Provincial leaders in northern Luzon sharpen their knowledge on how to attain Universal Health Care (UHC) by improving health services and overall health systems. ZFF’s BayangMalusog: Provincial Leaders for UHC Acceleration program gave leaders, which included nine governors in attendance, insights on navigating the challenges UHC demands.

For Dr. Manuel Dayrit, former health secretary and a ZFF trustee, the UHC is the culmination of all health-related laws enacted since the 1950s because it calls for the health of all Filipinos.

He reminded governors and other provincial leaders that “investing in health is investing for the future” and the return on investments includes “decreased premature deaths” and “increased quality of life.”

Dr. Israel Francis Pargas, PhilHealth senior vice president, said the agency is designing its programs “to have a more comprehensive outpatient primary care package” to comply with the UHC law, which calls for every patient to pass through primary care physicians whose gatekeeping role is to ensure proper referral of cases. Ideally, therefore, all diseases are diagnosed at the primary care level.

In closing his presentation, Dayrit voiced his hopes that the governors leave a legacy of better health in their provinces.

The Department of Health (DOH) Centers for Health Development in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) and Region 1 sponsored the module runs in Baguio City and Laoag City, respectively. Lending their time to support their provincial teams were DOH CAR Director Rio Magpantay, M.D., and Region 1 Director Paula Paz M. Sydiongo, M.D. Caraga Regional Director Cassion, M.D. was also present in the Baguio City module run to join Agusan del Sur Governor Santiago Cane Jr. who shared his bridging leadership journey with the other governors and the accomplishments of his province in UHC. His province has met all requirements for the preparatory level of UHC maturity—a set of standards set by the DOH—and hopes to attain the highest level of UHC functionality before his second term as governor ends in 2025.

For more on Agusan del Sur’s achievements in UHC, listen to https://spoti.fi/3zlTYRX.

CAR and Region 1 provinces will have their next module in March 2023 after an intensive practicum period which will see ZFF-trained regional leaders coaching and mentoring the governors and their teams. The provinces are expected to meet specific milestones designed to lead them toward UHC
attainment.

CAR governors present were Apayao Gov. Elias Bulut Jr., Benguet Gov. Melchor Diclas, Kalinga Gov. James Edduba, Ifugao Gov. Jerry Dalipog, and Mountain Province Gov. Bonifacio Lacwasan. For Region 1, Ilocos Norte Gov. Matthew Manotoc and La Union Gov. Raphaelle Veronical Ortega-David attended the event, which switched to hybrid following the strong quake in Northern Luzon last Oct. 25. Aklan Gov. Jose Enrique Miraflores, a first-termer whose province has been a ZFF partner since 2016, joined the Region 1 event online. Region 6 Director Adriano Suba-an was in Laoag City.

(Published December 9, 2022)

Two events highlighted the need for stronger collaborations among government agencies, the private sector, non-government organizations, and academic institutions to address health and environmental issues.

At the 53rd Asia Pacific Academic Consortium for Public Health (APACPH) held last September, Ernesto D. Garilao, Zuellig Family Foundation (ZFF) chairman and president, presented how ZFF’s partnership with the Department of Health, local government units (LGUs), and academic institutions produced the desired health outcomes during its partnership program run from 2013 to 2020.

Garilao mentioned shared goals, co-created interventions, value addition to each party involved, transparency, accountability, and technology transfers as among the success factors of its public-private partnership (PPP).

At the recently concluded multistakeholder forum hosted by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Garilao asked the department to improve LGUs’ capacity in making their local environmental programs more strategic in addressing pollution, which caused 19% of total annual deaths in the Philippines (see Table), making environmental issue also a health concern.

During the APACPH, Garilao pointed out that ZFF’s health leadership training and coaching enabled local chief executives (LCEs) “to understand the connection between health systems and health indicators” and therefore what needed urgent actions.

Garilao suggested to the DENR that there be “baseline reporting of relevant pollution indicators, improvement targets in six years” and needed interventions. This is like ZFF’s program runway, which lays out health system milestones and corresponding interventions to accomplish them.

