Hanoi, December 18, 2024 - The conference to review the implementation of nutrition improvement activities under the National Target Program for Sustainable Poverty Reduction and the National Nutrition Strategy for 2022-2024, and orient the plan for 2025 was held at the Institute of Nutrition.

The Department of Maternal and Child Health and the Institute of Nutrition organized a conference to review the implementation of the National Nutrition Strategy and nutrition improvement activities under the National Target Program for Sustainable Poverty Reduction in 2024, orienting the 2025 plan for 63 provinces and cities nationwide in Hanoi with the participation of leaders and officials working in nutrition in the provinces to review the implementation of nutrition improvement activities in the past year, together look at what has been done, the difficulties and obstacles to resolve in the coming time, so that the whole sector is determined to strive to achieve the goals set out in the Action Plan and the National Target Program to "Implement proper nutrition to improve nutritional status suitable for each subject, locality, region, and ethnicity, contributing to reducing the burden of disease, improving the stature, physical strength and intelligence of Vietnamese people", with special attention to improving the nutritional status of mothers and children in poor households nationwide. national, contributing to multidimensional poverty reduction, sustainable poverty reduction.

Speaking at the conference, Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Thanh Duong, Director of the Institute of Nutrition, Ministry of Health, said that Vietnam is facing three nutritional burdens including malnutrition (especially stunting); overweight and obesity; and micronutrient deficiencies. By 2023, according to the results of the national nutrition monitoring system, the rate of underweight malnutrition in children under 5 years old will be 9.7%, the rate of stunting malnutrition will be 18.2%, and the rate of wasting malnutrition will be 4.4%, while overweight and obesity in children under 5 years old has increased to 9.4%.

At the conference, Dr. Nguyen Van Chi - Deputy Director of the Department of Maternal and Child Health affirmed that nutrition is a key issue of concern for the State and Government, demonstrated by three National Target Programs (NTPs) approved by the Government, including the NTP for Sustainable Poverty Reduction for the 2021-2025 period; the NTP for Socio-Economic Development in Ethnic Minorities and Mountainous Areas for the 2021-2030 period and the NTP for New Rural Development for the 2021-2025 period, all of which have contents on improving nutrition, prioritizing mothers and children.

The conference listened to the Report on the implementation results of the National Nutrition Strategy for the period 2022-2024 and the Implementation Plan for 2025; Report on the implementation results of the National Target Program on Sustainable Poverty Reduction 2024 and orientation for 2025 and Instructions on implementing activities to evaluate 16 indicators of the activities of the National Nutrition Strategy in 2025.

Regarding the results of implementing the National Nutrition Strategy in the past year, the central and local levels have actively implemented the list of tasks, in which the central level is implementing 79 tasks out of 126 assigned tasks and the provincial and municipal levels are implementing 28 tasks out of a total of 60 assigned tasks. According to Dr. Nguyen Song Tu, Head of the General Planning Department, Institute of Nutrition, Program Coordinator, in the coming period, the program will focus on implementing activities to carry out the assigned tasks according to Decision No. 1294/QD-BYT dated May 19, 2022 of the Ministry of Health on the promulgation of the Action Plan to implement the National Strategy on Nutrition to 2025, focusing on solving key tasks such as improving the capacity of the system to implement the National Strategy on Nutrition, perfecting the nutrition policy mechanism, building a system to monitor, track, report data, indicators, and reasonable and safe nutrition activities to care for and improve people's health and stature and strengthen activities to improve the nutritional status of children and implement nutrition projects and strengthen nutrition communication.

At the conference, Dr. Huynh Nam Phuong, Head of the Department of Science Management, Institute of Nutrition, coordinator of the National Target Program for Sustainable Poverty Reduction (NTP-SPR) reported on the results of program monitoring in 2024. The program has achieved many achievements in 2024 with telling numbers. In 2024, in the communes under Decision 353/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister, the total number of children under 5 years old supplemented with multi-micronutrients was 25,733, including 11,852 girls. The number of pregnant women supplemented with multi-micronutrients was 42,595. In total, 214,183 mothers with children under 5 years old and pregnant mothers received nutrition counseling. The number of children monitored and managed for acute malnutrition in the community was 11,011, including 4,946 girls. In addition, 416,454 children aged 5-16 years received nutrition counseling, including 204,388 girls. Also in this age group, 29,990 malnourished children were supplemented with multi-micronutrients, including 14,172 girls. In addition, communes not covered by Decision 353/QD-TTg also achieved remarkable results.

As of November 30, 2024, the program has achieved a number of set targets, including the target of stunting malnutrition in children under 5 years old at 24.9%, down from the rate in 2023 (26.43%) and reaching the set target of below 34%; the stunting malnutrition rate in school-age children from 5 years old to under 16 years old at 24.75%, down from 25.57% in 2023 and reaching the target of below 34%; Increasing the rate of children aged 6-23 months living in poor districts, especially disadvantaged communes in coastal and island areas receiving proper and adequate supplementary food to 50% (54.84% in 2024). The target for pregnant women living in poor districts, especially disadvantaged communes in coastal and island areas who are provided with free micronutrients from the time of pregnancy detection to 1 month after giving birth is 73.66%, close to the set target because the products are supported free of charge from aid sources (provided directly by the Institute of Nutrition to the provinces according to proposed needs). Some targets are still very low, such as the target for micronutrient supplementation for malnourished children under 16 years old in poor households, near-poor households, and households that have just escaped poverty, who are provided with micronutrients, the current rate nationwide is 25.0% (much lower than the set target of 80%). The activities of the Program have been widely implemented at all levels from central to local. Some of the difficulties encountered during the program implementation mainly include slow and uneven implementation among localities, which more or less affects pregnant mothers and children under 2 years old in 1,089 priority communes and children in other poor households nationwide, missing the "window of opportunity" to receive essential nutrition interventions.

