Early childhood refers to the 1,000 days from the fetal period to the age of 24 months, which is called the “window of opportunity” in a person’s life. Studies have shown that nutritional interventions early in life have long-term benefits for growth and development, including improved health among adolescents and prevention of chronic diseases among adults.
With the financial support of BYHEALTH, UNICEF and its partners will establish training centres for infant and young child feeding counselling, trainings for community health workers and community volunteers, and this will be rolled out to the whole country in the next three years. The programme will build up skilled human resources to deliver nutrition counselling and services for breastfeeding and complementary feeding throughout pregnancy, child birth and early childhood, and develop a circle of sustainable nutrition support.