On both occasions, the ZFF president urged the engagement of various sectors to address pressing health and environmental issues. To the DENR, he suggested strengthening “the participation of the academe, private sector, and CSOs in the country’s Committee on Environmental Health.” At the APACPH, Garilao urged academic institutions to study best practices to address various challenges and make findings widely known within the region and beyond.

Following ZFF’s PPP experiences, each participating stakeholder’s expertise and strengths can be mutually reinforced to immediately address the country’s growing challenges, notably in health where it needs to attain true Universal Health Care felt by ordinary people and in climate change whose impact has been more frequent and severe.

(Published November 3, 2022)

What is the Minimum Initial Service Package for Sexual and Reproductive Health (MISP for SRH)? And what can local government leaders do to ensure continuous delivery of SRH needs amid emergencies? To answer these questions and more, the Zuellig Family Foundation (ZFF) came up with an informational video and a technical roadmap following the colloquium of ZFF’s MISP for SRH training course.

A partnership with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and funded by Australian Aid, the training course strengthened the competencies of provincial leaders to implement life-saving SRH information and services during natural disasters and other public health emergencies. The program aims to avoid overlooking the provision of family planning (FP) commodities and counseling during emergencies and prevent life-threatening complications for pregnant women and girls.

Pilot sites

Three pilot provinces were chosen due to their situations that contribute to increased maternal and infant deaths and a high incidence of gender-based violence. Catanduanes was hit by back-to-back typhoons; Laguna experienced high COVID-19 cases; while Maguindanao faced instability wrought by protracted armed conflicts.

During the colloquium, Catanduanes reported 90% accomplishment of targets. Among the province’s milestones was the drafting of Executive Order no. 19. s. 2022, which is an order “Re-organizing The Provincial Reproductive Health Coordinating Team for MISP-SRH of Catanduanes” to institutionalize its MISP for SRH initiatives.  

For Laguna, the next step is to properly monitor and verify the services that are already being implemented under its Provincial MISP for SRH Roadmap.  The province expanded its core team to include the other sectors to ensure collaborative efforts toward the implementation of MISP for SRH.

Meanwhile, Maguindanao will be incorporating its MISP for SRH plans into the provincial disaster risk resilience and management plan. Health care services in the province were also added to the administration’s 10-point development agenda for 2023 to 2025.

MISP for SRH training course

The executive course uses a blended learning approach through asynchronous sessions and online workshops with participants from the offices of the governor, vice governor, provincial health, provincial disaster risk reduction and management, budget, social welfare and development, planning and development, and administrator.

The MISP for SRH is a set of priority activities during emergencies that prevent and manage SRH issues and help plan for comprehensive SRH services during the recovery and rehabilitation phase of an emergency response. Activities include the continued provision of FP commodities and counseling and establishing women and child-friendly health spaces. Participants will acquire the basic leadership knowledge, skills, and attitude to create a shared change agenda and more responsive plan to address the gaps in their health systems toward increasing access to SRH services.

For inquiries about the MISP for SRH program, email communications@zuelligfoundation.org.

(Published October 28, 2022)

The Zuellig Family Foundation (ZFF) concluded the initial training and learning sessions to its two partners that share ZFF’s vision of ensuring the proper nutrition of pregnant women and children up to two years of age or what is known as the first 1,000 days (F1KD) of life.

Cebu

From Oct. 5 to 6, ZFF conducted a learning session for the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI) officials headed by its president and CEO, Amaya Aboitiz, and COO Riela Mae Guioguio.

ZFF’s orientation deepened the understanding of their role in providing the enabling environment in Cebu to improve nutrition governance and scale up relevant program interventions. As a result, RAFI committed to partner with ZFF in implementing the City Nutrition Governance Program in Cebu City and the Municipal Nutrition Governance Program in the town of Bantayan.

The governance programs can potentially benefit 55,343 F1KD population in Cebu City and another 4,951 in Bantayan.

Manila

In Manila, last Sept. 27 to 28, the first batch of Barangay Leadership for Nutrition Development was held. It had 28 participants from five Manila barangays (villages): 2 in Tondo, 2 in Sampaloc, and 1 in Malate.

