Having the third-highest adolescent fertility rate in Southeast Asia, the Philippines is faced with diverse urban reproductive health problems. Available figures show that every year (as of 2016), an estimated 210,000 babies are born to teenage mothers[1], which translates to 12% of all births every year [2].

The launch of “The Challenge Initiative (TCI) to establish adolescent and youth-friendly cities towards the reduction of teenage pregnancies” in the Philippines today aims to address the country’s adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health (AYSRH) issues. TCI envisions cities with responsive governance mechanisms, a sufficient budget, and strong community support for the continuous provision of AYSRH services and information.

The Zuellig Family Foundation (ZFF) as TCI’s Philippine accelerator hub will work closely with select cities to support and guide in the establishment of adolescent and youth-friendly cities.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

TCI Philippines has investments from ZFF and the Commission on Population and Development (PopCom). TCI is an urban reproductive health platform that leverages donor investments. Worldwide, TCI is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, private philanthropists, and bilateral donors.

TCI Philippines will be instrumental in the improvement of governance mechanisms needed at the local level to strengthen the AYSRH system. TCI is a “business unusual approach” that provides life-saving reproductive health and family planning information and services to underserved urban communities.

TCI also recognizes the importance of meaningful and active engagement among the adolescent and youth in decision-making on issues that affect their health and holistic development.

The online launch highlighted the need for a collaborative effort of the national government, local government units (LGUs), civil society organizations (CSOs), communities, adolescents and youth, and other stakeholders in finding solutions to the increasing cases of teenage pregnancies.

“ZFF, through the TCI Philippines, will guide local leaders in co-creating a responsive health system to address teenage pregnancies faster,” said Mr. Austere Panadero, Executive Director, ZFF.

For the Philippine efforts, the cities of Cagayan de Oro, Dipolog, and Puerto Princesa will be the pilot areas for the initiative.

“Cagayan de Oro City enacted an ordinance mandating the creation of the Oro Youth Development Council that will govern the operation of the 12 youth and teen centers in the city,” said Mayor Oscar Moreno.

“We are developing our very own Comprehensive Population and Development Code anchored on population development framework to harmonize existing policies and programs for adolescents and youth. I believe that adolescents and youth are key to achieving progressive development,” said Mayor Lucilo Bayron of Puerto Princesa City.

Optimize partnerships

TCI will maximize existing efforts and optimize established partnerships that involve high-impact interventions.

For example, in Puerto Princesa, TCI will be able to help intensify the efforts of Roots of Health (ROH), a CSO which has established a program that empowers female reproductive and overall health through education. TCI will build up on ROH’s track record in helping further reduce teenage pregnancy in the city.

“The city has 23 active partners in ensuring that sexual and reproductive health information and services are available and accessible to adolescents and youth,” said Dr. Rachel Dilla, city health officer of Cagayan de Oro City and the chairperson of ISDN for ASRH of the city.

“We believe TCI will serve as a key platform in strengthening collaboration among city stakeholders in addressing teen pregnancies,” said Mayor Darel Dexter Uy of Dipolog City. “Opportunity is also ripe for TCI to firm up the city’s child-friendly policies and interventions and social protection programs for teen parents.” 

TCI has five hubs across the world including the Philippines. It is led by the Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health in the Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

1 – Philippine Statistics Authority, 2016
2 – Natividad and Marquez, 2016

Coronavirus transmissions have slowed down in Bataan, Aklan, and Agusan del Sur, according to the Zuellig Family Foundation (ZFF), which has been helping those three provinces establish their own COVID-19 response system.

In a statement issued on Monday, ZFF attributed the decline in those provinces to “an integrated COVID-19 response with increased testing capacity, enhanced hospital and isolation facilities, and improved contact tracing.”

According to the statement, the effective reproduction number of COVID-19 — or Rt — in the three provinces in the first week of November was below the threshold level, which is set at 1.

The foundation pointed out that the low Rt numbers were not due to a lack of testing.

“The test per capita — or the number of individuals tested for every 100,000 population—has increased by 7% in Bataan, 11% in Aklan, and 19% in Agusan del Sur. Swab test results are released within two days of testing,” ZFF said.

Those provinces also implemented other measures that would limit the spread of the virus.

“With the biggest population among the three provinces and the closest, geographically, to Metro Manila, Bataan has begun using a QR code to monitor the movement of people to and from the province,” ZFF said.

“With these interventions, the case fatality rate (CFR) — or the proportion of deaths among infected patients — in Agusan del Sur and Bataan are kept below the global average (2.8%). Bataan’s CFR is at 1.9% and Agusan del Sur’s is at 1.6%. Aklan is still striving to bring down its 5.2% CFR,” it added.

Recent data from the Department of Health (DOH) show that COVID-19 cases nationwide have started to dwindle, with the lowest number of active cases being recorded in the last three months.

A lot of observers warned, however, that this may just be brought by the recent calamities — typhoons that forced some testing sites to temporarily suspend operations.

Aside from that, DOH itself warned that crowding in evacuation centers — which were set up in schools with the recent onslaught of three typhoons Quinta, Rolly, and Ulysses — may trigger an increase in COVID-19 cases in affected areas.

To date, the country has a total of 409,574 COVID-19 patients — of whom 27,369 are considered active cases while 374,336 have recovered. The death toll stands at 7,839.

Local government play a key role in fighting the pandemic, according to the ZFF chair and president, Ernesto Garilao.

“The success of the COVID-19 response depends on the capacity of the local government units (LGUs) to identify, contact trace and test and provide quarantine facilities for the COVID-19 positives, as well as hospital care for severe cases,” Garilao said.

“Without an integrated COVID-19 responsive system, the virus will make its way to the non-infected,” he added.

Still, he believes there is more to do to ensure that the battle against the pandemic will be won.

“Investments in the local health system must be sufficient to have the following: adequate health manpower for the population, sufficient resources for the different health services, a reliable health information system, adequate medicine supply, adequate financing,” Garilao said.

“Total investments will be high but that is the price to pay for resiliency,” he added.

(This story was published in Inquirer.net on Nov. 17, 2020)

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