Disparate Outcomes : A Multisectoral Nutrition Assessment and Gap Analysis of Vietnam’s Ethnic Minority Populations
On average, Vietnam has achieved remarkable improvements in nutritional status in recent decades, but improvements in national aggregates mask wide disparities and a persistent ‘very high’ burden among disadvantaged ethnic minority groups. Between...
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Format: | Report |
Language: | English |
Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2019
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Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/637621560761726835/Disparate-Outcomes-A-Multisectoral-Nutrition-Assessment-and-Gap-Analysis-of-Vietnam-s-Ethnic-Minority-Populations http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32011 |
Summary: | On average, Vietnam has achieved
remarkable improvements in nutritional status in recent
decades, but improvements in national aggregates mask wide
disparities and a persistent ‘very high’ burden among
disadvantaged ethnic minority groups. Between 2000 and 2010,
national stunting rates dropped from 36.5 percent to 24.2
percent. The decrease from 2010 to 2015 was not as great,
but when the 2015 data are disaggregated according to ethnic
group, the Kinh majority has a prevalence of 17.7 percent,
whereas the prevalence in other ethnic groups is 32.0
percent. This pattern repeats itself for the prevalence of
underweight (a significant drop nationally from 33.8 percent
in 2000 to 14.1 percent in 2015 but a 9.7 percent prevalence
in the Kinh ethnic group in 2015 versus 21.9 percent in
other ethnic groups) and wasting (a decrease from 8.6
percent to 5.6 percent in national prevalence from 2000 to
2015 but a 9.1 percent prevalence for Kinh versus 5.5
percent for other ethnic groups (WB Assessment 2012). The
gap between the ethnic majority and minority has persisted
despite the multiple government programs aimed at reducing
it. As the economy has evolved from predominantly
agriculture to a mix of agriculture and technology, the
requirements of the workforce have changed as well. Manual
labor is still necessary but no longer enough. The need is
for intelligent, highly educated and skilled workers. All of
these attributes are the product of a healthy,
well-nourished population. Deficiencies in nutrition and
health, lower levels of education, lack of language skills
in the national language, and inability to migrate to jobs
in urban centers of ethnic minorities have further hindered
their ability to narrow the gap in nutrition and economic well-being. |
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