IBFAN Codex Alimentarius Global Programme
INFACT Canada
520 Colborne Street, London, Ontario, N6B 2T5 Canada
Phone: (416) 595-9819
The IBFAN Codex Alimentarius Global Programme is administered through the IBFAN Global Programme Office, based in INFACT Canada.
More and more Codex Committees are holding sessions in countries in the South and East (for example, in 2008 the Philippines, Guatemala and South Africa, 2010 Chile). It is thus increasingly important to stimulate participation from civil society and governments in countries in the South in the Codex-standard-setting process, to ensure compliance with the dual mandate of Codex to facilitate international trade in food and protect consumer health and safety.
IBFAN’s Global Codex Programme coordinates participation in Codex meetings to influence outcomes to be more positive for infant and young child health and to increase consumer participation and the emphasis on public health needs. It increases IBFAN’s capacity by developing training materials and programmes for all IBFAN regions in order to improve regional participation and to influence national and regional positions at Codex meetings. It communicates Codex outcomes and their impact on infant and young child health to mothers, parents, health-care workers, those who work with mothers and children, governments and UN agencies.
The overall objectives of IBFAN’s Global Codex Programme are to ensure that the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes and its relevant WHA resolutions, as well as the Global Strategy for Infants and Young Child Feeding, form the basis for standard setting, labelling and marketing of baby foods; to contribute to protecting the health of all infants by exposing the risks of artificial baby feeding products and communicate these to those who work with mothers and children; to press for full and truthful labelling of foods for infants and young children and expose the lack of scientific validation when nutrition and health claims are made for foods for infants and young children; and to monitor the development of new products for complementary feeding to prevent these from undermining the use of locally produced complementary foods using sustainable agriculture.
