Four local government units (LGU’s) under the Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) Program in the Province of Leyte actively integrate the nutrition programs, projects, and activities (PPA’s) in the 2021 Annual Investment Program (AIP) last August 2020.

The Municipality of Hilongos was scheduled first in the conduct of the Nutrition Integration Workshop on 11-12 August and was followed by the City of Baybay on 24-25 August, and the municipalities of Abuyog and Mahaplag on 25-26 and 27-28 August, respectively. The two-day workshop on Integrating Nutrition has identified scaled-up nutrition actions with corresponding budgets in their 2021 AIP.

The workshop which was facilitated by the National Nutrition Council (NNC) VIII utilized an excel-based costing template for the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition (PPAN)-based programs and their component projects identified and prioritized in the Local Nutrition Action Plan (LNAP) 2020-2022. The four LGU’s were able to identify PPA’s each under the four major program groups for integration in the AIP namely: (1) First 1000 Days Program; (2) Philippine Integrated Management of Acute Malnutrition (PIMAM); (3) Nutrition-sensitive Programs, including Sustainable Community and Home Food Production; and (4) Enabling Programs and factoring the ongoing and post-pandemic situation.

The AIP is the work and financial plan of the LGU for a period of one year. There is a necessity for the LGU to prepare the AIP as it is from which the LGU administers and provides budgetary support based on the priorities of their updated Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP), and Local Development Investment Program (LDIP). Likewise, the AIP highlights a review on the concept of the planning-budgeting cycle which is a critical input in the annual budget.

This year, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) released Local Budget Memorandum (LBM) No. 80 dated 18 May 2020 on the Indicative FY 2021 IRA Shares of LGUs and Guidelines on the Preparation of the FY 2021 Annual Budgets of LGUs. The budget memo enjoins all LGUs to prioritize nutrition in the allocation of local funds. Further, Section 2 of LBM No. 80 specifically renders the Local Nutrition Action Plans (LNAP) and the Barangay Nutrition Action Plans (BNAP) as mandatory requirements and accompanying documents to the AIP. #NASLabordo