January 04, 2008 Severe hunger in CV down 7%: SWS survey
INCIDENCE of severe hunger in Visayas decreased by seven percent in the last quarter of 2007, according to a survey the Social Weather Stations (SWS) released last Jan. 2.
From 21.7 percent in September 2007, incidence of hunger in households in the Visayas went down to 14.3 percent by December.
For government official working to prevent hunger and malnutrition, this is good news because “their efforts are finally showing.”
“Even with the seven percent reduction, which is a sharp decline, we will not rest on our laurels. In fact, we will still be fully implementing the accelerated hunger mitigation program of the government. We want to reach zero percent hunger, which may sound impossible,” said National Nutrition Council (NNC) 7 nutrition program coordinator Letlet Mission.
She attributed this decrease to the promotion of good nutrition through media, promotion of breastfeeding, and participation of government agencies in the supply and demand aspects of the hunger mitigation program.
For the supply side, agencies like the Department of Agriculture and the National Food Authority aim to increase food production and enhance efficiency of logistics and food delivery.
To help the consumers, agencies like the Department of Labor and Employment and the Department of Education were directed to help consumers earn, promote good nutrition and manage the population.
Mission said there are no government-initiated surveys on hunger yet, except for studies on the prevalence of malnutrition.
Similar to the SWS survey, the trend in malnutrition is going downwards, she said.
In 2006, Central Visayas posted 9.78 percent in the prevalence of malnutrition. Last year, it decreased to 8.93 percent.
Mission explained that these figures are more accurate compared to those of SWS because they actually weigh individuals aged 0-71 years old from the cities and provinces.
They also analyze figures according to international reference standards set by the World Health Organization.
NNC started using these international standards in 2004 when Region 7 posted 13.77 percent prevalence rate in malnutrition. It decreased to 11.73 percent in 2005.
The SWS survey, on the other hand, used face-to-face interviews with a national sample of 1,200 statistically representative household heads from 240 geographical spots in all regions in the country.
Its survey also showed a decline in the national proportion of families experiencing involuntary hunger from 21.5 percent in September to 16.2 percent in December.
Severe hunger, which refers to those who experienced it often or always in the last three months, rose in Mindanao, from 2.3 percent to 5.3 percent in the same period. (NRC)
