On June 6, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc announced a nationwide initiative titled Zero Hunger -- a campaign that seeks to combat child malnutrition and eradicate hunger, Vietnam News reports.

The campaign, which serves as part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, aims to reduce malnutrition rates among children under two by 2025. For children under two years old in the mountainous areas such as central highland and northern regions, it aims to reduce the percentage of malnourished individuals to less than 25 percent. For other geographic locations, the objective is a reduction to less than 20 percent.

The program also sets the target of reducing the percentage of children under two who are underweight for their age or height to under five percent. Moreover, Zero Hunger hopes to lower the number of newborn infants under 2.5 kilograms to less than eight percent.

In terms of food supply, the campaign promises to lower the percentage of households where each member's average daily calories intake is under 1800kcal to below five percent and increase the general consumption of fruits and vegetables to an average rate of 400g/day per person.

The program -- which will cost approximately VND545 billion (US$24 million)-- is divided into two phases. The pilot phase runs from 2018 to 2020, followed by the second phase which runs from 2021 to 2025.

According to Prime Minister Phuc, a legal framework should be legalized by the end of this year in order to allow the pilot to be implemented in the northwest region, the south-central coastal area and the Mekong Delta region.

[Photo via Pho Cap Boi]

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