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LATEST NEWS! January 2010 meeting of the Executive Board of WHO: important outcome for breastfeeding
For information on WHO's Executive Board and the World Health Assembly, see: http://www.who.int/governance/en/index.html
- The World Health Assembly, is the supreme decision-making body for the World Health Organization, WHO; it is the highest policy-setting body in the field of international public health. The Assembly meets in Geneva in May each year, and is attended by delegations from all 193 Member States.
- The Executive Board holds its main meeting in January, to agree on the agenda for the next Assembly and discuss resolutions for forwarding to the Assembly. The Board is composed of 34 members technically qualified in the field of health and elected for three-year terms.
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2010 is a critical year for setting international policy on protecting, promoting and supporting breastfeeding, first at the Board and then at the Assembly. It is only once in every four years that Member States of the WHO discuss the in-depth report on the implementation of the Global Strategy on infant and young child feeding and of the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes. IBFAN members attended the January meeting of the Board as part of the delegations of Consumers International, which is a founding member of IBFAN, and of Save the Children. There was excellent cooperation with the delegate of the International Lactation Consultants Association, ILCA. Delegates followed the discussions on Infant and young child nutrition (IYCN) and on Prevention and control of non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
Highlights
This fact was echoed in the draft resolution presented by Peru, which was adopted with a key amendment on the role of continued breastfeeding for up to two years or beyond. (This was mistranslated as "continual breastfeeding " – an interesting concept): http://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/EB126/B126_R5-en.pdfConsumers International addressed the EB, emphasising that breastfeeding not only saves infant lives, but improves the quality of life for babies who do survive. The earthquake in Haiti showed how vulnerable babies are to the enormous risks of artificial feeding in emergencies, and the need to support breastfeeding mothers and avoid donations of baby milks and feeding bottles: Read More (give link to CI statement). Save the Children exposed the way that companies use irresponsible claims about health and nutrition benefits to sell more products, and called for greater controls on the marketing of complementary foods (Read more… and link to Statement).
- The discussion on Prevention and Control of NCDs was based on the WHO Secretariat's Report containing the annexed Set of Recommendations on the marketing of foods and non-alcoholic beverages to children, colloquially referred to as the "junk food code":
http://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/EB126/B126_12-en.pdfAlthough the EB did not adopt a resolution on this item, the Set of Recommendations was noted without being weakened or strengthened. The WHO Secretariat asserted the importance of governments taking the lead in policy making and emphasised that the Recommendations should not create a bias towards voluntary measures or self-regulation by companies. Consumers International addressed the EB on the subject of the Recommendations and underscored the importance of protecting children from the marketing of foods that contribute to overweight and obesity. Read more (see attached statement).
The upcoming 2010 World Health Assembly
At the 2010 Assembly in May, IBFAN will advocate for corrections and further amendments.
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Read more:
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