The Nutrition Barometer Forum was held on 20 November 2012 at the office of World Vision – Philippines in Quezon City. It was attended by representatives from WHO, government and non-government organizations, international organizations, civil societies and members of the media. WHO representative, as panel presenter, expounded on how WHO is supporting, and continue to support the Philippine government in its nutrition programmes, and thus helps alleviate the country’s undernutrition problems.
The Nutrition Barometer provides a snapshot of the commitments of national governments to address the nutrition of the children, and the progress they have made. It looks at 36 developing countries with the highest levels of child undernutrition.
The Nutrition Barometer also measures government’s political and legal commitment to tackle the malnutrition problem, whether they have a national nutrition plan, as well as its financial commitment. The progress in addressing malnutrition is measured by children’s nutritional status – who are underweight, stunted or suffering from wasting – and children’s chances of survival. Countries are then ranked according to commitments as well as nutritional and child survival outcomes.
For each category, the countries are divided into four groups of nine, and assessed as sound (green), fair (yellow), emerging (blue) and frail (red) in their commitments and outcomes. The Philippines is RED in financial commitments, but BLUE in political and legal commitments.
Earlier, together with other UN agencies, WHO contributed in the campaign to reduce undernutrition through the “Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN)” Movement. This was done by keeping up with the protocol of the UN- Economic and Social Council and its commitment during the World Health Assembly (WHA) conducted on 21-26 May 2012, specifically on the commitment to the “Every Woman, Every Child” strategy.
In May 2012, WHA passed a resolution expressing commitment to help reduce the number of stunted children by 40%, by 2025. A similar commitment was made by the High-Level Panel on Joint Action to Achieve Food and Nutrition Security in the Western Pacific Region which was held during the recent Regional Committee Meeting of the WHO Western Pacific Region in Hanoi, Viet Nam. This high-level Nutrition Panel aimed to help strengthen collaboration among Governments, UN Agencies and development partners, leading to nutrition policies and programmes being scaled-up using a multisectoral approach. In an immediately subsequent RCM agenda Member States welcomed the high-level Panel and highlighted nutrition challenges and priorities for their own countries. In the plenary following both of these, Member States adopted resolution WPR/RC63.R2 committing further resources to help achieve the six global targets of the comprehensive plan, by 2025; and to regularly report on progress.
Last year, a comprehensive report on commitments to ‘Every Woman Every Child’ highlighted the lack of attention to nutrition, describing it as a neglected area. A window of opportunity has been opened, to capitalize on increased attention on the crisis of undernutrition and the growing political will to tackle it, and to ensure that more children get a chance to develop to their full potential.
The Nutrition Barometer forum was organized by World Vision – Philippines and Save the Children – Philippines.
For other resource materials and info on the Nutrition Barometer please visit the link: http://www.childhealthnow.org/docs/en/nutrition-barometer-.