It seldom commands front-page attention, yet it steadily eats away at our country’s future. Child malnutrition, particularly stunting, remains one of the Philippines’ most persistent crises, quietly undermining our future workforce and national progress.

UNICEF has stressed that stunting during the critical first 1,000 days of life—from conception to a child’s second birthday—disrupts brain development and weakens a child’s ability to learn and stay healthy.

Stunting, a condition in which children are too short for their age due to malnutrition and chronic undernutrition, is largely irreversible. Once the critical window of early childhood closes, the damage is done.

Malnourished children fall sick more often, miss classes, and struggle to keep up academically. These setbacks do not disappear with age; they follow children into adulthood, limiting job prospects and earning capacity while weakening the nation’s human capital.

Despite years of programs to fight malnutrition, the scale of the problem remains daunting. UNICEF data show that roughly one in three Filipino children is affected by moderate or severe stunting.

UNICEF said that undernutrition—which has three indicators: underweight (low weight-for-age, including low birth weight), wasting (low weight-for-height), and stunting (low height-for-age)—is the underlying cause of around 95 child deaths every day in the Philippines.

The World Health Organization has also warned that stunting in early life impairs cognition and educational performance, increases susceptibility to disease, and raises the risk of chronic illnesses later in life. Unlike weight loss, which can sometimes be corrected, lost height and compromised brain development cannot simply be recovered.

The effects of stunting are already visible in “learning poverty,” defined by the World Bank (WB) as the inability to read and understand simple text by age 10. In 2021, learning poverty in the Philippines surged to around 90 percent, worsened during prolonged school closures caused by the pandemic. But even before that, learning poverty was already dangerously high, hovering at nearly 70 percent.

Global assessments reinforce this grim picture. In the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), Filipino students ranked lowest in reading literacy among 79 countries and near the bottom in mathematics and science.

In the 2022 PISA, similar dismal results were seen. In mathematics, only 16 percent (a far cry from the 69 percent average across countries studied) of Filipino students assessed attained at least Level 2 proficiency. In reading, the Philippines posted a score of 24 percent, compared with a 74 percent average. In science, where the average was 75 percent, only 23 percent of Filipino students attained Level 2 or higher.

While pandemic disruptions played a role, experts point out that poor nutrition in early childhood had already weakened the foundations for learning long before classrooms shut down. Maternal malnutrition, poor prenatal care, and inadequate support during pregnancy further entrench an intergenerational cycle of undernutrition.

Malnutrition is not just a health or education issue—it is an economic one. Various studies reveal that the Philippines loses hundreds of billions of pesos annually due to reduced productivity, higher healthcare costs, and lost human potential linked to poor nutrition.

“When viewed through the lens of the World Bank’s Human Capital Index (HCI), the country’s 2020 HCI score of 0.52 predicts that the future productivity of children born today will be 48 percent below what they might achieve if they were to enjoy complete education and full health,” the WB study said of the Philippines.

Recognizing the crisis, RA 11148 or the Kalusugan at Nutrisyon ng Mag-Nanay Act was enacted in 2018, mandating a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach to maternal and child nutrition. But implementation of the law requires sustained funding and active participation from civil society and the private sector.

One private sector initiative is the Pre-Valentine Dinner Benefit Concert “Alay sa Mag-Nanay” set this Feb. 7 at The Manila Hotel’s Tent City. Organized by the Knights of Rizal in partnership with the Children’s First 1,000 Days Coalition (CFDC) and The Manila Hotel, the event seeks to raise funds for nutrition programs.

The concert will feature performances by the Rainmakers and Allison Gonzales, with guest artists Aicelle Santos, Gerphil Flores, and Gibzon Villajuan, and special participation by the HOPE Children’s Choir. Proceeds will benefit indigent pregnant mothers in Manila, identified through Barangay Health Workers and Barangay Nutrition Scholars to ensure critical support reaches those most at risk.

The Knights of Rizal, chartered under Republic Act No. 646, is part of the CFDC, an alliance of over 200 organizations supporting the effective implementation of nutrition policies nationwide. Their work underscores a pressing need to help make Filipino children “brighter, taller, stronger (BTS)” amid all the grim data.

Malnutrition may be a silent emergency, but its impact can be deafening. It shrinks bodies, dulls minds, and weakens the country from within. If the Philippines is serious about improving education, boosting productivity, and breaking cycles of poverty, it must treat child nutrition, especially during the first 1,000 days, as a national priority. ([email protected])