Enhanced School Feeding with Iron Fortified Rice in Maguindanao, Philippines - 2021

In 2006, the World Food Programme (WFP) re-established 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 Maguindanao due to high food insecurity linked with economic barriers such as non-affordability of nutritious diet. With the approval of Republic Act (RA) 11037 on the National Feeding Program and the ongoing RA 8976 of the Food Fortification Act of 2000 mandating rice fortification with iron, WFP decided to conduct a pilot study on the use of iron fortified rice (IFR) for the school feeding program (SFP) in Maguindanao.