Improving Nutrition in Vietnam

Addressing the issues of global hunger is one of Irish Aid’s core objectives, with a particular focus on hunger and under-nutrition for pregnant women, new mothers, and infants.

Addressing under nutrition during pregnancy and early childhood is essential for the healthy mental and physical development.

Irish Aid supports a variety of interventions which aim to increase the quality of nutrition available to pregnant women, new mothers and their babies. These interventions include adding nutrients to everyday food items such as flour, oil, sugar and salt on a large scale, or by adding nutrients to food at a household level, using nutrient rich powders which are added to food.

The programme targets 40,000 pregnant women and mothers and 24,000 children by making these nutrient rich products available to vulnerable communities in seven districts. 

Working in partnership with the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), Irish Aid supports programmes which encourage better nutrition at a household level. In our Key Partner Country, Vietnam, GAIN are implementing a programme which aims to prevent malnutrition amongst vulnerable communities through the distribution of micronutrient powder and a ready to use food supplement, both of which are produced locally.

The micronutrient powder, which is sprinkled on food, has between 50% and 100% of the recommended daily allowance (RDA) of 14 essential micronutrients.  

The programme targets 40,000 pregnant women and mothers and 24,000 children by making these nutrient rich products available to vulnerable communities in seven districts. This approach is also coupled with nutrition and feeding education.

In addition to supporting product based interventions, Irish Aid also address micronutrient deficiencies through our support of bio-fortified crops, crop diversification and improved farming practices through our partnerships.