40 billion pounds are needed to combat malnutrition among 4P beneficiaries

MANILA, Philippines — An additional P40 billion is needed to combat food poverty, especially malnutrition, among beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipinong (4Ps) Program, an economic expert said Wednesday.

During a press conference, the Executive Director Action for Economic Reform Filomeno Sta. Ana III emphasized the importance of having sufficient funding for the 4Ps grants to reduce malnutrition and the impact of inflation on families.

“We are increasing the 4Ps grant so that poor families have additional food resources to prevent starvation. Tapos kailangan din nating i-crease ‘yong grants for maka-adjust ‘yong current grant sa inflation (Then we have to increase the grants so that the current grant can adjust to inflation). And our current estimate, a conservative estimate is that we need 40 billion (pesos) for that,” said Sta. Ana III.

According to a United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) study released in June, an estimated 2 million children aged 5 and under in the Philippines face severe food poverty. The Philippines is also among the 20 countries with the worst levels of child food poverty.

The World Health Organization has defined child stunting as “a child who is too small for his age and is the result of chronic or recurrent malnutrition”. Meanwhile, wasting as another form of malnutrition is low weight for height among children.

READING: Unicef: 2 million Filipino children extremely poor in nutrition

The Unicef ​​report also says that more than one in five Filipino children eat unhealthy foods or drink sugary drinks.

Additionally, the Philippine Statistics Authority reported that the inflation rate of 4.4 percent in July was driven by higher price increases in housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, transportation items, and food and non-alcoholic beverages.

In an interview with INQUIRER.net, Sta. Ana said that “the 4Ps subsidies are inadequate to address the particular problem of growth loss. Additional resources for growing pyrosis programs should be built into the 4Ps, so the 40 billion (pesos) is a conservative estimate.”

According to the National Nutrition Council, when launching the Philippine Nutrition Action Plan (PPAN) 2023-2028, the PPAN aims to address all forms of malnutrition “with special emphasis on stunting and stunting, overweight and obesity, poor infants and young child feeding practices and micronutrient deficiencies.”

In addition, Sta. Ana III noted in the interview that the possibility of obtaining additional funding for 4P depends on the government’s decision, adding that “when we need such resources, we must generate income.”

READ: Addt’l P5B for 4Ps arrears to help recover inflation – Pangandaman

4Ps is a program of the Department of Social Assistance and Development that extends cash grants to qualified member families. The Department of Budget and Management allocated a budget of 106.3 billion lei for 4P cash aid for 2024, an increase of almost 4 billion lei from the budget allocation of 102.610 billion lei in 2023.