Pinoy Nutrition Hub: The Philippine Experience in Addressing Moderate Malnutrition

Full text: • Objective: Malnutrition is a persistent problem in the Philippines. The 2011 survey of the Food and Nutrition Research Institute reported that 3 out of 10 children are malnourished. Data shows 20.2% of children 0-47 months are underweight while 33.6% are stunted. This rate is higher in depressed areas in the country. PD Hearth is a time and tested effective program model to address malnutrition. But the PDH has minimum standards that need to be followed in the program implementation. However, a developing country like the Philippines has limitations in its resources and implementations. This paper aims to share the Philippine experience in addressing moderate malnutrition through a contextualized and modified PD Hearth approach. The specific objectives of this paper are: - to describe the challenges in implementing PD Hearth in the context of the Philippines; - to describe the innovations and modifications in the PD Hearth; - and, to illustrate the successful intervention of the PNH program against malnourished children in the community. • Methods: The Pinoy Nutrition Hub model is an innovation of PD Hearth approach. The first step was the participatory approach evaluation of existing programs on MNCHN in the communities. The next step was for the stakeholders to identify the gaps and address them. This was followed by gathering lessons learned and good practices that arose from implementing PD Hearth. Innovations were adopted to address restrictions and maximize learning in its implementation. The contextualized approach was called Pinoy Nutrition Hub (PNH). • Outcomes: - The PNH was piloted in three Area Development Programs (ADP) that represent the three island groups of the Philippines. All three ADPs reported improvement in the weight of the malnourished children enrolled in the program. Below is an illustration of the how the actual weight of children in the Visayas ADP increased. Figure 1 (Display Omitted). Average Weight of Malnourished Children enrolled in PNH. • Discussion: Data showed that the program successfully increased the weight of malnourished children enrolled in the Pinoy Nutrition Hub program. In one ADP, 80% of the enrolled malnourished children were rehabilitated to normal weight while another ADP reported 60% of the enrolled gained normal weight after only 12 days. Pinoy Nutrition Hub was effective in addressing malnutrition. • Conclusion: Pinoy Nutrition Hub was able to maintain some of the basic principles of PD Hearth important in addressing malnutrition. Pinoy Nutrtion Hub is an effective contextualized approach useful in the Philippine setting. PNH can effectively improve the nutrition status of malnourished children age 6 months to 5 years old. The PNH approach is a successful strategy in significantly contributing to the reduction of global malnutrition. (author)