FHI Solutions LLC/ Alive & Thrive Southeast Asia

Alive & Thrive (A&T) is a global nutrition initiative to save lives, prevent illness, and ensure healthy growth of mothers and children. From 2009 to 2014, A&T demonstrated that rapid improvements in infant and young child feeding (IYCF) are possible in settings as diverse as Ethiopia, Bangladesh, and Viet Nam. In 2014, A&T began working in Burkina Faso, India, Nigeria, and throughout the Southeast Asia region, expanding its scope to include maternal and adolescent nutrition, and using agriculture and social protection programs as delivery mechanisms for maternal, infant, and young child nutrition (MIYCN). Currently, A&T is leveraging its robust network and knowledge base to strengthen systems and build capacity in these and other countries across Africa and Asia, and disseminate innovations, tools, and lessons worldwide. The Alive & Thrive initiative, managed by FHI Solutions, is currently funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Irish Aid, and other donors.

Since 2014, A&T has provided strategic technical assistance to seven countries in Southeast Asia (Viet Nam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and the Philippines). These countries are among the ten-member states included in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). This regional support continues until 2021 and aims to accelerate progress toward meeting breastfeeding-related World Health Assembly and Sustainable Development Goal targets by the ASEAN member states. With funding from Irish Aid, A&T is working to strengthen the capacity of health systems in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Viet Nam to deliver high-quality breastfeeding-friendly services to mothers and infants. A&T provides strategic technical assistance to the governments of these countries to establish and sustain a network of 30-40 Centers of Excellence (COE) for Breastfeeding that deliver high quality breastfeeding and early essential newborn care (EENC) services within a supportive policy environment by 2021.