According to the report, Latin America and the Caribbean and the East Asia and Pacific region are only two regions in the world, that are on track to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target for reducing the prevalence of underweight children, registering average underweight prevalence rates of 7 percent and 15 percent, respectively. In East Asia and the Pacific region, Vietnam, together with China, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, are on track to meet the MDG target.

Vietnam’s major achievement is universal salt iodisation, with 83 percent of households consuming iodized salt (ranked second in the region after China), the report said.

However, the report noted that in Vietnam, micro-nutrient deficiencies are emerging issues. Around 12.5 percent of children under 5 years of age are vitamin A deficient, 32 percent of pregnant women are suffering from anaemia, and 53.8 percent of lactating mothers have low ratio of vitamin A in breast milk.

Breast feeding, the most powerful way of ensuring a child thrives through infancy, is a common practice, but exclusive breast feeding for the first six months of life is rare (12.4 percent).

In Vietnam, UNICEF has been working closely with the Government to improve the nutrition status of Vietnamese children and women.

In the coming years, according to the report, UNICEF will continue to support the Vietnamese Government in its advocacy and social mobilisation activities to keep nutrition issues high on the national and local agenda. It will help develop and implement policies on nutrition to create and maintain a supportive nutrient environment for mothers and their children. In addition, it will support the provision of high dose Vitamin A capsules to all children from 6-36 months of age, promote the use of iodized salt, and develop new initiatives like supplementation of multiple micro-nutrient to pre-pregnant and pregnant women in disadvantaged areas.