World Breastfeeding Week 2010

Ha Noi, 29 July 2010 – Although exclusive breastfeeding is the most complete form of nutrition for infants and small children during the first six months of life, only 10 per cent of children in Viet Nam are breastfed exclusively during this critical period of their lives. This situation calls for urgent action to promote breastfeeding, particularly by health care providers and communities in Viet Nam.

This “call for action” is being issued today as part of the launch of World Breastfeeding Week, co-organized in Viet Nam by the Ministry of Health, the United Nations and the Alive & Thrive initiative. World Breastfeeding Week is celebrated in more than 120 countries to encourage breastfeeding as an important way to improve the health and development of infants and young children. With the theme "Breastfeeding: Just 10 Steps, the Baby-Friendly Way", World Breastfeeding Week this year aims to highlight the vital role that health workers and health facilities play in promoting breastfeeding. It calls for every health facility providing maternity services and care for newborn infants to provide support to mothers in breastfeeding using the ten steps.

26 July 2010 – In the last couple of weeks, hundreds of Vietnamese citizens from 44 provinces across Viet Nam have expressed their personal views of public administrative procedures through a unique online poll set up by VietNamNet and UNDP.

The survey (at www.hienkecchc.vn) aims to support the ongoing Government efforts to enhance public administration reform and simplify administrative procedures. It asks Vietnamese citizens to identify the best and the most annoying public administrative procedure and to provide recommendations for how these procedures can be simplified.

Hanoi, 22 July, 2010 - Despite Viet Nam’s progress in boosting economic growth and reducing poverty, the country’s ethnic minorities continue to remain the poorest of the poor, says United Nations Independent Expert on Minority Issues Ms Gay McDougall, following a ten-day mission to the country to examine the human rights situation of Viet Nam’s numerous minority groups.

According to the independent expert, bilingual education could play a major role in redressing this situation.

“Access to quality and appropriate education is a gateway to development and poverty eradication for minorities, and it is equally essential for the preservation and promotion of minority cultures, languages and identities,” said Ms McDougall.