In recent years, increased concerns about inappropriate donations of milk as emergency aid have led IBFAN to a major conclusion: the need for an integrated approach - including the existence of appropriate policies and guidelines, coordination, training, awareness raising among the general public, donors and the media, infant feeding programmes with a strong monitoring component and research.

An uncontrolled infant food pipeline

During the Kosovo crisis in 1999, Marie McGrath (Institute of Child Health/Save the Children UK) carried out research on infant feeding in Macedonia. She observed that :"There was no way of monitoring unsolicited donations of infant feeding items arriving by road... Much of the distribution of infant formula was untargeted, uncoordinated and unmonitored."

FOR EXAMPLE …

Unsolicited Donations	A significant proportion of the aid that arrived in Macedonia was unsolicited. NATO countries provided planes which worked on a ‘load up and go’ policy with little documentation other than tonnage. A large proportion of unsolicited donations also arrived by road.
Untargeted Distribution	Convoys of trucks containing humanitarian aid arrived and drove directly to the camps where items were distributed without a record being kept. The amount of infant formula distributed appeared to depend on the quantities in stock rather than on any estimated need.
Uncoordinated Actions	In spite of a UN early assessment in April 1999 which identified the lack of promotion and/or protection of breastfeeding and possible problems regarding the use of breastmilk substitutes in absence of education and information, no coordinated approach to address the issues was established in the field. It was only after the arrival of a United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) nutritionist in June 1999 that a significant improvement in coordination and monitoring of infant feeding programmes was noted.
Unmonitored Products	No system of monitoring ensured that the World Food Programme (WFP) guidelines advising against the general distribution of dried milk powder were respected.

Source : "Meeting the nutritional needs of infants during emergencies: recent experiences and dilemmas", M. McGrath, A.Seal, A.Taylor, L. Gostelow, Report of an international workshop, Institute of Child Health, London, November 1999. Save the Children, UK.