IBFAN Regional News
Nestlé prepares £2 million
assault on UK baby food market
Nestlé has
launched a range of complementary ("weaning" foods)
in the UK. The Junior range of foods uses the Blue Bear logo
familiar in many other countries. A younger version of the bear
is used to promote Nestlé's Cerelac, for example. Nestlé
is planning to spend as much in the last four months of 1999
on its media campaign promoting the products in the UK as each
of its main competitors will spend in the whole year. A major
part of Nestlé's plan is direct marketing to mothers -
200,000 mothers are due to be mailed in October. Nestlé
received a business award in 1997 for its success in countering
the Danish Government's breastfeeding promotion campaign by using
such methods (see Boycott News 21).
Nestlé also markets infant formula and other breastmilk
substitutes in the UK, but has not yet embarked on a wide-scale
promotional campaign for these. It has been building links with
health workers, however, by offering them free gifts and sponsoring
events. Baby Milk Action fears that Nestlé will use the
database of names and links it is building to promote its breastmilk
substitutes and infant foods in the future. Nestlé was
asked by Baby Milk Action to give an undertaking that it will
abide by all relevant Resolutions of the World Health Assembly
in the UK now and in the future and pointedly failed to do so.
Baby Milk Action - Campaign for Ethical Marketing September
1999. See the BMA website at www.babymilkaction.org
The European IBFAN network expanding
The European IBFAN network now counts 46 members in 34 countries:
Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia Herzegovina,
Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France,
Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia,
Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia,
Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, U.K. Furthermore,
good contacts have been established in Austria and Turkey.
European IBFAN groups, both in developing and industrialized
nations, are all very actively working for better child health
and nutrition through the promotion of breastfeeding and the
elimination of irresponsible marketing of artificial infant foods.
Their activities include:
Monitoring projects carried out in collaboration with UNICEF
and national governments and training of Code monitors will ensure
continuation of the code implementation process.
Sensitization of community leaders, administrators and politicians,
training of health workers and the education of communities ensures
that strategies for the protection, promotion and support of
breastfeeding are becoming part of the web of society once again.
Linking with partner organisations such as the women's groups
and the consumer organizations as well as with government departments
and parliamentarians.
Development of draft laws based on the IBFAN/ICDC "Model
Law" for submission to their Ministries of Health. These
will serve as a basis for legislation to be included in national
food laws.
Production of newsletters, translation of vital documents
such as the International Code and several IBFAN publications,
distribution of IBFAN materials, celebration of World Breastfeeding
Week, development of mother-to-mother support groups and public
awareness campaigns are ongoing.
Implementation of the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative as
a fundamental aspect of breastfeeding promotion, is incorporated
into all training and advocacy programmes. Many countries have
National BFHI Coordinators or established BFHI committees and
there are Baby-Friendly Hospitals in Czech Republic, Croatia,
Turkey, Poland, Slovakia, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Russian
Fed., Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the Rep. of Moldovia.
LACMAT measures breastfeeding prevalence
IBFAN Argentine
has developed a data base for assessing the nutritional status
of children in day care centres for working women and the prevalence
of breastfeeding. This data base will be an official indicator
of infant feeding practices for day care centres in the country.
Visit LACMAT website at www.fmed.uba.ar/ibfan
[Photograph: A recent joint IBFAN Guatemala/IBFAN Argentina
training course held at CONAPLAM headquarters in Guatemala, March
16-19]
