Food

and Nutrition Security (Inputs from Jofti for ABI-Health)

Introduction

The ultimate objective of the right to adequate food is to achieve nutritional well-being.
Nutritional well-being is dependent on parallel measures in the fields of education, health and
care. In this broader sense, the right to adequate food is to be understood as the right to
adequate food and nutrition. (Code of Conduct on the Human Right to Adequate Food, 1997)

Unprecedented economic growth has been recorded in recent years.

However despite this, poverty and consequently hunger plague the
country until now. In fact, the Philippine Development Plan
launched in 2012 admitted that hunger is still one of the serious
problems need to be addressed.

It is quite evident that the Philippines is actually a food insecure
nation despite its biodiversity and being an agriculture country.
Availability and access to food and food systems are beyond reach
by the most vulnerable sectors. Agricultural outputs remain at three
percent for almost 30 years now and this is partly due to
governments inability to provide strong support services to the
sector especially small and medium farmers.

The international hunger ratings show that the Philippines is 29th in
the world in terms of hunger incidence (13.1 with the category
serious) and that the country lags behind Thailand, Malaysia,
Vietnam and Indonesia.1 The rating since two decades ago did not
improve much.

If food security is a problem, then the nutrition of Filipinos is at risk.

According to the 2013 World Food Insecurity Report of the Food
and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 15.6 million Filipinos were
undernourished from 2011-2013 making the Philippines the 2nd
biggest malnourished population among the Southeast Asian
countries next to Indonesia.2

In the Social Weather Station (SWS) survey in the fourth quarter of
2014, 3.8 million households were victims of hunger, 13.2 percent
experience moderate hunger while 4.1 percent experience severe
hunger.3

Those people suffering from hunger and are nutritionally-at-risk,
according to the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI), are a
fourth of pregnant women with children less than five years old
while 12 percent of lactating mothers are underweight. Also, conflict
and disaster-affected areas are greatly affected by hunger and food
insecurity. This could be seen in the SWS survey in 2013 after
SuperTyphoon Yolanda devastated Visayas where 52 percent of
Filipinos self-rated themselves as food poor while in 2014 the
United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) corroborated this
data with 27 percent of the population in Yolanda-affected areas
remained food insecure. As for underweight children, the
Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) has the highest

prevalence of underweight children.4

Scanning through the environment of food security and nutrition
discourse, most food, health, environment and human rights
advocates and movements right now have pitted the framework of
food sovereignty against food security. The limit according to
activists/advocates/movements is that with food security, the
central causes of hunger and malnutrition are not being addressed
and that a patch-up situation through food assistance becomes the
order of the day.5

The answer to this at present was a tighter connection of food
security to nutrition. And that will be the focus of this proposal at
hand.

The human right to adequate food and nutrition (RtAFN) framework
is of recent development. The activists/advocates/movements saw
how the World Health Organization (WHO) and FAO address in a
fragmented way food security and nutrition problems, thus,
developing the framework.

It has become a norm among government programs to reduce the
right to food to the right to access food stuffs/commodities or calories
especially under the form of food assistance and handouts. The
impact of this is that the government refuses to recognize their
obligations to respect, protect and fulfill international or even
national human rights law on food and nutrition.6

Another impact is that the interventions developed and promoted
such as the provision of food supplements, rich in micronutrients,
are passed off as nutrition, which should not be the case.

While the focus of this proposal will be on ensuring availability,
accessibility and quality of food thru the RtAFN, as movements there
is a need to look at the holistic nature and focused on the root
causes of hunger and malnutrition to progressively realized it as
human right.

Food security exists when all people at all times have physical, economic and social access to
sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an
active and healthy life. The nutritional dimension is integral to the concept of food security
Committee on World Food Security (CFS)7

For RtAFN advocates, adequate food/nourishment goes much
beyond the mere ingestion of agricultural products or nutrients,
their digestion and transformation into body and life.8

Government needs to realize that the act of feeding oneself, ones
family and communities is a social process of transforming
nature/food into human nature (i.e. well nourished, healthy, happy,
active women and men citizens) reaffirmed in their cultural identity
and human dignity.9

According to the 2012 Food and Nutrition Status in the Philippines,

there are five major nutrition problems in Asia and the Pacific
Region:
1. Low birth weight
2. Early childhood growth failure
3. Anemia
4. Iodine deficiency disorders
5. Vitamin A deficiency10

In the Philippines, the PDP 2012 identified the countrys nutrition
problem as:
1. Hunger
2. Malnutrition
3. Overweight, Obesity11

The governments strategy is multi-thronged with special focus
given to the rural poors access to resources. On the food security
side, the various agencies tasked to produce food work on providing
the following: farm to market roads, transport facilities, distribution
centers, marketing outlets. On the nutrition side, the interventions
are more on supplementation, fortification of food products, food
assistance and subsidies and handouts.

