In June 2025, Viet Nam passed a landmark Excise Tax Law that will progressively increase taxes on alcohol products to 90% by 2031. This is a significant step for a country that ranks 5th in alcohol consumption in Asia and 44th globally. But price is only part of the solution.

A global resolution on digital marketing of breast milk substitutes must be rigorously enforced, writes Afshan Khan, Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and coordinator of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement, on SciDev.Net

On May 21, Alive & Thrive presented the AI Virtual Violations Detector (VIVID) Viet Nam prototype, updates on rolling out Code Monitoring Digital Platform in Mexico, Argentina, Laos, and Mongolia in partnership with UNICEF, and monitoring findings and enforcement action from Argentina at the 78th WHA side event on Monitoring Digital Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes in Geneva.

In a recent call to action by the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement, Viet Nam was highlighted as one of three countries taking decisive action to counter harmful marketing of breastmilk substitutes and strengthen breastfeeding support.

Alive & Thrive announces a new partnership with OFDT - Observatoire français des drogues et des tendances addictives (the French Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction) to assess harmful advertisement contents against the obligation to protect minors.

In March 2025, a user acceptance testing workshop was held in Ulaanbaatar to gather feedback to inform final revisions of the platform and sensitize the government officials to the history and principles of the Code.

During the session "Equal Plates, Equal Futures: Investment to Close the Gender Nutrition Gap," and throughout the three-day Village of Solutions event at the Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summit, Alive & Thrive/FHI 360 had the opportunity to showcase the Virtual Violations Detector (VIVID) to government representatives, policymakers, development partners, and experts across the globe.

ObservaMas, a digital platform developed to monitor the marketing of breastmilk substitutes, was publicly launched in Argentina by Fundación SANAR.

In February, the partners gathered in Vientiane, Laos, to conduct a User Acceptance Testing workshop to validate that the platform's functions correspond to the users' needs and to collect feedback for the final launch version.

Alive & Thrive shared insights from the Virtual Violations Detectors (VIVID) tool, which tracks commercial milk formula promotion trends, alongside a comparative analysis of how different countries regulate health claims in advertising.