IYCF Programme Leaves Sustained Impacts in Vietnam

A Save the Children notable programme in its 25 years of operation in Vietnam, the Infant and Young Child Feeding Programme (IYFC) has seen hundreds of consulting facilities that it helped build keep going even after the programme came to an end. It is also the first project in the country to be named Save the Children’s signature programme.

The six-year programme, running from 2009 through 2014, aimed at doubling the rate of exclusive breastfeeding, reducing the stunting rate among Vietnamese children under two years old by 2 percentage points per year and improving the quality and quantity of complementary feeding practices for children aged 6-24 months.

Implemented with two models, the Mat Troi Be Tho (MTBT) franchise and the IYCF support group, the programme provided counseling packages for mothers and families from the third trimester of pregnancy until the baby reaches 24 months. From the first franchise in the poor province of Thanh Hoa, by the end of 2014, a total of 780 of such facilities had been launched along the country. By now when the project has closed for a year, the facilities have maintained operation with the support from the Vietnamese healthcare sector. Healthcare workers have been able to provide counseling services to pregnant mothers and families with young children at communal levels at remote areas.

The programme has been widely known in Vietnam for its advocacy for the extension of mandatory paid maternity leave. In 2012, the Vietnamese parliament approved the amended Labor Code, in which the maternity leave was extended to six months from four months. Programme staffs also worked with the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs to encourage work places to set up breastfeeding room and support mothers to express breast milk.

The IYCF program, also known as the Alive & Thrive (A&T) initiative, operated with the support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In Vietnam, Save the Children worked as the implementing partner, establishing IYCF franchises in health facilities for counseling and IYCF support groups in ethnic minority areas. Save the Children also offered policy and nutrition technical support at A&T headquarters.