Also at the conference, delegates listened to three presentations from the Ho Chi Minh City Center for Disease Control, Kon Tum Provincial Center for Disease Control and the Tuan Giao District Health Department, Dien Bien Province on the action plan to implement the National Nutrition Strategy for the period 2022-2024 and the 2025 plan; the National Target Program for Nutrition and the proposal for phase 2. Accordingly, localities have achieved some remarkable achievements in the recent period.

According to the discussion at the conference, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee has issued many guiding documents such as Decision 2297/QD-UBND dated June 24, 2021 approving the Project on community health development, implementing protection, care and improvement of people's health in Ho Chi Minh City for the period 2021 - 2030, including 7/41 nutrition indicators. Plan No. 2113/KHUBND to implement the National Nutrition Strategy from now to 2030 was issued on April 19, 2024 with 21 indicators. In Ho Chi Minh City, we have organized screening and monitoring of nutritional status for children under 5 years old, periodic health check-ups for children from 0 to 24 months old, monitoring of nutritional status of children under 16 years old in poor households, near-poor households, and households that have just escaped poverty, management, consultation, and rehabilitation of malnutrition for children at the Ho Chi Minh City Center for Disease Control and Health Stations; organized health check-ups for students (> 98.0%); provided nutrition education, physical education, and sports activities in schools; organized school meals to ensure food safety, and developed menus to meet recommended needs. In 2023, Ho Chi Minh City achieved a number of targets on the rate of children aged 6-23 months with a proper and adequate diet (reaching 36.9% (2020 data) compared to the target of 50%), the rate of adults consuming enough fruits and vegetables every day (reaching 23.0% compared to the target of 55%), the rate of children under 6 months of age being exclusively breastfed (reaching 32.6% compared to the target of 40%).

At the conference, the Kon Tum Center for Disease Control presented a report sharing experiences on increasing the coverage and quality of nutritional interventions of the National Target Program for Sustainable Poverty Reduction in the locality. Some notable results include 78% of the total number of malnourished children (3,407/4,367 children) under 5 years old receiving multi-micronutrient supplementation; 16,926 mothers with children under 5 years old and pregnant mothers receiving nutrition counseling; 60 children under 5 years old receiving treatment, monitoring and management of acute malnutrition in the community. For school-age children, the whole province has 8,091/12,299 children (65.8%) from 5 to under 16 years old receiving multi-micronutrient supplementation; 12,496 children aged 5 to under 16 years old received nutritional counseling, 372 girls aged 12-16 years old with menstruation received iron supplementation.

The discussion of the Health Department of Tuan Giao district, Dien Bien province said that Tuan Giao district is one of the 7 poor districts of Dien Bien province with 90% of ethnic minorities (Thai ethnic group accounts for 59.03%, Mong ethnic group accounts for 25.79%). Tuan Giao district has implemented many activities of the program since 2023, including providing nutrition counseling services for mothers from pregnancy until the child is 2 years old and micronutrient supplementation for all ages. Tuan Giao district has organized 3,974 nutrition counseling sessions for pregnant women and mothers with children under 2 years old on nutrition in the first 1,000 days of life; The rate of pregnant women supplemented with multi-micronutrient tablets reached 93.5% (1,908/2,044 people); 84.9% of the total number of children aged 6-59 months with stunting were supplemented with micronutrients 2,002/2,359, the total number of children aged 5 to under 16 years with stunting were supplemented with micronutrients 2,545/4,999 children (concentrated in the age group of 5 to under 10 years old); the total number of adolescent girls supplemented with iron was 3,328 children.

The conference also took time for delegates to discuss some shortcomings in the implementation process in localities, including: guidance and management of the use of nutritional products for beneficiaries has not been strict, the effectiveness of product use has not been evaluated; nutritional products to support the prevention of malnutrition must meet professional requirements but have not been widely available on the market. In addition, the program's success is due to inter-sectoral coordination, the strong direction of the People's Committees at all levels and the Department of Health, which is a highlight in the success of the locality when implementing the program; close supervision of the Provincial People's Council; along with technical support from the Institute of Nutrition, Ministry of Health. A number of proposals from localities were made at the conference. Localities need to proactively strengthen the local nutrition network, provide training to update knowledge and skills; Promote the role of Departments and Branches. The Ministry of Health needs to issue policies and regulations to support the resolution of the increasing overweight and obesity situation; continue to provide high doses of vitamin A to localities; medical meals are covered by health insurance and conduct additional research to provide guidance on the management, provision, and distribution of nutritional products and evaluation of effectiveness after product use.

Also at the conference, the Nutrition Education and Communication Center introduced communication materials developed for the National Target Program on Nutrition with 20 types of leaflets and 5 types of posters, including 8 leaflets specially designed for the Thai and Mong people.

The summary conference was organized with the accompaniment of TH Group, a business in the food industry, carrying the aspiration of "For Vietnamese stature". The major goals of national nutrition activities are also the core values ​​that TH Group aims for, expressed through its mission and vision: "People are the subject of society, the resource that determines the development of the country. The physical, mental and spiritual development of each individual is very important. A country is only strong when people are fully developed in both physical and mental strength, in which the prerequisite for this development is not only essential nutrition such as rice, rice, food but also a sustainable health care regime. Investing in physical and mental development is developing the race of the nation, investing in sustainable development of national strategy."

Dr. Huynh Nam Phuong, Head of Science Management Department, Institute of Nutrition