The project "Improving food security for poor rural women through small-scale nutritional food processing in Vietnam" funded by IDRC - Canada held a conference to review one year of project implementation in Lao Cai City on January 17, 2017. The project aims to reduce food insecurity and malnutrition in the three provinces of Lao Cai, Lai Chau, and Ha Giang. The beneficiaries are children under 5 years old and poor women working in small-scale agriculture in 9 communes of the project in the three project provinces whose nutritional status and health are improved; agricultural households and workers at food processing facilities have improved income; the general community of the three project provinces have access to, purchase and use nutritional products of the project; Research staff of the Institute of Nutrition, universities, women's associations, and farmers' associations have improved their skills in implementing and planning projects on household food security.
After more than a year of implementation (November 2015 - December 2016), with professional organization and close direction from central to local levels, along with technical support from experts from the sponsor and Ryerson University - Canada, the project has achieved the following results: organizing a project kick-off workshop with localities and departments; developing project implementation strategies; selecting project staff, determining responsibilities and roles of stakeholders, selecting food production locations; developing project products, finding private partners in production, designing factories, developing equipment lists; approving research proposals in Vietnam and Canada and conducting initial surveys on food security, nutritional status and socio-economic factors; Building a system of 15 Little Sun Consulting rooms: supporting staff training and equipping communication materials, equipment, and tools for the clinic's professional activities; monitoring and supervising the implementation process at the local level.
In addition to the achieved results, the project also encountered some difficulties in the process of finding private partners in production in the two provinces of Lai Chau and Ha Giang, procedures for building a list of equipment and developing communication materials as well as project implementation plans in the three provinces with different characteristics in terms of population, ethnicity, and culture.
At the Conference, representatives of the government and departments of the three provinces (Provincial People's Committee, Department of Health, Center for Reproductive Health, Department of Education, Farmers' Association, Women's Union) responded to the results of the project. The achieved results demonstrate the implementation efforts of the Project Management Board from the central to local levels. Also at the Conference, the difficulties and problems of the project were raised by the delegates to plan for implementation and overcoming in the coming time so that the project can be implemented on schedule, ensuring the expected results of the project.
Some pictures at the Conference:
Assoc.Prof.Dr. Le Bach Mai - Deputy Director of the Institute of Nutrition opened the conference
Photos at the Conference
Dr. Tran Thi Minh - Deputy Director of Lao Cai Provincial Department of Health, spoke about the implementation situation in Lao Cai. Ceremony to award certificates of operation to the Baby Sun Consulting rooms.
