NSCB Resolution No. 6
Series of 2012

APPROVING THE ADOPTION
OF THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION CHILD GROWTH STANDARDS
AS A TOOL FOR GENERATING STATISTICS ON THE NUTRITIONAL STATUS
OF CHILDREN 0-5 YEARS OLD
 

WHEREAS, the Child Growth Standards (CGS) are the only available global standards, which were developed and prescribed by the World Health Organization (WHO) to serve as a tool in measuring and monitoring the growth and nutritional well-being of young children across countries;

WHEREAS, the WHO-CGS is based on the results of the Multicentre Growth Reference Study, an intensive longitudinal study conducted in 1997 to 2003 involving a pooled sample of more than 8,400 children from a diverse set of six countries in different continents, which were selected to consider ethnic, genetic, and cultural variations in how children were nurtured;

WHEREAS, the WHO-CGS sets the benchmark for growth and development of all children from birth to age five and defines how children should grow with a premise that any deviations from the established patterns indicate that  individual children or populations of children are not growing properly;

WHEREAS, to assess the applicability of the WHO-CGS in the Philippine setting, the National Nutrition Council (NNC) conducted a study through the ad hoc Technical Working Group on the WHO-CGS to look into the robustness of the tool and the implications of its adoption;

WHEREAS, based on the results of the study, the NNC Governing Board issued Resolution No. 2, series of 2008, adopting the new WHO-CGS;

WHEREAS, the adoption of the WHO-CGS as basis for measuring and generating statistics on the nutritional status of young Filipino children will give deeper meaning to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, specifically the target on the prevalence of underweight children among 0-5 years old, since the growth of Filipino children will be benchmarked on the best possibility for their growth;

WHEREAS, the Child Growth Standards were presented to and discussed by the Interagency Committee on Health and Nutrition Statistics in its meeting held on 10 February 2011, and were subsequently approved for endorsement to the Board;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED AS IT IS HEREBY RESOLVED, that the Board approve the adoption of the WHO-CGS by all concerned agencies as a tool for measuring and assessing the growth of children 0-5 years old and for generating statistics on their nutritional status.

Approved this 1st day of June 2012, in Pasig City.

Attested by:

ROMULO A. VIROLA
Secretary General