Partners from non-government organizations (NGO) in the National Capital Region committed to scale-up nutrition actions in the region by investing in the First 100 Days of life. The commitment of the NGO partners was generated during the 6th Regional NGO Forum organized by the National Nutrition Council – NCR (NNC-NCR) last December 03, 2019 at the Red Hotel Cubao, Quezon City.

The NGO forum, with the theme “Strengthening GO NGO Partnership for Nutrition Actions in Metro Manila” was conducted to strengthen GO-NGO partnerships for nutrition actions in the region, update the participants on the nutrition situation, and intensify multisectoral actions to prevent stunting.

The forum was attended by four (4) representatives from the Regional Nutrition Committee, namely PIA-NCR, POPCOM-NCR, MDMDA, and DepEd-NCR and ten (10) NGO partners: Children’s Mission Philippines Hills of Grace Foundation, San Miguel Foods Foundation, Children’s Hour, Operation Blessing Foundation, Tulay ng Kabataan Foundation, ICAN Foundation, St. Joseph Foundation, Alay Pag-Asa, Gems Heart Foundation, and Gota de Leche La Proteccion dela Infancia.

During the program, Nutrition Officer III Emerenciana L. Francia informed the participants of the 2019 Regional Nutrition Situation in NCR while Regional Nutrition Program Coordinator Milagros Elisa V. Federizo discussed the topic, “Why Invest in the First 1000 Days”.

In her talk, RNPC Federizo emphasized the need to invest in the first 1000 days to prevent stunting. Good nutrition in the first 1000 days lays the foundation for health, development, and even prosperity of the next generation.

“There can never be sustained local and national development without adequately investing in nutrition”, RNPC Federizo said. “We should invest in nutrition and related programs of the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition (PPAN), focus our efforts on the first 1000 days with nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions, and intensify our multisectoral actions to prevent stunting”, she added.

During the forum, Malabon City Nutrition Action Officer Chef Melissa Sison-Oreta shared their city’s First 1000 Days (F1KD) Initiatives and how they were able to mobilize resources for the program from various groups including NGOs. A video presentation on the Quezon City’s Batang 1000 Program in partnership with Unilab was also shown. The sharing of good practices aimed to convince participants that there are F1KD programs that really work through convergence and multisectoral partnership.

Participants were also asked to locate on the NCR map where their respective organizations have on-going nutrition programs or projects. The updated mapping of NGOs can guide NGOs in the selection of target program sites that have no or limited NGO-funded nutrition and related programs or projects.

The annual NGO forum remains a good opportunity for NNC-NCR to reach out to NGOs to influence and mobilize them to support the PPAN and the First 1000 Days. (TAR/NPC MEVF/NNC-NCR)