for families and children enhancing national emergency preparedness, response and disaster risk reduction efforts targeting families, particularly children reducing multidimensional poverty and child rights monitoring (including social protection, data strengthening and child and adolescent participation) lifelong learning (including early childhood development, adolescent health, nutrition, school water, sanitation and hygiene) nutrition districts of belize in 2016, the global burden of disease collaborative network reported that the prevalence of overweight in children aged in 2-4 reached almost 19% in belize. since 1990, the prevalence of overweight and obesity in children is increasing globally in the central america region. belize city, the commercial centre of the country, remains the most affected where 11% of young children are considered overweight and the majority of them (9%) live in southside, the poorest area of the city. moreover, cayo, orange walk and toledo districts also face an increase of early childhood overweight and obesity, even in rural areas. this trend can be explained by the lack of knowledge about nutrition and the importance of a diverse diet. healthful food is sometimes less available and often more expensive than unhealthful food. media and advertising also play their role by encouraging family to buy high fat and sugar products and beverages. moreover, the insufficient of physical activities contributes to overweight in children. unicef reported that a large number of belizean homes do not offer enough space for children to play and move. the local beliefs and social norms of associated the body size as a health status indicator might influence overweight on children. prevalence of overweight in children aged 2-4 (%) in central america 1990 2016 relative change belize 12,69% 18,85% +49% costa rica 22,79% 37,49% +64% el salvador 10,44% 16,63% +59% guatemala 13,71% 21,06% +54% honduras 6,86% 14,59% +113% nicaragua 14,38% 21,31% +48% panama 10,24% 17,99% +76% besides the overweight and obesity issues, 15% of the belizean children suffer from stunting and 5% of them are underweight. in 2018, unicef recorded that 1/3 of children from toledo district present a stunted growth, and most of them are part from the maya peoples or garifuna communities. the nutritional issue may start very early in the child’s growth. before and during pregnancy the mother’s health status can lead to childhood overweight or stunning. furthermore, the poor nutritional status of mothers may affect their ability to breastfeed properly or a bad feed-responding of the child. exclusive breastfeeding for under 6 mouths infants reached 33% in 2015, but despite an increase since 2011, efforts may strengthen to expend the breastfeeding coverage and encourage a dietary diversity after 6 mouths. to address the nutritional issues in belize, the minister of health (moh) with the support of unicef, establish a new strategic plan based on a life cycle approach. the plan aims to settle actions focusing on: ensuring that belizean children especially from marginalizes areas (southside in belize city, corozal district and mayan and garifuna children in toledo), access to a high-impact education on nutrition through school feeding programmes and nutrition counselling during clinic visits. supporting and promoting breastfeeding, responsive feeding and complementary food. strengthening the monitoring height and weight of newborns and child to control the adequate growth. strengthening the wash programme to promote access to clean water and sanitation in homes and schools encouraging physical activities national concerns despite a number of challenges, the belizean government has made significant changes to the healthcare system. as a result of these changes, belize has shown marked improvements in a number of areas, including vaccine preventable deaths. for example, there have been no reported cases of measles since 1991 or poliomyelitis since 1987. the last case of neonatal tetanus was reported from stann creek district in 1997 and the last case of non-neonatal tetanus was in a three-year-old from orange walk district in 1998. the last case of congenital rubella syndrome was reported in 1997. the measles-mumps-rubella (mmr) vaccine was introduced in 1996 and the pentavalent formulation (dpt/hep/hib) in 2002. in 2005, mmr coverage was 95%; bcg, dpt, opv-3 and hepatitis b coverage were 96%. some key areas of national concern include: high prevalence of communicable diseases such as malaria, respiratory diseases and intestinal illnesses. high mortality rate from non-communicable diseases. cardiovascular diseases appear as a significant cause of death not only in the elderly but also in the productive age population of 20–49. an increase in health problems related to human behavior and lifestyle such as injury, road traffic accident, violence adolescent pregnancy, abortions, sexually transmitted infections, hiv/aids, and suicide. anaemia, malnutrition, growth retardation, and diabetes. limited equity in terms of access to health care and distribution of resources. inefficient health care delivery system. limited capacity for policy formulation and regulation of the health sector. absence of a human development policy and plan. limited quality assurance. outdated legislations and areas of health care delivery not yet regulated. limited clinical protocols for patient management. limited technical operational manuals for program implementation.