To battle hunger, management specialists support DSWD

DSG | To battle hunger, management specialists support DSWD | MANILA – The Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) backs the work of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to end forced hunger.

Thursday, at the MAP Membership General Meeting at the Shangri-La The Fort in Taguig City, DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian told the management experts about the Food Stamp Programme (FSP), which is the DSWD’s most important programme to fight hunger.

Gatchalian said that the FSP’s goal to end forced hunger “fits very well” with the purpose of MAP, an organisation of more than 1,100 private companies in the Philippines whose goal is to build a better future for the country by promoting shared responsibility.

He talked with MAP about the big picture of the FSP, including its main features, who it’s for, what conditions it has, and how it will be used to reduce hunger and short stature in children in the country.

“We’re not going to use cash as money, but food instead,” Gatchalian said.

He said again that the Food Supplement Programme (FSP) is not a handout, but a way to help one million families that the Philippine Statistics Authority calls “food poor” by giving them extra food.

“We have to end human suffering, and we have to end hunger not tomorrow, but right now,” he said.

Gatchalian stressed how important the “whole-of-nation approach” was to getting the FSP to where it wanted to go.

“We’re trying to change the way we handle social aid. “We want to make sure that every programme we have is targeted, conditional, measurable, uses the whole of nation approach, and is digital,” he said.

He asked the officers and members of MAP to work with him to “end human suffering by ending hunger.”

He said, “I hope that we can work with the MAP in an effective way to try to end forced hunger and stunting.”

Atty. Benedicta Du-Balabad, the head of MAP, said that the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), the Department of Health (DOH), and other agencies need to work together “to reverse malnutrition and child stunting and give the children a better future.”

She emphasised that, as experts in management, the organisation can bring together groups and private companies and make the most of their resources to work together to stop starvation and stunting in children.

After a number of meetings, representatives from Gatchalian and MAP are going to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU).

The MAP will help the DSWD plan and evaluate their actions so that they can figure out how well the programme is working.

The MOU fits with the DSWD’s plan to “engage the whole nation and society in addressing social problems,” Gatchalian said.

A study done by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) in the second quarter of 2023 showed that at least 10.4% of Filipino families have been forced to go hungry at least once in the last three months.

The SWS, on the other hand, said that the current hunger rate in December 2022 was less than 11.8%.(via PNA)