Cian Tan SocSc 13ME-A 5/28/2021

An Analysis on the Nutritional Status of Children Ages 0-5 and 5-10 Years Old in

Households Headed by Fisherfolks in the Philippines

The case study by Aguila, Capanzana, Gironella and Montecillo focused on analyzing

the nutritional status of Filipino children ages 0 to 60 months and 61 to 120 months in

households headed by fisherfolks (HHF). Scrutinizing the data, the researchers concluded that

there was a serious problem of malnutrition among the children.

In general, malnutrition has been a significant health problem in the country as the

Philippines ranked ninth in the world in stunting which is defined as low height for age and tenth

in wasting which is defined as low weight for height (Laguna, 2015). With that, poverty has been

found to be one of the main causes of it because three million Filipino families live below the

poverty threshold while eight hundred thousand Filipino families live below the food threshold

(Mapa, 2019). To make matter worse, due to the pandemic, the World Bank states that 2.7

million more Filipinos will fall into poverty (de Vera, 2020). Because of that, it may increase the

malnutrition rate in the country. Furthermore, the children who are undernourished are more

prone to the coronavirus as Alberto Muyot, the Chief Executive Officer of Save the Children,

states that 424 young Filipino children have contracted the virus with nine of them dead (Save

the Philippines, n.d.). He also states that the children who died may have suffered from acute

malnutrition or wasting. With that, Save the Philippines are currently calling on local health

center to resume maternal and child health services.

Based on the case study, the dominant development issue that was being discussed

was malnutrition. As stated earlier, the researchers wanted to estimate the prevalence of

undernutrition among Filipino children in HHF in order to serve as a basis for policy makers in

creating a strategy that will improve the nutritional status of the children of fisherfolks in the

country. According to the Philippines Statistics Authority, for nine years, fisherfolks was the

poorest sector in the country since they always lived in places where extreme climate events
are more likely to happen. As a result, the disasters leave damages on infrastructures and a

person’s productive assets which reduced food availability and increased food prices. Because

of that, the researchers believed that there was a high rate of malnutrition in the fishing

community. In order to prove their hypothesis, they used the World Health Organization Child

Growth Standards to assess the nutritional status of the Filipino children in HHF who were

collected from the Eighth National Nutrition Survey. With that, the researchers were able to

conclude that there was high prevalence of malnutrition among children in HHF. They also

found out that there was a higher prevalence in fisherfolks compared to the overall occurrence

of it among children in the country. In order to solve the malnutrition problem in the fishing

community, the researchers have suggested a number of intervention strategies.

Although it was stated momentarily, the researchers suggested to have “health and

nutrition education programs that advocates the promotion of children’s nutrition at home… and

hygiene in the community” (Capanzana et al., 2015). With that, I believe that their

recommended intervention will solve the malnutrition problem in the fisherfolks as it is almost

identical as the assistance brought by the partnership between United Nations Children’s

Emergency Fund and the Department of Social Welfare and Development for poor communities

that were struck by Typhoon Haiyan. In the initiative, they gave urgent financial assistance to

the families affected. They also improved human capital in those areas by continuing the

education of the children and granting them health and nutrition benefits. Moreover, half of the

cash given went to food while the rest went to shelter, health, care, education and savings.

Because of that, the families that were provided had low incidences of food security. Besides

that, the cash assistance revitalized the local economy and helped in market recovery.

However, I believe that the researchers wanted a long-term solution since they wanted

to have a nutrition education program which is a plan that helps “families on a limited budget

make healthier food choices and choose physically active lifestyles by acquiring the knowledge,

skills, attitudes, and behavior changes necessary to improve their health” (University of
Nebraska-Lincoln, n.d.). Based on that, it can be seen that the program is focused on changing

the mindset and habits which means that it wants to change a person’s way of life. On the other

hand, the initiative done by UNICEF and DSWD was not sustainable since the expenditure on

the items the family spent the cash on was greatly reduced after they stopping giving financial

assistance to them. With that, it can be inferred that the solution was just to bring back the state

of their community before the typhoon. This cannot be applied to the fisherfolks since they are

normally struck by heavy typhoons which is why the researchers suggested a long-term

solution.

In relation to malnutrition, the underpinning problems to sustainability that are tackled by

the author are poverty and poor infrastructure. For poverty, Capanzana et al. (2015) stated that

socioeconomic status is still an important factor of the nutritional status of children. With that, it

holds true as household income is one of the key determinants of dietary choice. Moreover,

there was a research by Adam Drenowski, a professor of epidemiology at the University of

Washington and Petra Eichelsdoerfer, a pharmacist account manager at United Healthcare, that

showed that low-income groups tend to rely on foods that are cheap and convenient to access

but are low in nutrients. Capanzana et al. (2015) proved it to be true as besides the high

prevalence of malnutrition, there was also a high occurrence of overnutrition due to the intake of

unhealthy foods and lack of physical activity.

On the other hand, poor infrastructure is an underlying problem in the fishing community

since it affects their livelihood and their access to markets and healthcare services. Just as

stated earlier, these communities often live in area where strong typhoons usually happen so

the infrastructures and their productive assets will often be damaged. Because of that, it

decreases their capacity to fish and their access to the local markets which will not only affect

them but also the economy of the country. More importantly, the disaster reduces the food

availability since they will not be earning enough income to provide healthy foods. Besides that,
the fisherfolks have a hard time getting relief goods since their means of transportation to go to

the distribution area is damaged.

Based on the underlying problems identified, the sustainable development goal (SDG)

that best relates to these issues is Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure. Under this SDG, one

of the indicators that seems relevant to these problems is road access for rural populations. One

of the reasons why fisherfolks is the poorest sector is because their boats are usually destroyed

due to the typhoons. Thus, they are not able to go to the local markets to sell their fishes or buy

nutritious food. Furthermore, they only have one road that takes them to the market but it also

gets destroyed by the typhoons. Another indicator that is relevant is development assistance for

infrastructure. From the case study, one major factor that affected the nutritional status was the

high risk of extreme events as it stopped or delayed most of the operations in the fishing

community. One way to solve this issue is to build buildings that are able to withstand the strong

typhoons. Moreover, the financial and technological assistance to create it should come from

both international and local support. In fact, just like the partnership between UNICEF and

DSWD, there should be a synergy among social protection, disaster risk response and

humanitarian assistance since it can lead to a sustained effort by the government to life millions

of Filipinos out of the poverty (Aldaba, 2019).

Aldaba, F. (2019). Linking social protection and humanitarian assistance in the Philippines.

Social Protection Discussion Papers and Notes 135674,The World Bank.

de Vera, B. (2020, December 8). World Bank: Pandemic to sink 2.7M more Filipinos in poverty.

INQUIRER.net. https://business.inquirer.net/313528/world-bank-pandemic-to-sink-2-7m-

more-filipinos-in-poverty.

Laguna, E. (2015). Sizing Up: The Stunting and Child Malnutrition Problem in the Philippines.

Save the Children. https://resourcecentre.savethechildren.net/node/13449/pdf/save-the-

children-lahatdapat-sizing-up-the-stunting-and-child-malnutrition-problem-in-the-

philippines-report-september-2015.pdf

Undernourished children are more prone to COVID-19. Save the Children. (n.d.).

https://www.savethechildren.org.ph/our-work/our-stories/story/Undernourished-children-

more-prone-to-COVID19/.