Every Last Child Country Spotlight: Philippines

Save the Children is campaigning at an international and national level to achieve the greatest impact for children with the Every Last Child Campaign.

The 2013 Lancet series on Maternal and child nutrition attributes to undernutrition 45% of all deaths of children under five. The Philippines is one of the countries in the world that account for most of the global burden of malnutrition. The country has 3.6 million stunted children, ranking 9th in terms of countries with the highest burden of stunting and 10th among the countries with highest burden of wasting.

Notwithstanding government programs to address both the problems of poverty and malnutrition, trends over the past twenty years show very moderate improvement in nutrition status of children. These undernourished children have an increased risk of mortality and are vulnerable to illnesses and infections, delayed development, cognitive deficits, poorer school performance, and fewer years in school. Further, an assessment by the Philippine government of its efforts towards the achievement of MDGs recognized that it might not be able to achieve its target of halving poverty and hunger by 2015.1

This spotlight seeks to present a brief overview of the overwhelming childhood malnutrition and stunting in the country, focusing on setting the necessary policy environment to support a comprehensive health program for the first 1000 days of a child’s development.

Read the full Every Last Child campaign report here.