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

The Government of the Philippines has taken action to address malnutrition, but it remains a common challenge for the most underserved populations. This burden is further exacerbated by the country’s predisposition to natural disasters. Some provinces are still recovering from previous disasters, leaving fewer government resources available for health and nutrition programs.

For more than a decade, 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 2016, Vitamin Angels began working with municipal and provincial governments by providing health and nutrition interventions as part of disaster recovery efforts. In collaboration with partners, Vitamin Angels distributes vitamin A supplementation and deworming treatment (VAS+D) to children under five and multiple micronutrient supplementation (MMS) to pregnant women. Through the Transforming Lives Through Nutrition consortium, Vitamin Angels also supports the strengthening of community-based delivery platforms such as the Barangay First 1,000 Days (BF1KD) initiative, which helps bring nutrition services closer to families at the local level. BF1KD operates through barangays which are the smallest administrative units in the Philippines where frontline health workers and trained volunteers engage directly with mothers and caregivers during pregnancy and early childhood.

More recently, Vitamin Angels’ partnership with the Philippines DOH has been crucial to reaching even more women and children. 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, to collectively expand into previously inaccessible areas. Today, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) make up 67% of Vitamin Angels’ program partners in the Philippines. These meaningful partnerships are key to our mission of providing support to as many women and children as possible.

Providing Technical Support

To ensure delivery of nutrition interventions as safely as possible, Vitamin Angels hosts in-person and virtual technical assistance and training sessions for program partners. As part of the Transforming Lives Through Nutrition consortium, these trainings have also strengthened the capacity of frontline health workers supporting the BF1KD platform to deliver consistent, community-based nutrition counseling and services. These started as training sessions on VAS+D and infection prevention, and have evolved to include the provision of MMS.

Vitamin Angels implements an in-person VAS+D course with virtual sessions offered when necessary to facilitate access. The course was modeled after Vitamin Angels’ technical assistance program in India and includes interactive sessions and quizzes for better retention. In addition to training, Vitamin Angels provides supplementary education materials to all partners.

Developing Nutrition Intervention Supply Strategies

Vitamin Angels continues to partner with the DOH to supply VAS+D and MMS as part of the 2023 to 2028 Philippines Plan of Action for Nutrition (PPAN), with MMS as a key intervention for pregnant women. Current efforts to support the DOH in transitioning to MMS include technical support in identifying sources and firming up product specifications for local government procurement of MMS, policy dialogues among relevant local agencies, and participation in consultation meetings with MMS experts and resource persons. Vitamin Angels is also set to conduct a Supply Context Assessment to help the government in securing availability and access to MMS for national scale adoption and full transition. Additionally, Vitamin Angels is contextualizing and pretesting a comprehensive MMS training package aligned with DOH guidelines, which will be submitted to the DOH for technical endorsement and national adoption once finalized.

Convening Partners to Share Experiences and Collaborate

Vitamin Angels actively engages with the Philippines DOH and key stakeholders to advance the national scale-up of MMS. Through participation in MMS stakeholder convenings hosted by the DOH, Vitamin Angels contributes to ongoing discussions on policy frameworks, regulatory requirements, and the steps needed to achieve a sustainable, long-term supply of MMS for pregnant women across the Philippines.

A central focus of this work is securing a steady and reliable supply of MMS at scale, addressing both immediate supply needs and supporting the longer-term infrastructure required for national rollout. Vitamin Angels collaborates with the DOH by convening technical advisory groups, adapting and piloting MMS training programs for the Philippines context, synchronizing supply and delivery strategies, and monitoring distribution systems.

As part of this partnership, Vitamin Angels is working with the DOH on a supply context assessment to examine policies, regulatory frameworks, support systems, and manufacturing capacity, work that is essential to identifying barriers and building a sustainable pathway forward.

Our Future

Vitamin Angels will continue working with the Government of the Philippines and NGO partners to deliver VAS+D and MMS throughout the country to move closer to a world where every woman and child has the health and support they need to thrive. To accomplish this, we will continue to expand our work through:

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

Through these partnerships, Vitamin Angels will continue to contribute to the national agenda of improving the health and nutrition of women and children. When every woman and child has the health and support they need to thrive, the result is a stronger nation and a brighter future for all.