Enhanced School Feeding with Iron Fortified Rice in Maguindanao, Philippines (31 March 2021)
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INTRODUCTION:
In 2006, the World Food Programme (WFP) reestablished support in Mindanao by implementing food assistance, school feeding and sustainable livelihood projects to improve economic conditions. In 2018, WFP supported the implementation of Homegrown School Feeding in Maguindanao and conducted a Fill the Nutrition Gap study in all regions including BARMM as basis for a framework for a strengthened nutrition situation analysis and decision making on nutrition programs. Of the major indicators on factors affecting nutrition, BARMM was found to have high malnutrition prevalence – stunting at 39.9 percent among under-five and 38.7 percent among the school-aged children; and anemia at 17.3 percent and 16.9 percent among the pre-schoolers and school-aged children, respectively - according to the Enhanced National Nutrition Survey (eNNS). These figures, are particularly high in M