UNICEF held a virtual meeting to talk about the next steps on the First 1000 Days (F1KD) Reporting System (RS)on June 14, 2021 via Google Meet. The meeting was participated by the National Nutrition Council Region 9, Provincial Nutrition Office (PNO) and Provincial Health Office (PHO) of Zamboanga del Norte, CSO Partners-the Nutrition Center of the Philippines (NCP), World Vision (Nutrition and WASH), and Zuellig Family Foundation (ZFF), and representatives of the UNICEF. The main agenda of the meeting was the F1KD Orientation setup for the Provincial and Municipal levels and the discussion on the training content for the F1KD RS roll-out and training date.

The First 1000 Days Program is one of the current initiatives of the government toward addressing malnutrition, particularly wasting and stunting among children under 5 years old. The first 1000 days of a child’s life is known as the “golden window of opportunity” where poor nutrition can have irreversible effects on the physical and mental development of the child. To support the F1K Program, the National Nutrition Council developed an electronic reporting system for the tracking of program implementation. The Reporting System will provide real-time online reporting and provide a facility to Barangay Health Workers and Barangay Nutrition Scholars to encode the target clients and appropriate services to eliminate the use of redundant forms. It also tracks the progress of physical and financial targets in all program areas and provides a facility to generate consolidated reports and statistics.

During the meeting, the participants agreed that the PHO and PNO will identify potential personnel from the province and the municipalities to be trained in F1KD RS. The training will have two phases. Phase one will be conducted at the provincial level and phase two will be conducted at the municipal level. Training of Trainers (TOT) for the province will include representatives from the province, municipalities (KOICA/ Non-KOICA), and the Development Management Officers of DOH9. The roll-out TOT will be in July and phase two will be done in August a month after the TOT training. The participants for phase two will be composed of NAOs, Nutrition Program Coordinators, BHWs, BNS, Midwives, HRH, and NDDPs. The participants also agreed to include a Monitoring and Evaluation course as a prerequisite to F1KD RS Roll-out. All modules to be used will be developed by the Nutrition Center of the Philippines (NCP). Due to some challenges in the rollout of F1KD RS at the municipal level, a bilateral meeting will be set before the Municipal Level Training Implementation.

-PNC-ZDN Rowence Zorilla