LA TRINIDAD, Benguet — It took quite some time for the local government of Tublay, Benguet in improving its nutritional status before bagging the Green Banner award and its “Tublay SHINES” recognized as best practice in nutrition governance.
Tublay Municipal Health Officer Dr. Marcela Tinoyan and the designated Municipal Nutrition Action Officer, shared during a meeting of the Provincial Nutrition Council technical working group, the LGU’s journey to success.
Prior to her entry in the town in 2006, Tinoyan said there were no convergence efforts among stakeholders. There was an organized Municipal Nutrition Council but was not functional and there were no records of meetings and documentation of activities.
In 2007, the MNC and the Barangay Nutrition Councils were organized followed by the conduct of series of planning workshops, conduct of situational analysis on nutrition issues and concerns, socio-economic profiling of families with underweight children, determination of the prevalence of anemia among high school female students, conduct of focus group discussion on the probable causes of malnutrition in the municipality by the health workers and prevalence survey on intestinal parasitism in partnership with the University of the Cordilleras.
Causes and factors associated with malnutrition were identified using a causal model such as poor access to nutritious food due to inadequate family income, low paying jobs and lack of livelihood, lack of education and early marriage; wrong food choices, improper feeding/inadequate food intake and limited breastfeeding period; infection, frequent illness and inadequate prenatal care and too close pregnancies were some of those identified.
Tublay SHINES came into being as a nutrition framework based on the identification of factors affecting malnutrition and the situational analysis undertaken.
SHINES stands for Safe environment and disaster preparedness; Health and social services; Income generation and skills training initiatives; Nutritious food intake and breastfeeding; nutrition Education; and Stable food supply and food production initiatives.
It has also strengthened its nutrition governance structure with the functionality of MNCs and BNCs with regular quarterly meetings, passage of resolutions and ordinances in support to nutrition, designation of Barangay Nutrition Action Officers, strengthened programs of Barangay Nutrition Scholars, conduct of program implementation review and planning workshop, fund allocation and establishment of linkages for logistic support.
Among the gains after eight years of Tublay SHINEs were decreasing trend in the prevalence of underweight among pre-school age children from 103 in 2005 to 11 in 2016; heightened awareness on the importance of nutrition governance among stakeholders; strengthened inter-sector collaboration and community participation and increasing budget allocation for nutrition.
Tublay is recipient of nutrition awards from 2009 up to 2016, has been awarded by the provincial government a vehicle for being a consistent best nutrition implementer.
Tinoyan admitted the challenge now is the sustainability and leveling up of nutrition gains amidst various gaps and budgetary constraints, and if it’s the priority of new elected officials and the impact of climate change and globalization. (Susan Aro/PIA –CAR)