The training is part of ZFF’s partnership with the Manila City government, headed by Mayor Honey Lacuna, and the Samaritan’s Purse, an international non-profit organization with programs on nutrition in selected barangays in Manila since 2016.

Under the program, ZFF capacitated the staff of Manila’s health department and Samaritan’s Purse to run its nutrition leadership and governance program for barangay officials. Those trained facilitated the recently concluded leadership program for barangay captains, barangay councilor on health, barangay nutrition scholar, barangay health worker, youth council chairman, and other relevant barangay officials.

Barangay leaders who participated in the training saw weaknesses in their nutrition systems and vowed to do the following:

. Reorganize the barangay nutrition committee

· Develop comprehensive barangay nutrition action plans

· Appoint barangay nutrition action officers

· Include F1KD nutrition in the agenda items of barangay assemblies beginning October

· Update profiles of families to capture the complete F1KD population

. Purchase vitamins and standard nutritional measuring tools for pregnant women and children

· Hold seminars for 4Ps beneficiaries and households with members belonging to the F1KD group

· Organize community gardening

With these, ZFF expects the five barangays to have functional barangay nutrition committees enjoying the support of their communities as improvements are expected to benefit an estimated 1,648 pregnant women and children aged two years and below.

Mayor Lacuna’s husband, Dr. Arnold Pangan, also Manila’s health department chief and nutrition action officer, graced the event and committed to roll out the program in more barangays.

(Published October 22, 2022)

More provincial governors and their health officials are expected to get trained toward the implementation of the Universal Health Care (UHC) law. This comes after the Zuellig Family Foundation (ZFF) conducted a training of trainers (TOT) for 28 faculty members of seven academic institutions. The TOT, held last Oct. 5 to 6 oriented the participants on ZFF’s Bayang Malusog: Provincial Leaders for Universal Health Care Acceleration program.

The Academic Partners are Ateneo de Zamboanga University, Cebu Normal University, Davao Medical School Foundation, University of the Philippines (UP)-College of Public Health, UP School of Health Sciences, Silliman University, St. Paul University of the Philippines.

The attendees were trained on the design and content of each session as well as methods to deliver the program. They are also required to submit teaching demonstrations and observe actual program runs by ZFF, which will also share its other training materials.

ZFF adheres strictly to its teaching standards to preserve its brand in health leadership and governance programs and maintain its two ISO certifications, ISO 29993:2017—learning services outside formal education—and ISO 29994:2021 Education and learning services – requirements for distance learning.

Recently, ZFF received notice that it keeps its ISO certifications following a surveillance audit last September. Thus, as ZFF shares its programs and technologies, trainees can be assured of high-quality standards in programs that bring improved health outcomes.

Once TOT requirements are fulfilled, ZFF will endorse the academic partners to the Department of Health regional offices planning to enroll their regional and/or provincial health teams in the Bayang Malusog program. Among the regions are Region 2 (Cagayan Valley), Region 7 (Central Visayas), Region 8 (Eastern Visayas), and Region 9 (Zamboanga Peninsula).

(Published on October 21, 2022)

The Zuellig Family Foundation recently welcomed former Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral to its board of trustees. She is the lone woman and the second former health chief in the ten-person board.

She brings to Foundation not just her clinical and public health experiences but her vast knowledge as well about the plight of the poor in the country, having been the Secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) before heading the DOH.

Her work, advocacy and proven integrity make her a great fit to the Foundation’s vision of being a catalyst to achieve better health outcomes for the Filipino poor.

In 2010, when Cabral received The Outstanding Filipino Award (TOFIL) for Government Service, the award-giving body noted that heading the DSWD was a “step out of her comfort zone” and that “in the process of reform, the soft-spoken and mild-mannered Cabral became more known as a strong-willed lady who had no qualms about being unpopular if it meant uplifting the lives of Filipinos.”

TOFIL, which was conceived in 1988 by the Junior Chamber International (JCI) Senate Philippines, also noted that her stints at DSWD and DOH landed her in the headlines and got her “associated with so many C’s: from condoms and the Catholic Church due to her staunch support of the Reproductive Health Bill, to the conditional cash transfer program, which benefited more than 800,000 poorest of the poor.”

