About 1 in 3 children under the age of 5 in Lao PDR is malnourished, with the rate being even higher in remote rural areas and among ethnic minorities. It is known that children who are still malnourished after their 5th birthday will be aff ected for the rest of their lives, being more prone to ill-health, performing worse at school, receiving lower wages and living less fulfi lling lives than their well-nourished peers. Malnutrition can start before birth if the mother is malnourished. One of the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals is to end all forms of malnutrition in children under 5 and address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls, and pregnant and lactating women. Malnourishment is caused by a combination of factors including poor diet, poor sanitation, lack of clean water, and insuffi cient access to health services. Each of these factors can have multiple causes – for instance a child might have poor diet because of non-availability of aff ordable nutritious food throughout the year, or because her mother does not know how to cook food in an appetising and nutritious way. Malnutrition will not be prevented by addressing only one cause or factor at a time. They all need to be addressed together. Since the issues are the responsibility of diff erent sectors, all relevant sectors need to coordinate so that they provide their services in the same communities instead of working independently in diff erent communities. This is called multisectoral convergence and it is the methodology that has been adopted by the Government of Lao PDR in the National Nutrition Strategy. The National Nutrition Strategy also provides a list of Priority Interventions that need to be conducted to prevent malnutrition. These are shown in the table on the next page. Most of the interventions are not new to the responsible sectors; the important point is that they should be implemented convergently. This leafl et proposes a mechanism by which Provincial and District Development Planning Committees can take the initiative to mainstream a convergent nutrition approach into their regular programming. It is based on the lessons learnt from the evaluation of the EU-funded Food and Nutrition Security in Lao PDR project