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Mr Chair,
Madame Director General, Distinguished Delegates to the Assembly,
We welcome
this opportunity to take the floor on behalf of Consumers International,
which, in 1979, was one of the founding members of the International
Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN). As a global network, IBFAN
is resolutely independent and steadily growing in numbers; there
are now almost two hundred member groups in over a hundred countries.
The
stakes for breastfeeding remain very high in all countries.
Just last week, there were headlines reporting that breastfed
children are not just healthier but SMARTER than those fed by
bottle. We have long known about the higher IQ but and also
that in all countries, breastfeeding can be a matter of life
and death for infants as it was recently for a 5-day old Belgian
baby who would have lived if he had not been bottle fed.
The
key role of the International
Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes and subsequent
Resolutions in protecting infant health world-wide has been
highlighted once again by recent warnings concerning the contamination
by Enterobacter Sakazakii of powdered infant formulas. This
caused the fatal case in Belgium in March and illustrates the
risks of artificial feeding in all countries and settings. These
cases show the urgent need for adequate labelling which gives
clear warnings about the risks and for independent checking
on product safety.
The Global Strategy (just adopted) , like the Code and its Resolutions,
is also universal.
IBFAN
is quite prepared to join WHO in this effort, and to throw its
weight behind the Global Strategy, but we need to know who else
will be involved in the implementation. Involvement by the commercial
sector is most likely to create conflicts of interest and may
undermine everything the Strategy tries to achieve.
In the
current euphoria over partnerships with the private sector,
some of you may wonder about IBFAN´s insistence on keeping
industry out of breastfeeding, about keeping commercial companies
out of all places where infant feeding decisions are made. But
we are consistent with WHA
Resolution 49.15 of 1996 and we have good reasons to be
wary. We have seen too many cases of industry interferenc. We
have seen the Nestle letters to the Ministers of Health lobbying
to reverse the effect of the Code. We have seen the PR handed
out in Latin America, stating the Code is fully complied with.
We know that is not true. We have seen the information to mothers
with conflicting messages by companies like Nutricia. Partnership
in the light of these cases is like inviting the fox to the
chicken coop. There can be no partnership in policy making.
We are
concerned, that the Strategy could be seriously eroded if its
implementation becomes privatized. We are pleased that the Global
Strategy highlights (para 44) one simple role for the for-profit
sector, and that is that "their conduct at every level
conform to the Code, subsequent Health Assembly Resolutions,
and national measures that have been adopted to give effect
to both". We ask industry to fully respect this in
order to avoid conflicts of interest between commercial objectives
and the public health agenda.
Finally,
Mrs Chair, for over twenty years, IBFAN has worked with WHO
and governments to protect, promote and support breastfeeding
by training in drafting, by monitoring and advocating Code implementation;
drawing public attention to activities which are incompatible
with the Code and Resolutions. Indeed, IBFAN’s contribution
to Code implementation and monitoring, was summed up by the
Director General when she attended IBFAN's celebration last
year marking the Code’s 20th anniversary: "without
the tireless efforts of groups like yours," she said,
"the Code might well never have been developed, or at least
not as effectively developed as it has been... …without
IBFAN’s help and encouragement, governments would not have
gone as far as they have in implementing the Code".
While it is good to hear those words, we also ask the Assembly
to note that doc A55/14 which is the progress report on the
Code now only has just one vague paragraph on Code implementation
and this does not do justice to the efforts of Member States
or those of IBFAN.
We hope
that the Global Strategy and our contributions to the debate
will ultimately serve the health and well-being of women and
children.
Thank
you for giving us the floor.
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