UNFPA ZFFThe United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Zuellig Family Foundation (ZFF) formally agreed to work together to make health champions out of provincial and local elected officials.
Called “Strengthening Provincial and Municipal Champions in Health” the five-year leadership capability-building program will be given to the governors and provincial health officers of the ten provinces of Ifugao, Mountain Province, Albay, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Eastern Samar, Surigao del Sur, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani and Compostela Valley.

Also benefitting from this will be 151 mayors and 302 municipal health officers and community leaders from the different municipalities in the said provinces.

The program will cost P84 million with UNFPA providing P65.7 million and ZFF putting in P18.3 million.

Recognizing the difficulties faced by the poor in getting life-saving health services, the UNFPA has been investing heavily to improve the poor’s access to these services and curb deaths especially among pregnant women and infants. For its 7th Country Programme, the UNFPA included strategic engagement of local chief executives to further reduce maternal and infant mortality and ensure sustainability of health improvements. Seeing ZFF’s experience in engaging local leaders to improve their health systems, ZFF and UNFPA forged a partnership to enable governors to drive reforms in provincial health systems and influence municipal mayors to take responsibility over municipal health systems.

The agreement was signed last August 17 in Makati City by UNFPA Country Representative Ugochi Daniels and ZFF Chairman Roberto Romulo.

Finally, barangay health workers (BHWs) in Sibuyan Island, Romblon get the protection and benefits they rightfully deserve.

In the inter-local health zone (ILHZ) of Sibuyan Island which is composed of the municipalities of Cajidiocan, Magdiwang and San Fernando, the mayors, BHW Federation presidents and barangay (village) captains formally agreed to measures that would prevent the arbitrary removal of BHWs from service.
The practice of replacing BHWs each time new barangay leaders were elected was so pervasive that it often disrupted the delivery of health services because new hires—allies of the leaders—were often inexperienced and untrained.

The Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) underscored the strict implementation of RA 7883 or the Barangay Health Workers’ Benefits and Incentives Act, where a BHW is defined as a person “who voluntarily renders primarily healthcare services in the community” following accreditation by the local health board (LHB). Thus, the MOA states that “all BHWs cannot be terminated, without justifiable reason, as their service in the community is done under the principle of volunteerism and that no certificate of appointment issued by the Barangay Local Government Unit (BLGU) is needed to allow any BHW to render healthcare services in the community.”

The MOA also puts in place a performance management system to monitor a BHW’s performance and code of ethics. Termination will be based on the rating and is subject to a review process to be conducted by the municipal LHB.

The signing of the MOA took place during the ILHZ’s Second BHW Summit last June 15 in Magdiwang. Present during the signing were Department of Health-Local Health Assistance Division Chief Anna Birtha Datinguinoo, Department of Interior and Local Government Provincial Director OIC Johnson Fopalan, Mayor Festo Galang of Cajidiocan, Mayor Ibarra Manzala of Magdiwang, Mayor Dindo Rios of San Fernando, barangay officials, rural health unit staff and over 400 BHWs.

The three towns of Sibuyan Island are partner-municipalities of the Zuellig Family Foundation under its Community Health Partnership Program where local health leaders undergo health leadership training to broaden their knowledge and appreciation for health; and make them pro-active in implementing health reforms. Since the start of the partnership, the health leadership teams of these LGUs have successfully influenced their barangay leaders to perform their roles in the local health system. The MOA was originally an initiative of Cajidiocan, which then merited the approval of all three municipal mayors. It underwent numerous consultations and dialogue sessions with barangay captains, BHWs, municipal health officers and other local officials.

This is the first innovative program that the Sibuyan ILHZ implemented since its re-activation last October. The three municipalities, which used to implement programs independently of each other, are now starting to work together towards a unified health system that would benefit residents of the whole island.

In support of this ILHZ initiative, ZFF will produce the BHW Manual that will serve as a guide to the implementation of the terms stated in the MOA. The manual will be distributed to BHWs, barangay captains and the local health boards of the municipalities.