WFP-0000006192.pdf

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• Urbaniza- tion has proceeded at a slower pace than in neighboring countries: In 2011, 33 per- cent of Laotians lived in urban areas com- pared to 49 percent on average in South- east Asian developing countries.[8,9

• 13 out of 17 provinces, stunting lev- els are above the World Health Organization’s (WHO) critical threshold of 40 percent.

• undernourishment was still prevalent in Lao PDR at 27.8 percent

• EFSA Emergency Food Security Assessment

• CFSAM Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission CFSVA Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Analysis

• Despite steady economic growth in the 21st century, the country remains a least developed and a low-income food-deficit country,

• Approximately one-quarter of the population lives in poverty, mostly in rural and remote areas

• Malnutrition is a critical concern for the country as it struggles with stubbornly high rates of stunting (44 percent) and underweight (27 percent

• Lao PDR has some of the highest levels of stunting and un- derweight for children less than five years of age

• Pov- erty is a fundamental factor underscoring household economic access to nutritious foods

• Household food consumption, measured by the food consumption score, is a key proxy indica- tor of household access to food and stunting is a primary indicator for long-term nutritional deficiency

• Malnutrition is a major challenge in Lao PDR. According to recent data, the country remains ’seriously off-track’ for achieving the hunger-related millennium development goals

• the target for Laos is 18.2 percent underweight

• remained at 26.6 percent underweigh

• 44.2 percent of children less than five years was stunted

• reva- lence of stunting and underweight is closely associated with poverty and geography

• children in rural areas without road access are twice as likely to be malnourished than urban children

• Micronutrient deficiencies are also suspected to be a critical problem in Lao PDR, particularly for iron, vitamin A, iodine, and zinc.

• households with poor or borderline food consumption tend to have lower educational attainment, smaller plots of land and fewer vegetable plots, and engage in more cash crop production as a key source of income

• hey tend to have diets heavily based in rice consumption with substantially lower intake of animal protein.[6