Campaign to promote nutrition gains ground

CEBU, Philippines —  The Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Network has held two meetings in a row in the first semester of 2022 alone.

The SUN Network meetings aimed to firm up the networks’ programs, projects, and activities for 2022 that will contribute to the achievement of the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition (PPAN).

PPAN 2017-2022, the country’s blueprint of actions for nutrition improvement launched in 2017, aims to implement various forms of malnutrition and other related programs.

Aside from the targets, directions and priority actions, the plan will also define roles and contributions of stakeholders for the success of PPAN 2017- 2022.

The National Nutrition Council has always pushed for the public to embrace nutrition, and for the local government units to integrate nutrition in their political and development agenda.

In a press statement, NNC-7 said the recent meetings were attended by members of the three networks at the sub-national level, which includes SUN Academe, SUN Business, and SUN Civil Society Alliance.

Several business sectors, universities, and private sectors joined the meetings. Each sub-national network was able to come up with proposed Central Visayas SUN strategies, projects, and activities to support the Regional Plan of Action for Nutrition (RPAN).

The SUN Academe’s major agreement was to ensure SUN governance by promoting regional leadership and government responsibilities, aligning resources, and strengthening mutual accountabilities.

Part of the plan, NNC-7 said, is to develop and align shared priorities as well as build and strengthen regional capacity with technical assistance, research, and knowledge management.

On the other hand, the SUN Business will focus on conducting nutrition education, food safety analysis, and food fortification as well as school feeding programs and recruit more members under SUN Business Network.

The SUN Civil Society Alliance will prioritize advocacy, communication, and harmonizing nutrition messages, develop more policies and work towards reformation/realignment of their activities with the decided regional SUN priorities.

It was also agreed in the meetings that the network shall help in planning, implementing, and evaluating nutrition-specific and sensitive programs in the formulation of the new RPAN 2023-2028.

The meeting was attended by over a hundred participants committed to engaging in the plans and investing part of their resources for the movement.

With the Central Visayas SUN Networks fully organized, the CV SUN Secretariat is hopeful that these efforts will help illuminate the importance of nutrition as a common agenda for achieving improved nutrition in the region.

In 2014, the Philippines became the 51st country to join the SUN Movement, which has now grown to include 63 countries.

The NNC governing board has approved the Philippine registration to the SUN Movement to gain support from other SUN member countries and international development partners, and the United Nations agencies in improving the nutrition situation of the country and in harmonizing existing strategies to ensure effective implementation in order to achieve nutrition targets. —LPM (FREEMAN)