Working Collectively Mitigates Hunger and Malnutrition in the Philippines

InterActions Best Practices and Innovations (BPI) Initiative

May 4, 2011

Save the Children in the Philippines

Country Program established in 1984 1,164,493 children and adults directly reached in 2010 Thematic Programming on Child Protection, Child Rights Governance, Education, Health & Nutrition, Livelihoods and Emergencies Partners: National government agencies, Local government units, Community-based organizations / Local communities, Private sector / Academic and Learning Institutions / Schools, Civil society organizations / UN agencies

Intervention Background
A. Sites Three distinct settings and environments (urban poor, rural farming community which was affected by a typhoon, and an indigenous peoples community) B. Challenges Rising food prices so less food intake Increase in the cases of underweight children Increasing incidence of selfrated hunger

Urban area

Rural area

Indigenous Peoples area

Goal of the intervention Mitigate hunger and malnutrition among target families and children

Objectives of the intervention 1. Increase access to and availability of food among children and their families 2. Increase local readiness and capacity to address child hunger and malnutrition

Key Strategies and Activities

1. Small-scale, diversified organic food production in schools, homes and communities - Hands-on training - Sessions on health & nutrition - Integrated food gardening competition - Formation of gardening mobilizers - Recycling for food gardening -Regular valuation activities

Key Strategies and Activities

2. Rehabilitating malnourished children through Positive Deviance (PD) Hearth Sessions
- Mobilizing parents with malnourished children - Positive Deviance session - Identification of malnourished - Practicing effective cooking, feeding, and proper hygiene and child caring behaviors - Food production to support feeding of underweight children - Regular valuation activities - Rehabilitation of malnourish children at different venues

Effectiveness / Evidence of Success 1. 116 underweight children out of the 120 had achieved normal weight (by MUAC system) after completing two PD-Hearth sessions. 2. Parents involved in urban vegetable production were able to secure their daily food needs. 3. Increased dietary diversity for families through household gardening.

Effectiveness / Evidence of Success 4. Pupils are served freshly cooked nutritious food prepared on-site by their mothers. The vegetables are picked from plots in the school or home gardens. 5. Kraft Foods, the projects donor was awarded the Asian Corporate Social Responsibility Award for Poverty Alleviation.

Equitable Outcomes 1. Opened different venues for food production such as food gardening in the schools, homes, and community. 2. Introduced opportunities for both men and women to participate in areas where they have capacity. 3. Enabled equal opportunity for participation between and among men and women. 4. 70% of the total 876 families engaged in schools, households and community food production are women. In the school feeding program, all the 98 volunteers in the three different sites are mothers.

Efficiency / Cost-Effectiveness

1. Cost per family including children is $26.

2. The direct cost in food production is $12, which is 44% of the total cost per beneficiary.

Sustainability 1. Integrated school, household and community food production system 2. Implement support project that ensures food for children is always available 3. School, household, and group seed banking and production of organic fertilizer, organic pesticides, and indigenous microorganisms 4. Involving the different agencies of local government units in all the interventions stages and activities 5. Local government allocation 6. Local ordinances on food security passed and integrated in the local annual development plan

Lessons Learned
1. Setting up a Project Management Team with representation from different sectors strengthened project ownership and stimulated collective action in addressing hunger and malnutrition issues. 2. Activities such as food gardening competitions served as venues for demonstrating the complementation of different initiatives at various levels (i.e. households, communities, schools, municipalities). These enabled the stakeholders to see how their efforts are contributing to the larger objective of mitigating hunger and malnutrition among children.

Lessons Learned
3. The benefits of food gardening strengthened the families participation in the program and motivated others to join and be actively involved. This contributed to fostering community spirit and cooperation in the project sites.
The combined strategy of food gardening, PD Hearth, community mobilization and their resulting impact on children served as evidence for the local government units and government agencies to support and take steps in institutionalizing the program.

4.

Enabling Factors and Recommendations

1. Collective engagement and commitment of school, families and community, local government units, NGOs, and private sector 2. Peoples ownership and participation 3. Integrated food production systems and PD Hearth sessions 4. Project staff commitment 5. Project staff skills in community mobilization 6. Good reputation of Save the Children in the area

Replicability / Adaptability 1. Implemented in three different settings 2. Replication done in urban community and school

Thank you!
If others can, so can we!