HANOI

When it comes to reducing poverty and eradicating hunger, few other countries have made the kind of dramatic gains that Vietnam has. Not only have income levels doubled every few years since 1990, but Vietnam is now a major food exporter. So in a country that is rapidly rising out of poverty why are one third of Vietnamese children malnourished?







In some areas, particularly in the mountainous regions where large numbers of ethnic minorities live, poverty is still to blame. But government health officials say that even in wealthier urban areas, poor eating habits, ignorance and a failure to cook nutritious food are the main culprits.







“Now parents are richer, but it doesn’t mean they know how to feed their children in the right way,” said Truong Hong Son, secretary of the National Programme on Malnutrition.







Parents have good intentions but the typical Vietnamese diet is heavy in rice, which does not provide the vitamins and protein that children need. “Traditional meals in Vietnam only meet 60 percent of nutrition demands of school-age children,” said Le Nguyen Bao Khanh, who heads the School and Work Department at the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN).







Stunting







Government studies indicate that 32.6 percent of Vietnamese children under five - about 4.6 million of them - are so malnourished that their growth is stunted.







Poor nutrition is the reason why Vietnamese youth are much shorter than their peers in the region, said Duong Nghiep Chi, a senior adviser to the Vietnam Sport Science Institute, the government agency tasked with raising heights.







Following the end of the US-Vietnam war, when food was more available, there was a national growth spurt. But Chi said, despite this past 10 years of rising incomes, children did not grow as tall as health experts predicted.







"The height of the Vietnamese people has improved, but too slowly," said Chi. He argues it is not simply an aesthetic issue. Taller and stronger people are healthier and more productive. The Vietnamese are “now shorter than other people in the world, and even in Asia,” according to Chi. “Low height and poor health affect the quality of our labour force and the advancement of our people."







According to NIN in Hanoi, the average Vietnamese man is 163cm tall and the average woman 152cm. A Japanese man, by comparison, is 171cm tall, and a Japanese woman 158cm.







Achieving those heights will not be easy. With help from UNICEF and the Asian Development Bank, the government already funds nutrition programmes that provide pregnant women and infants with vitamins and food supplements. Son, of the National Programme on Malnutrition, says unfortunately government programmes only reach 40 percent of those who need help.







But money is not the only issue, Pamela Wright, country representative of the Medical Committee Netherlands Vietnam (MCNV), told IRIN. Tackling malnutrition is not like eradicating polio or other public health problems, she said, where a national military-style campaign, which Vietnam excels in, works well.







“Tailor-made approach”







“The problem with nutrition is that it requires a tailor-made approach in each area according to the issues there,” said Wright. Some districts remain very poor and there is simply not enough food. In others, food is not distributed evenly. Then there is not using the food that is available, she said.







MCNV staff say there is no “magic bullet” when it comes to tackling malnutrition. For severe cases, they have come up with a soy bean-based nutritional powder which can be added to food - one that the Vietnamese like. But they are also experimenting with programmes that teach women to cook more nutritious meals with the food that they already have. MCNV also promotes more home gardening and raising of pond fish.







The government plans to launch a new offensive to address the problem. Concerned about people’s short stature, a new five-year programme to spur growth rates is slated to start this year. The $33 million campaign will educate parents about the importance of nutritious meals, introduce fitness classes in school and provide nutritional supplements where necessary. The long-term target is to add four centimetres to the average Vietnamese citizen by the year 2020.







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