Malnutrition is usually prevalent among children in remote mountainous areas, said Nguyen Thanh Long, deputy health minister at a meeting to review the implementation of the program ‘Integrated Nutrition and Food Security for Children and Vulnerable Groups in Vietnam’.
Long said poor nutrition is common in remote mountainous regions. Thus local food in the region must be more balanced and diverse.
In three years since implementation, the program has opened a new chapter in nutrition and food security in Vietnam, said Long.
The joint program of integration of nutrition and food security for children and vulnerable groups in the country was implemented in the country from January 2010 to December 2012 at a cost of US$3.55 million, including a non-refundable sum of $3.5 million from the Spanish Millennium Development Goal Achievement Fund through the Food and Agriculture Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the World Health Organization.