ABSTRACT:
Child malnutrition remains a persistent challenge in the Philippines where over 3 million children under-five are affected by stunting and 650,000 children with wasting(1). Beyond immediate health-related determinants, nutrition outcomes are largely shaped by political economy factors that span across national and sub-national jurisdictions(2,3). From 2019 to 2022, the Zuellig Family Foundation (ZFF) implemented the Provincial Nutrition Governance Program (PNGP) to strengthen nutrition leadership, governance, and multisectoral coordination across five provincial governments. This study examines how deliberate leadership and governance interventions can generate and sustain political commitment for nutrition in decentralized health systems. This qualitative evidence-mapping study applied the Nutrition Commitment System (NCS) framework(4) to assess the contribution of the PNGP to strengthening political commitment and nutrition governance across five provinces. The NCS identifies five interrelated forms of political commitment: rhetorical, institutional, operational, embedded, and system-wide. Document analysis was conducted on 61 program, policy, and monitoring documents sourced from the PNGP organizational database. Data were organized using NVivo 14 and analyzed through deductive thematic analysis(5) aligned with the NCS domains. Changes in system-wide commitment were further examined using a composite monitoring tool applied at baseline and endline. The analysis identified ten cross-cutting themes demonstrating strengthened political commitment for nutrition across all five NCS domains. Evidence included enhanced executive leadership, formalization of multisectoral governance mechanisms, increased prioritization of nutrition in planning and budgeting processes, and improved accountability structures at the provincial level. Composite monitoring scores showed overall improvements in system-wide commitment, while persistent gaps in financing sustainability and cross-sector integration reveal ongoing political economy constraints. The PNGP provides empirical evidence that sustained political commitment for nutrition can be intentionally cultivated through subnational leadership and governance interventions. The findings offer transferable insights for global health and nutrition actors seeking to address governance barriers to effective multisectoral nutrition action in decentralized settings.