Alive & Thrive (A&T) applied principles of social franchising within the government health system in Viet Nam to improve the quality of interpersonal counseling (IPC) for complementary feeding (CF).

Strategic and well-coordinated advocacy is essential to improve nutrition at scale. Recent efforts in countries throughout Southeast Asia have generated regional momentum and resulted in stronger nutrition policies and programs.

Provides the rationale for support groups, describes their design and implementation in Viet Nam, and summarizes lessons learned.

Identifies actions during pregnancy and the first 2 years to improve nutrition and the impact on child health, education, and economic development.

This article was part of a special supplement in the Food and Nutrition Bulletin on the Alive & Thrive (A&T) project.

This article was part of a special supplement in the Food and Nutrition Bulletin on the Alive & Thrive (A&T) project. Despite the existence of a strong evidence base for investing in infant and young child feeding (IYCF), sufficiently supported IYCF policies and programs are rare.