LGUs urged to continue hunger mitigation efforts
Assistant Secretary Maria-Bernardita Flores of the National Nutrition Council urged the local government units in Western Visayas to continue implementing the Accelerated-Hunger Mitigation Program or AHMP.
We should all work together, not only to put food on the table but also to fight malnutrition in the country, Flores said during a forum in Iloilo City.
AHMP was initiated in late 2007, and is being implemented as a long-term strategy to address the increasing number of hungry Filipinos based on the results of the quarterly surveys on hunger of the Social Weather Stations.
The AHMP framework recognizes that hunger results from inadequate supply of food, and inadequate money to buy food. The framework also shows various programs intended to increase food production and enhance the efficiency of logistics and food delivery, which address issues related to food supply. It likewise shows programs that intend to put more money into poor people’s pockets, promote good nutrition, and manage the population which taken together address issues related to food demand.
Flores, the keynote speaker of the Nutrition Congress on October 14 in Iloilo City, said that Region 6 is among the seven regions in the country that have the highest prevalence of malnutrition, per weight for age indicator for 0-5 year-old children.
Others are, Regions 5, 9, Region 4-B, Regions 8, 12, CARAGA and ARRM.
But Region 6 has the highest prevalence of underweight children among all regions, she said.
In Western Visayas, Antique has 41.1 percent; Negros Occidental, 32.1 percent; Iloilo, 31.4 percent; Aklan, 29.6 percent; Capiz, 29.3 percent; and Guimaras, 20.7 percent.
Flores also participated in the launching of the One Nutrition, One Nation Movement in the region which “aims to unite the Ilonggos, Negrenses, Aklanons, Antiquenos, Capicenos and Guimarasnons to help solve hunger and malnutrition in the region.”
She also shared some strategies to mitigate hunger at the community level which is an important input toward nutrition improvement.
“The responsibility to end hunger is a shared one. Food insecure and hungry people cannot end hunger alone. We all are responsible for ending hunger, and if we are to solve this problem, we all must work together,” Flores said.*PIA6
