{"id":8362,"date":"2019-07-02T17:35:25","date_gmt":"2019-07-02T09:35:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/?p=8362"},"modified":"2019-07-02T17:56:37","modified_gmt":"2019-07-02T09:56:37","slug":"chronic-undernutrition-among-kids-pervasive-hunger-belie-4ps-logic-ibon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/chronic-undernutrition-among-kids-pervasive-hunger-belie-4ps-logic-ibon\/","title":{"rendered":"Chronic undernutrition among kids, pervasive hunger belie 4Ps logic &#8211; IBON"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Research group IBON said\nthat the results of the expanded national nutrition survey (ENNS) dispute the\nlogic of institutionalizing the <em>Pantawid\nPamilyang Pilipino<\/em> Program (4Ps) for poverty alleviation under Republic Act\n(RA) No. 11310. The program is said to be an&nbsp;\n\u201cinvestment in the next generation\u201d that develops healthy educated\nFilipinos. Yet after over 10 years of implementation, said the group, Filipino\nchildren still suffer from chronic undernutrition. Also, more than half of the\npopulation remains food insecure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Data from the Food and Nutrition\nResearch Institute (FNRI) show that the nutritional status of Filipino children\nhas not significantly changed since 2008 when the 4Ps commenced. Stunting, in\nparticular, has even worsened among infants and young children. The World\nHealth Organization (WHO) defines stunting as the impaired growth and\ndevelopment that children experience from poor nutrition, repeated infection,\nand inadequate psychosocial stimulation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The incidence of stunting among infants\nand young children 0-23 months old worsened from 20.2% in 2008 to 25.5% in\n2018, and only slightly improved among children under 5 years old from 32.2% to\n30.3% in the same period. Also according to FNRI, there is still a \u201cpublic\nhealth problem of high severity\u201d among school children ages 6-10 years at 24.5%\nin 2018, even if this is lower than the 32.2% reported in 2008. FNRI also\nreports that 53.9% of the population is still food insecure in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Other indicators of undernutrition,\nsuch as underweight and wasting, also worsened for school children 6-10 years\nold, from 20% in 2008 to 24.5% in 2018 and 6% to 7.6%, respectively, from 2008\nto 2018. These indicators meanwhile are statistically unchanged among children\nunder 5 years old \u2013 underweight barely improved from 20% in 2008 to 19.1% in\n2018, while wasting moved slightly from 6% in 2008 to 5.6% in 2018. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Meanwhile, data from the Department of\nHealth (DOH) 2018 Field Health Services Information System (FHSIS) show that\ndeaths among children under five years old increased to 11.42 per 1,000 live\nbirths in 2018 from 10.8 per 1,000 live births in 2013. The UNICEF observes\nthat nearly half of deaths in children under 5 years old are attributable to\nundernutrition which puts children at greater risk of dying from common\ninfections, aggravates such infections, and delays recovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Food insecurity and lack of nutrition remain\na public health concern, IBON said. This is despite the billions spent on the\nmuch touted poverty alleviation program \u2013 about Php475 billion from 2008 to\n2018, said the group. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The National Economic and Development\nAuthority (NEDA) attributes the recent reported decline in poverty incidence to\n4Ps, and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) claims that\n1,315,477 household beneficiaries moved above the poverty line also due to 4Ps.\nIBON however noted that the program was questioned by a 2017 Commission on\nAudit (COA) report. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The COA said that the DSWD data does\nnot say whether the 4Ps services were effective in keeping Filipino children\nhealthy or if increased access to primary and secondary education guaranteed\nthe 4Ps children would be properly equipped to pursue further education or\nsecure jobs. \u201cThere is insufficient longitudinal evidence to determine if the\nprogram caused the decline in poverty incidence and henceforth contributed to\nthe goal of breaking the inter-generational cycle of poverty,\u201d the COA stated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These show that while cash grants\nthrough the 4Ps may provide temporary relief to Filipino families, mere\ndole-outs cannot wipe out poverty, said IBON. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Raising wages and incomes substantially\nis critically important, said IBON. Paying Filipino workers substantial and just\nwages will let them buy nutritious food for their children, said the group.\nGiving farmers, fisherfolk and other food producers free land to till, the\ninfrastructure, technology and capital they need and ensuring that they are\npaid fair prices for their produce will give them enough income to meet the\nfood needs of their families. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The group also stressed that the long-term\nsolution to pervasive hunger and poverty among the millions of Filipinos is\nenough decent work from developed Philippine agriculture and industry. The\ngovernment should develop domestic agriculture for local consumption and\nproduction of other raw materials. Local manufacturing should be developed as\npart of larger program of national industrialization. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">People-oriented economic policies that\ngive foremost importance to peoples\u2019 welfare are needed. With steady income\nsources deeply connected with the country\u2019s economic development, Filipino\nfamilies can then nurture healthy and educated children. Only then can it be\nsaid that chronic poverty has begun to meet its end, said the group. ###<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Featured image by J. Ellao \/ bulatlat.com<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Research group IBON said that the results of the expanded national nutrition survey (ENNS) dispute the logic of institutionalizing the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) for poverty alleviation under Republic Act (RA) No. 11310. The program is said to be an&nbsp; \u201cinvestment in the next generation\u201d that develops healthy educated Filipinos. Yet after over 10 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8363,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2048,14],"tags":[347,232,116,159,2047],"class_list":["post-8362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banner","category-news","tag-duterte-administration","tag-pantawid-pamilyang-pilipino-program","tag-philippine-economy","tag-poverty","tag-programs-and-policies","wpautop"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-23 13:48:36","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8362"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8370,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8362\/revisions\/8370"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}