Vitamin Angels partners directly with the Philippines government to improve maternal and child health.

The Philippines government has taken action to combat malnutrition, but it remains a common burden for the most vulnerable populations. This burden is further exacerbated by the country’s predisposition for natural disasters. Up to 74% of the country’s population is exposed to natural disasters such as floods, droughts, earthquakes, tsunamis, and landslides.^[3] Some provinces are still recovering from the last major natural disaster, Typhoon Haiyan in 2013, leaving fewer government resources available for health and nutrition programs.

Since 2016, Vitamin Angels has partnered with government, local nonprofits, and community organizations to provide high-quality nutrition interventions to underserved women, infants, and children throughout the Philippines. In that year, Vitamin Angels began working with municipal and provincial governments by providing health and nutrition interventions as part of recovery efforts. Working with partner organizations, Vitamin Angels collaboratively distributes vitamin A supplementation and deworming (VAS+D) to children under five and prenatal multiple micronutrient supplements (MMS) to pregnant women.

Over the past two years, Vitamin Angels’ partnership with the Philippines Department of Health (DOH) has been crucial to reaching even more women and children, across provinces. With the support of the DOH, Vitamin Angels has connected with several local governments and nonprofit organizations, including Save the Children, Feed the Children, and World Vision, that have helped collectively expand our reach into areas that were previously inaccessible. Today, local governments and NGOs make up 65% of Vitamin Angels’ program partners in the Philippines. These meaningful partnerships are key to our mission of providing care to as many women and children as possible.

Providing Technical Support

To ensure nutrition interventions are delivered as safely as possible, Vitamin Angels began hosting technical assistance and training sessions for program partners in 2016. These sessions are hosted both in-person and virtually. They started as information sessions on VAS+D, and infection prevention, and have evolved to include MMS.

A virtual VAS+D course, which had the largest number of attendees of sessions hosted thus far, was developed during the COVID-19 lockdown. It was modeled after Vitamin Angels’ technical assistance program in India – short videos with quizzes in between – for easier access and better retention. In addition to the trainings, Vitamin Angels provides supplementary education materials to all partners.

Developing Nutrition Intervention Supply Strategies

The National Nutrition Council and DOH led various stakeholders in the development of the 2023 to 2028 Philippines Plan of Action for Nutrition (PPAN) as part of the efforts to combat high levels of stunting in children and micronutrient deficiencies in pregnant women and children. PPAN is the country’s road map to improve the nutritional status of women and children. The partnership of Vitamin Angels with governments — both national and local, and non-profit organizations, significantly contributes to the vision of healthy Filipino children. Vitamin Angels partnered with the DOH to supply VAS+D and MMS throughout the first stage of the program from 2017 to 2022. PPAN was recently re-approved to run from 2023 to 2028 with MMS included among the key interventions for pregnant women.

Vitamin Angels is currently supporting the DOH as they work to include MMS in the Philippines National Drug Formulary (NDF), which will make this critical nutrition intervention for pregnant women more widely accessible.

Additionally, Vitamin Angels will assist the DOH in developing a national supply roadmap and will continue to procure and provide MMS to priority areas in the meantime.

Convening Partners to Share Experiences and Collaborate

In August 2023, Vitamin Angels convened a gathering of 75 virtual and in-person partners to share experiences and build stronger collaborations for successful nutrition efforts. The conference, held in Manila, included presentations from the Philippines DOH, the National Nutrition Council, and the Nutrition Center of the Philippines (NCP), among many others.

Our Future

Vitamin Angels is eager to continue working with the Philippines government and NGO partners to deliver VAS+D and MMS throughout the country. To accomplish this, we will continue to expand our assistance through:

• Supporting the development of MMS implementation plans on a national level,
• Fostering existing partnerships and developing new partnerships, and
• Collaborating with the Department of Health and local governments to increase access to quality health and nutrition services.