IMPROVING NUTRITIONAL STATUS THROUGH EXPANDED VITAMIN A SUPPLEMENTATION AND DEWORMING FOR CHILDREN IN DIFFICULT AREAS
(English name: Improving vitamin A nutrition and deworming for poor and vulnerable children)

Managing agency:  Ministry of Health
Project owner:  Institute of Nutrition
Coordinating unit:  National Institute of Malaria - Parasitology and Entomology and technical support from the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children's Fund and the University of Melbourne, Australia.
Sponsor name:  Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction (JFPR) and the World Health Organization funded through the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
Implementation period:  03 years, from September 2007 to October 2010
Implementation location:  All districts in 18 provinces, including: Lai Chau, Dien Bien, Hoa Binh, Cao Bang, Lao Cai, Yen Bai, Ha Giang, Lang Son, Nam Dinh, Tuyen Quang, Bac Can, Ninh Thuan, Gia Lai, Kon Tum, Dak Nong, Dak Lak, Thai Nguyen, Son La.

General objective:

Support the national program to prevent child malnutrition, contribute to reducing child mortality and morbidity and improve children's physical and intellectual development and future labor productivity in the provinces where the project is implemented. Through the project, improve investment efficiency and enhance the role of the Government in improving nutrition and reducing vitamin A deficiency and nutritional anemia.

Specific objectives:

1. Improve nutrition capacity in 18 provinces, 173 districts and 27,498 commune health stations, community volunteer networks and social organizations to sustainably provide vitamin A capsules and deworming medicine twice a year for children.

2. Expand the provision of vitamin A twice a year for about 720,000 children aged 37 to 60 months to ensure that about 1.6 million children aged 6 to 60 months in the project provinces are provided with vitamin A twice a year.

3. Deworming with Albendazole twice a year for about 1.4 million children aged 24 to 60 months (currently this group has not received this medicine)

4. Reduce the rate of preclinical vitamin A deficiency by 50%, anemia by 75% and parasitic infections by 40-80% in children under 5 years old in the project areas.

5. The provision of high-dose vitamin A twice a year for all children aged 6-60 months and periodic deworming for all children aged 24-60 months are included in the plan and have regular annual financial resources from the Government.

Project activities include four main components, specifically as follows:

- Communication and program management: Activities under this component will support program development, policy and communication activities at the national and provincial levels to incorporate documents and strategies into the annual training organized by the PEM program at the district, commune and village levels. -

Ordering, distribution and integrated supply of Vitamin A capsules and deworming medicine: This component will support ordering, storage and supply of deworming medicine and an additional 900,000 Vitamin A capsules to expand the coverage of the Vitamin A capsule distribution program for children 37 - 60 months (currently only for children 6 - 36 months old or 12 - 60 months old for deworming) in 18 project provinces.

- Community mobilization, resource building and integrated distribution/nutrition education communication: Currently, the distribution of Vitamin A capsules is being implemented through community participation at two annual distributions, the JFPR project will implement an "enhanced" component of the campaign for five rounds of expanded vitamin A distribution for children 36-60 months and deworming medication distribution for children 6-60 months. After the first two rounds, the expanded distribution of vitamin A capsules and deworming medication will be fully integrated into the annual vitamin A campaign.

- Monitoring, evaluation and policy development: The Project monitoring and evaluation plan is designed according to the implementation framework of activities. With the main purpose of evaluating the implementation effectiveness and developing a plan for expanding the intervention, the monitoring and evaluation framework focuses on indicators of improvement in nutritional status, worm infection of children and progress in implementing activities.