Several factors affecting hunger in the Philippines as stated in the
draft report of CSOs during the visit of Ms. Hilal Elver are:
1. Inflation
2. Unemployment and Underemployment-income
3. Growing population with the steady decline of agriculture
productivity
4. Landgrabbing IPs and small farmers
5. Lack of government assistance to small holder agriculture
6. Lack of government assistance for the following vulnerable
sectors: municipal/artisanal fisherfolk, urban food insecurity
of informal sector, abandonment of women, children, PWDs,
conflict and disaster-affected areas
7. Environmental abuse
8. Incoherent government policy on farmer seed system12

In the various materials reviewed, the global challenges being faced,
which will affect greatly local food production and security are the
following:
1. Competition on agricultural land
o Urban development (real estate development)
o Mono-crop/GMO plantations
2. Climate Change
o Agroecology as a frame and approach
3. Agricultural free trade as solution to food and nutrition
insecurity
4. WHO and FAO following a fragmented conceptual approach
to nutrition and food security
5. Corporate control over the public sphere and peoples

Mandates and Legal

Framework

General Comments and

Observations

Issues to be tackled
based on FOCUS

resources (TNCs lording over food and food systems)

Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2011-2016
Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition (PPAN) NNC
Barangay Plan of Action for Nutrition (BPAN)
Philippine Rice Program DA
Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act DA
Organic Farming Act (Climate Change Adaptation Measure) DA
Right to Food (UDHR Article 25; ICESCR Article 11 par 1;
Declaration on the Right to Development Article 8)
Fortification Laws: Compulsory enrichment of some staples with
iron and/or Vitamin A; and a voluntary enrichment of processed
foods with the Sangkap Pinoy Seal (SPS) approval from the
Department of Health (DOH), an indication of the recommended
amount and type of fortification present in the food.
ASIN Law

Fake shortages brought about by the black market and cartel

though there is real threat to food security mostly brought about
by the identified global challenges.
The group identified irrigation as one of the strategies to
increase food security, however, upon reviewing the previous
proposals of ABI-Agriculture cluster, government at one time
depended on irrigation to achieve the target of rice self-
sufficiency in 2013 but failed. Irrigation should not be the only
strategy but support services is very important as well and it is
sorely lacking.
Microfinancing is not an anti-poverty tool, which is an intervention
to food security (please refer to programs below).
Supplementation and fortification of food is not nutrition and even
not a long-term intervention
With governments line-up of intervention both in food and
nutrition security, contuinity of programs is not observed.
There is an attempt to integrate climate-resiliency and DRR
programs in the supply side but not enough since there is no
evidence seen on the continuity of various programs.
Reviewing the ABI Orange Books from 2013-2015 particularly the
Agriculture and Education proposals, the former has more
proposals related to food and nutrition security. The proposals
supported diverse crops program of the government, rice self-
sufficiency program (irrigation, post-harvest facilities), brown rice
milling, fisheries, R and D for farmers, seed development,
Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act (AFMA), Organic
Farming
The ABI-Education cluster in 2015 has proposed an extension of
the Health and Nutrition Program under DepEd. This comprised of
240 feeding days in 4,360 schools in the poorest regions. The
proposal was worth PhP7.6 billion.
Food Availability
From agriculture to services (skipped industries): are we really
food secure?
Do we have enough arable land? Are developing agriculture to

feed our people enough?

CARPER extension
Where are our farmers? Service to exported labor

Food Accessibility
Farm to market roads: Do we have enough?
Is quality/nutrition-dense food affordable?

Nutrition and safety (this always take the backseat over availability
and accessibility)
Planting what the people really need
Nutrition dense food choices: indigenous food varieties
promotion
Hygiene and monitoring of food (versus poisoning)
School canteen monitoring

Agencies
Task 1: Food Production
involved/with food
Department of Agriculture (DA)
and nutrition
o National Irrigation Authority (NIA)
programs13
Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)
University of the Philippines-Los Baos (UPLB)

Task 2: Nutrition Promotion (including Research & Devt)
Department of Health (DoH)
o National Nutrition Council (NNC) policy & monitoring
Department of Science and Technology (DOST)
o Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI)
DA
o Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice)
o Bureau of Agriculture Statistics (BA)

Task 3: Food Delivery
DA
o National Food Authority (NFA)
Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR)
Department of Education (DepEd)
Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)

Task 4: Ensures the integration of the social reform agenda (SRA)
into national, regional and local development plans, institutionalize
basic sector and NGO participation and coordination in the SRA
cycle, and develops microfinance assistance

National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC)

Program/interventions The government programs on nutrition and food maybe summed up
and budget trends14
into three categories:
1. Nutritional promotion: characterized by various feeding
programs of DepEd and DSWD powdered milk, fortified
noodles and biscuits, food from indigenous and other

ingredients (Healthy Start Feeding Program), hot breakfast

meals; nutrient fortification such as nutripan, micronutrient
supplementation and food fortification; information,
education and nutrition awareness i.e. teacher, child, parent
approach (TCP), nutrition IEC, pabasa sa nutrisyon, etc.; food
production i.e. Alay Tanim at Pangkabuhayan (bioextensive
gardening; envi-friendly food production technologies),
home and community production, food always in the home
(FAITH)
2. Subsidies: Tindahan Natin, Rice Price Subsidy Program
(DSWD and NFA-implemented programs)
3. Comprehensive and Integrated Food Security Systems
a. Accelerated Hunger Mitigation Program (AHMP) The
first is addressed through seed subsidies, repair and
rehabilitation of irrigation facilities, and technical
assistance. The second is addressed through food
depositories called Barangay Food Terminals in Manila
and major cities in the country, TN, RO-RO ports, farm-
to-market roads, and Food for School Program. On the
demand side, it includes putting money into poor
peoples pocketstraining, microfinance, and upland
distribution to poor people; promoting nutrition
through education; and managing the population. E.g.

b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.

