The Philippines is seeking another World Bank loan to follow through on ongoing efforts to address child stunting in the country, despite hiccups in an ongoing project that seeks to address the same health issue.

A Dec. 2 concept environmental and social review summary (ESRS), seen by Manila Bulletin, showed that the departments of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and of Health (DOH), along with the National Nutrition Council (NNC), plan to roll out next year the Philippines Multisectoral Nutrition Project-Converging Nutrition Efforts for our Children’s Tomorrow (PMNP-CONNECT).

With a total project cost of $760 million, or nearly ₱45 billion, the World Bank’s Washington-based board is set to approve on July 31, 2026, a still undisclosed loan amount for this initiative, which aims to “improve healthy behaviors and simultaneous utilization by the target population of nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions known to reduce stunting.”

“The PMNP-CONNECT Project is designed to address the urgent challenge of child stunting in the Philippines by scaling up proven, evidence-based nutrition interventions and enhancing the convergence of high-impact nutrition services delivery for children under five and pregnant women, particularly in high-burden and vulnerable regions,” the World Bank said.

“By integrating multisectoral approaches, spanning health, nutrition, social protection, and local governance, the project aims to address critical underlying implementation bottlenecks that impede household investments in nutrition and generate substantial long-term economic and human capital gains,” it added.

“Through performance-based financing, robust monitoring system, and targeted capacity building, CONNECT seeks to improve coverage, equity, and quality of nutrition services, ultimately reducing the economic costs of malnutrition and contributing to poverty reduction,” according to the lender.

This new World Bank investment project financing (IPF) comes despite the Philippine government requesting a one-year extension of the loan closing date of the ongoing, also World Bank-funded Philippines Multisectoral Nutrition Project—from the current June 30, 2026, to June 30, 2027.

As Manila Bulletin earlier reported, the Philippines Multisectoral Nutrition Project stalled due to national budget bottlenecks—the same issue that has hampered other foreign-assisted projects in recent years.

Out of the $178.1-million IPF approved by the Washington-based lender in June 2022—making it the last loan secured by the Duterte administration—$137.22 million, or 77.04 percent of the total, has been disbursed so far, according to a restructuring paper disclosed in October.

The four-year project, jointly implemented by the DOH and the DSWD, remains “on track” to achieve its development objectives, the World Bank had said.

In 2021, the World Bank reported that the Philippines was suffering from a “silent pandemic”—childhood stunting resulting from undernutrition. Stunted children are smaller in height compared to healthier same-aged peers.

Pre-pandemic, 29 percent of Filipino children aged five and below were stunted, World Bank estimates in 2019 revealed. The Philippines had the fifth-highest stunting prevalence in the East Asia and Pacific (EAP) region and was among the top 10 globally.

Stunting has been largely attributed to micronutrient deficiencies among infants, children, and pregnant women. The Covid-19 pandemic also likely aggravated stunting and undernutrition in the country, according to the World Bank.

However, the World Bank had lamented that “although the [Philippines Multisectoral Nutrition Project] continues to perform well, there have been delays in counterpart budget availability.”

“While a financing plan was included in the proposal approved by the Investment Coordination Committee (ICC) of the Department of Economy, Planning, and Development (DEPDev), the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) did not adhere to this plan,” the lender had said.

“Additionally, the funds released by the DBM were classified as ‘unprogrammed appropriations (UAs),’ requiring the DOH and the DSWD to submit a special budget request (SBR). The process of submitting the SBR and obtaining the special allotment release order (SARO) resulted in considerable delays that affected project implementation,” according to the bank.

Since UAs are not covered by regular budget financing, they can only be funded by excess or new tax and non-tax revenues, as well as foreign loans for specific projects and programs.

“Funds were often not made available by the DBM until several months into the fiscal year, preventing the timely implementation of project activities and resulting in the delay of planned activities,” the World Bank had said.

In particular, “the contracts with UNOPS [the United Nations Office for Project Services] have been implemented with significant delay.”

“All packages expected to be delivered are between three and 24 months behind schedule. These setbacks adversely affected overall project implementation progress, particularly the fulfilment of commitments under the PBGs [performance-based grants] by LGUs,” according to the lender.

As such, the Department of Finance (DOF), which was the borrower on behalf of the Philippine government, last Aug. 14 requested loan restructuring and extension.

“The extension is intended to address initial implementation delays caused by the late release of funds from the government of the Philippines and setbacks in the delivery of commodities and services under the UNOPS contract, which have now either been addressed or have a clear timeline for completion,” the World Bank had said.

With the proposed closing date extension and the revision of some of the project’s performance indicators, the World Bank had expressed optimism that restructuring “will provide sufficient time to fully deliver all activities under the UNOPS contract” as well as “facilitate a seamless transition to a follow-on nutrition project expected to be approved in the third quarter of calendar year 2026,” referring to PMNP-CONNECT.