DSWD, UN tie up to help LGUs fight hunger

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the United Nations’ World Food Program (UN-WFP) have linked up for a project to help local government units better prepare against hunger during times of disaster.

The DSWD and UN-WFP are currently conducting a pilot of the Early Warning System on Hunger and Food Insecurity (EWS-HFI) program in the mountains of Benguet, particularly in the vegetable producing town of Atok, and Upi municipality in Maguindanao.

The two towns have been identified as among the municipalities vulnerable to calamities.

Atok is prone to landslides during the rainy season, while Upi experiences drought during summer.

These towns also have high poverty rates, with more people and children likely to experience hunger and malnutrition.

The project aims to provide information that will contribute to the analysis of causes and associated factors concerning hunger and food insecurity to guide local governments in adopting necessary preventive measures.

The information generated by the system can also help disaster-prone local governments prioritize their resources and create timely interventions even before a calamity strikes their area.

In preparation for the project’s implementation, the DSWD, UN-WFP and the National Nutrition Council (NNC) conducted a training in September 2013 for municipal level personnel who will implement the EWS-HFI project in the town.

The training is part of a series of activities under the project, which aims to capacitate the team on the proper execution and use of the system in their municipality.

The participants included staff from the Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office, Municipal Agriculture Office, Municipal Planning and Development Office, Municipal Health Office, local government unit staff and a member of the town council who will head the Sangguniang Bayan Health Committee.

The training session covered topics from basic concepts of data collection to the development of the implementation plan for the food security early warning system, while the manual used in the project was adopted from the training manual developed for the UN-Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) training manual prepared by Demetria Bongga, former dean of the UP College of Home Economics, and Celestino Habito.