Food for School Program Dunong ng Bata, Yaman ng

Bansa; Malusog na Simula (2005-2006) cancelled
due to leakages and corruption
Self-Employment Assistance-Kaunlaran (SEA-K)
demand side program
Lalakas ang Katawan Sapat sa Sustansya (LAKASS)
community-based action program for nutritionally-
depressed municipalities
Barangay Integrated Development Approach for
Nutrition Improvement (BIDANI)
Credit Assistance for Livelihood
Fertilizer, Irrigation and Infrastructure, Extension,
Education, Loans, Dryers, Seeds (FIELDS)
Collaborative Extensive Research and Development
for Food Security (CRDES) Aug 2009-Jan 2012
Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Program
(Agrikulturang Makamasa Program) an
implementation program of the Agriculture and
Fisheries Modernization Act (AFMA). It is an
equitable access to assets, resources and services, and
promoting higher-value crops, value-added processing,
agribusiness activities and agro-industrialization; to
empower people through cooperative strengthening;
and to guarantee food accessibility, availability and
stanble supply at all times. AFMP has several
components: Strategic Agriculture and Fisheries
Development Zones (SAFDZs), irrigation, infrastructure,
post-harvest facilities, rural non-farm employment
training, Agro-Industry Modernization Credit and

i.

International
Projects15

Progress of
interventions
identified16

Sources of Funds
Decision-makers
Recommendations17

Financing
Program
(AMCFP),
and
Product
Standardization and Consumer Safety
Food Staples Self-sufficiency Program (FSSP) 2011-2016
anchored on the Philippine Development Plan (PDP);
after 2013, the target will be to strengthen countrywide
adaptability of food staples to the effects of climate
change; Agri-Pinoy Rice Program, which targets market
development services

World Food Programme (WFP), July 2012: Piloting the

Integrated Food Security Phase Classification in the conflict-
affected Central Mindanao (Lanao del Norte, Sur, Cotabato,
Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat) food security should be
according to international standards
Catholic Relief Services (CRS): Developing Sustainable Livelihoods
and Self-employment of Small Farmers in Leyte through Coconut,
Cocoa and Palayamanan (CocoPal) bridging small farmers to
marketers (i.e. Jollibee Food Corporation)
Some programs and interventions by government agencies were
stopped due to leakage and corruption like the AHMP by the
Aquino Administration.
As for the Food School Program (FSP), the school were met with
the absence of rice storages and that teachers were forced to
repack low quality rice. There were also leakages and under
coverage of rice delivery.
Fortification programs were met with strong resistance from
manufacturers due to added costs
Positive Progress
Integration of nutrition and food availability concepts in school
subjects
Participative beneficiaries; bottom-up management approach
concepts in school subjects
Political will of barangay captains in the implementation of
BPAN
Producing and introducing substitute products aside from
fortifying foods such as native chicken and legumes
15 percent budget from the SIN Tax (other proposals to follow)
To follow
From the CSOs draft report, here are the following
recommendations, which ABI-Health could improve on or support:
1. Support HB3795 (Zero-hunger bill)
2. National Food Policy (executive branch)
3. Strict enforcement of land rights
4. Government assistance to small holder agriculture
a. Food security and rice sufficiency program
b. AFMA implementation
c. National Land Use Act passage into law
5. Seed conservation
6. To UN: call for a sustainable fisheries management (i.e.
community-based control resource management - CBCRM)
7. Ensure social protection programs for the urban
poor/informal sector

Sources

8. Address needs of women, children and PWDs

9. Environmental reforms/push for climate justice
10. Government attention to Mindanao
Evidence-based nutrition intervention must be researched and
implemented (supplementation and fortification are not long-term
interventions)

1-9 Valente, Flavio Luiz Schieck. Towards the full realization of the HR to adequate

food and nutrition . Right to Food Journal-FIAN International. Volume 9 No. 1,

2014.

10,13-16 Ravanera, Roel and Emata, Cassandra. Paper commissed by Asian NGO
Coalition for Agrarian Reform and Development (ANGOC) for the Asian Alliance
Against Hunger and Malnutrition (AAHM). Food and Security Nutrition in the
Philippines: An Overview. Xavier Science Foundation. July 2012.
(Gray Literature/Draft)

11 Philippine Development Plan 2011-2016 (2012).

12-17 The Justiciability of the Right to Live, but not the Right to Eat: Resolving the
Philippine Paradox. Report on the Entry Conference between CSOs and Dr. Hilal
Elver (UN Special Rapporteur on Food). Quezon City. February 20, 2015.

Other readings: ABI Orange Books 2013-2015
Legend: Violet fonts are Joftis personal inputs