World Bank seeks investments to address malnutrition

MANILA, Philippines — More investments for nutrition programs and active participation from the private sector would be needed to address malnutrition in the country, the World Bank said.

Yoonyoung Cho, senior economist at the Social Protection and Jobs Global Practice at the World Bank, said in a webinar there is a need to invest in programs to address the malnutrition problem, which can have long term implications.

“Malnutrition remains high due to the lack of availability and affordability of diversified nutritious food,” she said.

Filipinos are consuming too much starchy staples and unhealthy sugary products, and eating less of the more nutritious food such as vegetables and fruits because of limited availability, low incomes, lack of affordability, and poor choices.

Given the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine which is driving up global prices of fuel, fertilizers, as well as food, Cho said the nutrition crisis could get worse.

“That really affects the affordability of food and it really impacts the livelihood of the poor and vulnerable population,” she said.

Aside from malnutrition affecting learning outcomes, she said it is also seen to impact the labor market later on, in terms of lower labor productivity and reduced earning potential for individuals.

She said an overwhelming amount of research has shown investment in early childhood health and nutrition determines the labor market and lifelong earnings.

“So, there is a strong argument for the government and private sector and multiple stakeholders to really make efforts to invest in early childhood nutrition,” she said.

She said investments should start on maternal and child health programs.

The programs should be aimed at improving dietary quality, access to clean water and sanitation and ensure the most vulnerable populations benefit.

In the medium-term, she said the government can promote multi-sectoral actions where the private sector should play a bigger role.

She said these include increasing farmer incomes through greater value addition and improved profitability.

“They (farmers) are the ones who are suffering from poverty and they are more likely to be in rural areas, and they are the population who are more likely to be exposed to malnutrition,” she said.

In addition, she said food prices could be reduced through increasing productivity and lowering trade barriers.

She also said nutrition could be increased through diversifying domestic production and the quality of nutritious food.

Enhancing sustainability through greening of agriculture by reducing emissions and carbon footprint would also be beneficial.

“These are the medium term activities we would like to highlight and we would like to ask for the private sector’s innovation, making agricultural products more diverse and investing in food technologies, making the agricultural activities more profitable for the low-income populations, and bringing the climate change resilient and eco-friendly products,” Cho said.

At present, the World Bank is working with the Department of Health and Department of Social Welfare and Development on the implementation of the Philippine Multisectoral Nutrition Project that  aims to strengthen the delivery of nutrition and primary health services to reduce stunting in targeted local government units.