Basalong, B. M. (2017). Community- based intervention addressing acute malnutrition among under five children in Bangued, Abra (Unpublished master's thesis). Public Management Development Program, Development Academy of the Philippines.

Public Management Development Program Middle Managers Class Batch 12 Thesis (MMC)--Development Academy of the Philippines.

The Re - entry Project on "Community - based intervention addressing acute malnutrition among under five children in Bangued, Abra" aimed to establish a community - based intervention, which includes medical treatment of basic health problems and therapeutic feeding linked with other nutrition programs to help improve the nutritional status of children under five of age who suffer from severe acute malnutrition. The intervention was established to address the condition of the undernourished children mostly from marginalized sector. The project was implemented in the Municipality of Bangued,Abra, the municipality with the highest number of children with acute malnutrition in the Cordillera region based on the results of the 2016 Operation Timbang Plus. Moreover in 2016, the prevalence of acute malnutrition or wasting among 0- 60 months children in Bangued (6.8%) was higher than the provincial (5.7%) and regional levels (2.5%). In 2015, it recorded two child mortality among under five years children directly attributed to severe malnutrition. In the three-month implementation period of the project, the eight expected outputs were delivered as follows: (1) organization of the integrated Management of Acute Malnutrition team of the municipality of Bangued, Abra through EO 16, S. 2016,(2) setting-up of an Outpatient Therapeutic Care (OTC) center in the Rural Health Unit (RHU) of the municipality, (3) development of IEC materials on acute malnutrition for community sensitization using Ilocano language, (4) validation of the nutritional status of the under five years old children validated, (5) conduct a training on the management of severe acute malnutrition for the IMAM team and training on nutrition assessment for the Barangay Nutrition Scholars (BNS), (6) completion of profiling of under fivce children with severe acute malnutrition, (7) launching of the project as close-out program, and (8) documentation of activities and experiences of DOH 55, s. 2015 to severe as guide for replication in other regions. The project involved the collaboration and convergence of resources among various stakeholders form the national government agencies (NNC-CO, DOH-CO,NNC-CAR and DOH-CAR), local government units (Municipality of Bangued, Abra and province of Abra),international organization (UNICEF) and international NGO (Save the Children) for more effective and efficient implementation. The established Outpatient Therapeutic Care (OTC) center, where children suffering from severe acute malnutrition received treatment was operational and as of January 20, 2017, six children suffering from acute malnutrition have been enrolled in the program. Although improvement of nutritional status among children enrolled in the OTC was not among the deliverables of the project due to limited implementation period, progress of the nutritional status of the children was noted. For the duration of 7-14 days, the nutritional status of two children with severe acute malnutrition. Moreover, the weight of majority of the children increased during the short period they received treatment. The established intervention addresses urgent concerns on the health and nutritional status of the beneficiaries which can positively contribute to the local, regional, national ( Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition) and international (Sustainable Development Goal) target on nutrition which is to reduce and maintain wasting or acute malnutrition prevalence to less than 5%. To ensure sustainability, the established intervention was formally launched on January 19, 2017, where the municipality also accepted the responsibility to pursue the project. Regional heads of DOH-CAR and NNC-CAR, as well as the Mayor of the Municipality of Bangued affirmed to provide support of the continuity of the project through a signed agreement specifying the roles and responsibilities of each office to sustain the established intervention. The project shall serve as a model for the eventual adoption of the program by the province of Abra and other areas in the region as well. The experience gained by the scholar in the implementation of the ReP with documented activities will be beneficial for the eventual roll-out of the program in the Cordillera Administrative Region and in other regions in the country for a better outcome of the program.