Vietnam

Country team for INFORMAS in Vietnam is lead by the director of the National Institute of Nutrition – Le Danh Tuyen MD., MSc., PhD, Assoc.Prof. Two process modules of INFORMAS (public and private sector) will be implemented in Vietnam and join in the report and publication with other South-East countries including Malaysia and Thailand.

Similar to Malaysia team, the Vietnam team is supported by INFORMAS,  Prof. Boyd Swinburn, Dr. Bridget Kelly and Dr. Stefanie Vandevijvere in the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) project titled, “Mapping the implementation of priority food environment policies to tackle diet-related non-communicable diseases in South-East Asia: Comparison between three countries”. This is a multi-country study involving Malaysia, Vietnam, and Thailand, in collaboration. The local Vietnam team members include Dr. Tran Khanh Van (the National Institute of Nutrition) and Prof. Dr. Pham Van Phu (Hanoi Medical School) and other young researcher at the National Institute of Nutrition to organize for data collection which is capacity building for not only individuals but also for the National Institute of Nutrition in Vietnam (NIN) although Vietnam failed in finding a PhD to join in the project due to complicated procedure of receiving PhD degree. The overweight and obesity control is a new issue that the NIN has been raising in past few years as Vietnam has been facing with undernutrition for a long time and facing with double burden in last few decades.

We are preparing for the two stages of data collection which covers the public sector and private sector at the same time. The HMU will be responsible for the public sector while the NIN will be responsible for the later. A Training workshop is been organised for 7-8th August for Vietnam and Malaysia teams. The Business Impact Assessment training will be lead by Dr Gary Sacks from INFORMAS.

Tran Khasnh Van, MD., MPHTran Khanh Van, MD., MPH

Deputy Head of Micronutrient Department

Head of Human Resources and Administration Division

National Institute of Nutrition,

48B Tang Bat Ho, Hanoi, Vietnam

Phone: +84-24-39717505, mobile 84-976087566

Email: khanhvan206@yahoo.com, trankhanhvan@dinhduong.org.vn

Outputs Table

Module Status (as of August 2017) Outputs

Public Sector

(Food EPI)

  •  Food-EPI Expert Rating (FEER) Workshop conducted on 11th April 2017.
  • Prioritisation completed by the Experts in June 2017.
  • Technical Report for Food-EPI is completed in the 1st week of August 2017. Country clearance is required for results dissemination.
3
Private Sector
  • The IDRC Midterm Training Workshop to cover private sector assessment on 7-8thAugust 2017. Dr. Gary Sacks is will be the Lead Faculty to provide training on private sector assessment (Business Impact Assessment (BIA) – Obesity; Corporate Political Activities). Representatives from Vietnam (n=3) and Thailand (n=1) will attend the training workshop in Malaysia.
  • Malaysia team will initiate data collection for the 2nd phase on the private sector per the protocols discussed with Gary in September 2017.
nil
Food Composition
  • Not planning to be conducted at the moment
nil
Food Labelling
  • Not planning to be conducted at the moment
nil
Food Promotion
  • Television: data collection completed
  • Social media/Facebook/ Sports sponsorship/ Magazines/ Internet/ Outdoor advertising: Not planning to be conducted at the moment
  • Contributed a dataset for TV food advertising classified using WHO Nutrient Profiling Scheme for a multi-countries comparison.
1,2
Food Prices
  • Not planned for the moment
nil
Food Retail
  • Not planned for the moment
nil
Food Provision
  • Not planned for the moment
nil
Food Trade & Investment
  • Not planned for the moment
nil
  1. Ng SH, Kelly B, Se CH, Sahathevan S, Chinna K, Ismail MN, Karupaiah, T. Reading the mind of children in response to food advertising: A cross-sectional study of Malaysian schoolchildren’s attitudes towards food and beverages advertising on television.BMC Public Health. 2015; 15: 1047. doi: 1186/s12889-015-2392-z
  2. Ng H, Kelly B, Hee SC, Chinna K, Jamil SM, Shanthi K, Noor IM, Karupaiah T. Obesogenic television food advertising to children in Malaysia: Sociocultural variations.Journal of Global Health Action. 2014, 7: 25169, doi: 3402/gha.v7.25169

Technical report (in progress for applying for country clearance)

  1. Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2017, Food-Environment Policy Index (Food-EPI): Benchmarking of, and Priorities for, Food Environment Policy for the Malaysian Government, UKM Publisher: Bangi, Selangor.
  • International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada
  • Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship (PhD scholarship at University of Wollongong for candidate Ng See Hoe (William) starting from July 2016)
  • School of Healthcare Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Malaysia (in-kind contribution – infrastructure and facilities support)
  • Early Start Research Institute, School of Health & Society, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Wollongong, Australia (in-kind contribution – infrastructure and facilities support for PhD student)