Ministries of Agriculture and Health Work Together to Reach Hunger Goal

The final workshop of a successful national programme to improve food security and nutrition opened on July 4 in Hanoi. Innovative in the way that it links agriculture, health and nutrition interventions together for the first time, the US$3.5 million Joint Government and UN Programme is helping Vietnam reduce stunting and accelerate progress towards reaching two crucial Millennium Development Goals on hunger and child mortality by 2015.

 

Although one third of Vietnamese children still fail to reach their full height potential, the stunting rate from under-nutrition is finally falling. Over the past three years the Joint Programme has helped to improve breastfeeding rates in six targeted provinces, at the same time as working with local farmers increase the availability of safe, good quality food.

 

 “The Joint Programme is unique in the way that it has brought together the specialised expertise of three UN Agencies together with the Ministries of Health and Agriculture. By ‘delivering as one’ we can address food security, health and nutrition in a much more holistic, sustainable way” the UN Resident Coordinator, Pratibha Mehta, said at the workshop.

 

According to Dr Nguyen Thanh Long, Vice Minister of Health, the Joint Programme is now drawing to a close, but Vietnam has entered a new chapter where health, nutrition and agriculture will continue to work more closely together for better results. In this way the Joint Programme has created a legacy of much better health and wellbeing of Vietnamese women and children.