Improving nutrition in the journey to sustainable poverty reduction

The Nutrition Improvement Sub-project contributes to reducing stunting and improving children's health and physical fitness.

The sub-project is implemented on the basis of a solid legal foundation, originating from the National Nutrition Strategy for the period 2021-2030, with a vision to 2045, approved by Decision No. 02/QD-TTg dated January 5, 2022 of the Prime Minister . This strategy affirms the principle: "Everyone has the right to equitable access to nutrition and food to achieve optimal nutritional status, contributing to improving health".

From there, improving nutrition is identified as an important link in the goal of sustainable poverty reduction, aiming to improve the health and physical fitness of vulnerable groups, especially children and pregnant women. Implementation activities include nutritional counseling, supplementation of essential micronutrients such as vitamin A and iron, support for nutritional products, strengthening communication on healthy eating, and linking with agricultural development to ensure sustainable livelihoods for people.

Implementing the National Target Program on Sustainable Poverty Reduction for the 2021-2025 period, Lang Son province has synchronously deployed projects, including Sub-project 2 of Project 3: Supporting production development and improving nutrition. The sub-project focuses on improving nutrition for vulnerable groups such as poor, near-poor and newly escaped poverty households, thereby contributing to improving the physical, intellectual and quality of life of the people.

During the 2022-2024 period, Lang Son has allocated VND 10,447 million to implement nutrition improvement activities within the framework of the National Target Program for Sustainable Poverty Reduction. As of 2024, the province has disbursed VND 7,944 million in central capital (reaching 77.1%) and VND 80 million in local capital (reaching 46.2%), thereby implementing many practical support activities for mothers and children. Intervention programs focus on preventing malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies for pregnant and lactating mothers and children aged 0-16. Nutrition counseling is implemented throughout pregnancy until the child is 2 years old; screening and growth monitoring are carried out monthly.

Along with that, the province has completed the review, planning and distribution of micronutrients in accordance with regulations; the rate of children being weighed and measured periodically every month reached more than 99%. At the same time, it has combined the promotion of the school meal program and nutrition education, coordinated between the health and education sectors to organize training on school nutrition for more than 400 school health workers to participate in thematic talks, contributing to improving the quality of nutritional care for students across the province.

School feeding programs help improve children's nutrition.

In Lam Dong, medical staff, regardless of the distance, regularly go to each village, bringing scales, measuring tapes, growth charts and micronutrient packages to support malnourished children. With the spirit of going to each place, meeting each person, understanding each case, medical staff not only propagate but also directly organize sample cooking, instruct on child care skills and ways to prevent acute malnutrition. They take advantage of simple tools and foods available in the community such as wild vegetables, stream fish, and garden fruits and vegetables to illustrate, helping people understand that a nutritious meal can be completely created from familiar food sources, without being expensive or luxurious.

Ms. Pham Thi Phuong, a medical officer at Ham Thuan Nam Medical Center (Ham Thuan Nam Commune, Lam Dong Province), said that bringing nutrition to the village is not an easy journey, but it is also a testament to the efforts of the local health sector in ensuring the right to comprehensive development of poor children. "We are currently planning for the following years when funds from the National Target Program for Sustainable Poverty Reduction are allocated to the center. The goal is to improve nutrition and physical health for children with difficult economic conditions," Ms. Phuong shared.

With a total budget allocated by the Central Government for the period 2023-2025 of more than 48 billion VND, Thanh Hoa is a province that strongly implements the Nutrition Improvement Sub-project of the National Target Program for Sustainable Poverty Reduction. In the period 2023-2024, the program has increased access to direct interventions to prevent malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies for mothers and children under 5 years old in poor and near-poor households and in extremely difficult areas. 2,435 children under 5 years old were supplemented with multi-micronutrients, 19,581 mothers with children under 5 years old and pregnant mothers received nutrition counseling, 20,896 pregnant women were supplemented with multi-micronutrients, 895 children were monitored and managed for acute malnutrition in the community, 2,753 children from 5 to under 16 years old were supplemented with micronutrients, 53,248 children from 5 to under 16 years old received nutrition counseling.

According to Ms. Ma Thi Canh, Head of Kim Phuong Commune Health Station, in addition to specific activities to prevent and combat malnutrition, supplement micronutrients for pregnant mothers, breastfeeding women and children, communication activities and instructions on proper nutrition are regularly carried out, thereby bringing about clear results. Thanks to that, the awareness of many families about health care, especially in the early stages of life, has been significantly improved. The rate of malnourished children in some hamlets has decreased more rapidly and sustainably than in previous years.

In Nghe An, a central province with many particularly difficult areas, nutrition improvement activities were implemented synchronously across the province on a large scale. Thereby, 40 training courses were organized for 3,216 health workers at wards, communes, villages, hamlets and schools, to improve the capacity to implement community nutrition. Thanks to that, 9,790 children under 5 years old were supplemented with micronutrients; 9,105 mothers with children under 5 years old were advised on a reasonable diet; 623 pregnant women were provided with micronutrients; 1,312 children were monitored and managed for acute malnutrition in the community; 7,280 children aged 5-16 were supplemented with micronutrients and 27,440 children were advised on nutrition...

These activities contribute to improving nutritional status, reducing malnutrition and improving health and physical fitness for children under 16 years old in poor, near-poor, newly escaped-poverty households and children living in poor communes. However, the process of purchasing micronutrients, medical equipment and instruments is still facing difficulties due to having to meet the technical requirements of the Ministry of Health, while the number of suppliers meeting the standards is limited. This causes the bidding process to be prolonged and the disbursement rate to not reach expectations.

Support nutritional products to help improve children's physical and mental health.

In addition, in many localities, the process of appraising estimates and approving funding is still slow, causing capital to be accumulated and transferred to the following year. High-quality nutritional products have not yet met the demand, causing difficulties in purchasing and distributing to specific target groups. In addition, a number of grassroots health workers have not been updated with professional knowledge due to lack of training resources, leading to limitations in implementing nutritional activities. Communication work to raise public awareness has not been given due attention, causing many parents to not really care about the importance of nutritious meals for children's development. Nutrition is considered one of 12 important indicators to measure the level of shortage of basic social services to identify poor households. Therefore, for nutrition to become a solid link in poverty reduction, there needs to be more synchronous and drastic coordination from all levels and sectors.

From the results achieved, the Nutrition Improvement Sub-project has proven that investing in health and nutrition is one of the fundamental and effective solutions for sustainable poverty reduction. People, especially children, with good health and adequate nutritional care will have the ability to study, work and rise up stronger. The goal of the sub-project is not only to reduce the rate of malnutrition, but also to improve the quality of the population, thereby reducing the number of poor households with malnutrition according to the multidimensional poverty standard. This is a sustainable and fundamental approach, placing the health and intelligence of future generations at the center of the long-term poverty reduction strategy. Nutrition improvement is an investment for the future, the foundation for building quality human resources.

DAWN

Source: https://nhandan.vn/cai-thien-dinh-duong-trong-hanh-trinh-giam-ngheo-ben-vung-post927305.html