Guatemala Ventana de los Mil Dias

Guatemala's La Ventana de los Mil Dias, the Window of the Thousand Days, was announced in 2012 by President Otto Perez Molina and Vice President Roxana Baldetti as the signature program of their Zero Hunger Pact and was publicly launched by the Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance on March 8, 2013. The program takes its name from the roughly one thousand days spanning pregnancy, about 270 days, through a child's second birthday, treating this window as the critical period in which comprehensive health and nutrition care can prevent chronic malnutrition, known as stunting, from taking hold permanently. The program responds to one of the highest chronic malnutrition rates in the world: at the time of its launch, an estimated 47 percent of Guatemalan children under five suffered from stunting, and the Ventana de los Mil Dias strategy coordinates health, nutrition and social protection interventions across government agencies to reach mothers and young children during this narrow developmental window.