Calderon, J. S. (2014). Establishing an intersectoral program in addressing child undernutrition in Matuguinao, Samar (Unpublished master's thesis). Graduate School of Public and Development Management, Development Academy of the Philippines.

Graduate School of Public and Development Management Health Systems and Development Batch 4 Thesis (MPM-HSD)--Development Academy of the Philippines.

Malnutrition has claimed the lives of more than one third of children worldwide. The United Nations recognized this is as a global health concern and thus listed the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger among the Millennium Development Goals for 2015. The pace of progress of achieving this objective in the Philippines is pegged at 0.67, with a "medium' probability of attaining the target. While the prevalence of malnutrition in Eastern Visayas is 5% higher than the national prevalence of 20.0%, it should be noted that municipalities that largely contribute to this prevalence belong to geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas. In 2012, Matuguinao topped the list of nutritionally depressed municipalities with a malnutrition rate of 26.3%. The objectives of this paper are to assess the nutritional status of children ages 0-71 months old, to identify the role of each sector in addressing malnutrition, and to formulate and institutionalize an intersectoral program in solving child undernutrition in Matuguinao, Samar. This is a descriptive study of the intersectoral approach to address undernutrition among children ages 0-71 months in Matuguinao. Non purposive sampling is done. Methods of data collection include document review, key informant interview (KII), and focused group discussions (FGD), which are then triangulated to verify the accuracy of the data gathered. While different forms of malnutrition exist in Matuguinao, undernutrition is most common among children ages 0-71 months. Operation timbang results showed a malnutrition rate of 26.3% in 2012, 34.0% in 2013, and 33% in the second quarter of 2014. Based on documentary evidence, key informant interview, and focused group discussions, undernutrition is due to multifactorial causes, most common of which are inadequate access to food, and inadequate care for mothers and children. Aside from food security and education for women, another underlying determinant of undernutrition in Matuguinao is the inadequacy of health services and environmental sanitation. The aforementioned nutritional determinants are affected by the following basic determinants, namely, economic structure, political and ideological factors, formal and nonformal institutions, and economic structures. Agriculture, social welfare, and education departments of the municipality are the individual agencies that have program and activities that address malnutrition in Matuguinao. While they address some or part of the determinants listed above, the implementation of such interventions is either substandard, overlapping, and sectoralized. Analysis of such findings revealed that an intersectoral approach to address malnutrition should be in place. In order to achieve this, bridging leadership process should be established among its stakeholders.