Malnutrition Costs PHL $8.5 Billion Yearly, World Bank Advisor Says

Malnutrition costs the Philippine economy about $8.5 billion (P534.1 billion), equivalent to 3% of gross domestic product (GDP), each year, underscoring the economic case for greater investment in nutrition, according to World Bank Senior Nutrition Advisor Cecilia Santos-Acuin. She emphasized that the cost of poor nutrition extends beyond individual health, affecting productivity, human capital, and the country’s long-term economic development. "Malnutrition alone costs us about $8.5 billion, or 3% of our GDP per year," Ms. Santos-Acuin said during the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines’ (ECCP) fifth annual Nutrition Forum on Wednesday. She explained that poor nutrition can impair an individual’s psychological and mental capacity, which in turn affects productivity and their ability to contribute to communities and the economy. The World Bank estimates that a package of nutrition interventions for mothers, infants, and children would cost about $20 per person. For the Philippines, this would require an investment of approximately $1.5 billion, potentially generating around $35 billion in economic benefits, Ms. Santos-Acuin stated, calling it "a very good return by any measure." Department of Education (DepEd) Director IV Miguel Angelo Mantaring highlighted that the economic implications of malnutrition are also evident in schools, where poor nutrition can impact attendance, participation, and readiness to learn. "You cannot teach around hunger," Mr. Mantaring said, noting that children who come to school hungry or nutritionally compromised have limited opportunities to benefit fully from instruction and education reforms. "Nutrition does not teach a child how to read. A teacher does that. The learning system does that, but nutrition can remove some of the physical barriers preventing the child from benefiting fully from what the teacher is doing," Mr. Mantaring said. The DepEd is expanding its school-based feeding program to cover approximately 4.6 million learners in the school year 2026–2027, including around 1.5 million kindergarten learners and 1.8 million Grade 1 learners who will receive daily feeding. "We are progressively expanding universal feeding in the earliest grades. So starting this school year, this means approximately 1.5 million kindergarten learners and 1.8 million grade 1 learners are benefiting from daily feeding," Mr. Mantaring said. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) OIC Director General Franklin Anthony M. Tabaquin stressed the need for regulations that protect consumers while ensuring access to safe and affordable products. "Safety and affordability should not be treated as opposing goals," Mr. Tabaquin said, advocating for science-based and risk-based regulation. He also called for better coordination among agencies, stating, "Better nutrition is too important and too complex to be the responsibility of one agency or one sector alone." Ms. Santos-Acuin also pointed out the need for the Philippines to address the fragmentation in the delivery of nutrition interventions. "Most of the time, the problem is not that we do not know what the interventions are or we do not have it in our programs. It’s because our delivery of the interventions is very fragmented," she said. The World Bank, together with the Philippine government, has been implementing a Philippine multisectoral nutrition project anchored on the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition. The project combines national and local government interventions with early childhood development and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) programs. Participating communities recorded a 92% exclusive breastfeeding rate (compared with 60% in the National Nutrition Survey), while antenatal care reached 82%. The project also recorded 23% minimum dietary adequacy, compared with a 14% national average at the time the data were collected. Ms. Santos-Acuin concluded that coordinated interventions can help shift communities from a cycle of poor nutrition toward better health, productivity, and economic participation. — Kaizzer Angela Marie V. Manuba