IBFAN PARTICIPATION AT THE 77th WORLD HEALTH ASSEMBLY

Mr. Chair,   Brazil takes the floor on behalf of a group of countries composed of [Armenia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bolivia, Botswana, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kenya, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Syria, Thailand and Uruguay] to deliver a joint statement on sub-item 15.2 “Maternal, infant and young child nutrition”. 

Thank you, Chairman.  Mexico is concerned about the erosion of the intersectoral stewardship of governments and the drive for deregulation in crucial areas such as agriculture, the environment and health. Our commitment is to promote, protect and defend the public health system. 

Thank you for engaging the global network IBFAN  on this important GPW. Its implementation must ensure:

The protection of breastfeeding and optimal child feeding throughout all WHO local offices – especially from misleading digital marketing  – welcome to our side event tonight!

Policy coherence with WHO in trade rules would prevent MS facing time wasting challenges. ‘Operational’ activities must not undermine WHO’s unique role in analysing global data for wise norm-setting. Streamlining of operations must not prevent the adoption of Resolutions that save children’s lives. WHO must correct its Conflict of interest policy and strengthen FENSA to safeguard its independence, integrity and trustworthiness.

WHO should ideally be100% publicly funded but till then voluntary funding must not compromise WHO’s purpose. Transparency is vital and anonymous donations forbidden.

WHO should be proud of the materials on marketing it has produced under Dr Tedros’ tenure. The guidance on digital marketing of baby feeding products is a key part of the package that will help governments lower health care costs and save lives.

IBFAN is pleased that Brazil, Mexico, Peru and many other countries will be tabling a Resolution to support the Guidance. Digital marketing is now out of control with companies paying influencers and deceptive
schemes that manipulate parents and convince them that their expensive, risky, environmentally wasteful products are essential for children’s health.

The Guidance doesn’t prevent any person buying products they need but could stop misleading marketing at source. A WHA resolution would help Member States protect optimal infant and young child feeding without fear of trade challenges.

Mothers and children are the most vulnerable and hardest hit by conflicts and emergencies. A key safeguard is breastfeeding – the foundation for all 17 SDGs.

It’s the single most effective intervention in preventing deaths in children. And for mothers, it protects against breast cancer, hypertension and diabetes. Women have the right to feed their babies as they wish, but those rights cannot be fulfilled without support and protection from misleading marketing that promotes unnecessary, expensive, ultra-processed products.

Member States have sovereign right and duty to adopt effective laws to protect citizens, make climate-smart decisions and prevent harmful marketing.

We witness in horror the worst human catastrophe in recent times with internally displaced peoples and refugees now a permanent emergency. 

Breastfeeding is a lifeline. Emergency responses should include skilled breastfeeding support, skin-to-skin, re-lactation, wet nursing & nurturing care safe spaces. The Code and multi-agency IFE tools are essential emergency preparedness and response.

Responses relying on the provision of short term Ready to use products should never be inappropriately promoted or commercially exploited and must never undermine life saving breastfeeding, indigenous complementary foods or culturally acceptable local food solutions.

WHOs operational work must not undermine its norm-setting role that must be protected with transparent sustainable funding, free from commercial influence.

IBFAN condemns the withholding of food, water and medical supplies as a weapon of war. This must never be imposed on any peoples

Mothers and children suffer most from the climate crisis.  Weak industry friendly trade rules have undermined laws to protect breastfeeding – the most environmentally friendly way to feed young children. Corporations have damaged agriculture and biodiverse food systems and flooded the world with ultra-processed products with large greenhouse gas, carbon and micro-plastic footprint  – many promoted with greenwashing claims as the solution to the climate crisis.  Women and children must be the top priority and Member States must hold companies accountable for any harm they cause

ILCA recognises that breastmilk is the first food. Breastfeeding has low environmental impact and significant health benefits, but less than half of infants globally are breastfed as recommended. Over 2 million tons of commercial milk formula for infants and young children were sold globally in 2018, generating greenhouse gas emissions of over 14 million tons, and using at least 10 million cubic meters of water, in addition to generating huge amounts of waste in landfills. Supporting women to breastfeed will reduce formula manufacturing and sales and help mitigate climate change, reduce climate risks to food security, and improve resilience in emergencies. ILCA calls on member states to support breastfeeding as an environmental imperative and a way to improve climate protection.

International Lactation Consultant Association welcomes WHO’s Guidance on digital marketing of Breast Milk Substitute. WHO’s report on digital marketing showed how dominant digital marketing is; it increases sales and decreases breastfeeding; Companies use insidious methods often not recognizable as advertising; and digital marketing escapes scrutiny. To protect human milk feeding, ILCA calls on member states to incorporate the Guidance into legislation so companies can no longer circumvent the Code. We commend Brazil’s announcement to include this in a resolution in 2025. We also call on member states to accelerate progress on the global MIYCN targets and respond to the proposal for process indicators.

ILCA welcomes the Director-General’s report on Acceleration towards the Sustainable Development Goal targets for maternal health and child mortality, and notes that one of the largest gaps is in breastfeeding rates. Improving breastfeeding initiation and continuation also impacts other SDGs, including under-5 mortality, stunting, and wasting. ILCA urges Member States to provide greater investment in breastfeeding protection and support. In particular, providing evidence-based lactation education to physicians, nurses, and midwives, as well as increasing training of community health workers, and supporting development of lactation professionals, are proven steps to help reach the SDG targets. In order to create an enabling environment for breastfeeding, countries also need to implement the Code and subsequent resolutions, and include digital marketing restrictions.

Honorable Chair, Esteemed Delegates. Thank you for giving me the floor. Research shows that near universal breastfeeding, as defined by WHO, could prevent 98 000 deaths of mothers from diabetes and hormone related cancer each year, in addition to saving 823,000 children’s lives. Breastfeeding reduces rates of hypertension, obesity, diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, and cardiovascular diseases in mothers and later in adulthood in the breastfed child ILCA urges Member States to include skilled lactation care and counselling in Universal Health Coverage, and to invest in appropriate training of physicians, nurses, midwives and other health care professionals, as well as supporting the development of a skilled lactation care workforce. ILCA calls for increased investment in breastfeeding protection and support to prevent and reduce NCDs Non-Communicable Diseases. Thank you.

Honorable Chair, Esteemed Delegates Thank you for the opportunity to address the 77th session of the WHA. The International Lactation Consultant Association®, ILCA® urges Member States to strengthen preparedness for future pandemics so that that pregnant and lactating women and their children are not left behind in a future pandemic or excluded from vaccinations or treatments. Maintaining access to essential healthcare services during pandemics is imperative. Tailored actions should be proactively planned at all care levels to ensure continuity for breastfeeding support and no separation between mother and baby. Pandemic-related urgencies should not overshadow essential care for women, infants, and young children or compromise decent working conditions of healthcare professionals. ILCA is ready to support Member States in the development of a resilient continuum of care for pregnant and lactating mothers and their infants and young children.