THE MANAGEMENT Association of the Philippines has launched its campaign against malnutrition and child stunting.

MAP President Atty. Benedicta Du-Baladad said that they are willing to work with the government in addressing malnutrition.

“We at MAP hope to expand our role beyond fund generation and philanthropy to a shared responsibility in addressing malnutrition in the country, participating in the programming and governance of nutrition strategies and interventions. It will be a shift from a transactional to a transformational partnership with the government,” Du-Baladad added.

Dr. Cielito Habito, governor-in-charge for MAP’s Cluster on Resilience and Recovery, said that malnutrition affects the education of children and has a long-term effect.

“This is very grossly intertwined with our education crisis…Our education crisis is not just about classrooms or textbooks or teachers but also more fundamentally about poorly nourished children who are unable to learn because their brain development had already been severely compromised and therefore their learning ability is much weaker and second a hungry child in the classroom can barely concentrate on listening to the teacher,” Habito said.

Du-Baladad said that the problem must be addressed immediately and in a decisive manner.

She pointed out that the people will be placing the country’s future in the “hands of stunted children becoming adults whose capacity to be productive, competitive and creative are limited, thus affecting national development and progress.”

The World Bank said the Philippines has one of the worst cases of child stunting in the world, ranking fifth in the East Asia and Pacific Region.