WHO Suppresses Critical
Debate
The following
article is reproduced from Baby Milk Action's Update
27 newsletter (May 2000). Links to letters related to
this article are given afterwards.
(Also see the
report WHO
Accused of Stifling Debate about Infant Feeding in the
British Medical Journal 20 May 2000)
Events at the
WHO/UNICEF Technical Consultation on Infant and Young Child
Feeding in Geneva in March 2000 raised concerns about whether,
and to what extent, the push for "private-public partnerships"
affects policies and prevents open and transparent debate.
Before the meeting,
some background papers, which had been prepared by invited
experts, were radically censored by WHO. Critical reflection
on corporate behaviour relating to marketing and policy
making was removed. In addition invited experts were told
that they could not discuss the issue of the appropriate
age of complementary feeding.
This caused so
much concern that twenty of the experts signed a statement
for inclusion in the official record: "The Technical
Consultants who have gathered here in Geneva to assist WHO
and UNICEF believe that it is essential for the strategic
plan for the first decade of the new millenium which will
result from our work, to reflect the current scientific
evidence and refer to the recommended duration of exclusive
breastfeeding as about six months. Such guidance...will
significantly improve the survival and the health and development
of all the world's infants and children."
Over the past
4 years, WHO representatives have made statements advocating
complementary feeding at 4-6 months at meetings of Codex
(the body that sets world food standards) in contradiction
with scientific evidence and with the 1994 WHA Resolution
which cites Ôabout six months. ' Industry has used WHO's
statements to push for a 4-6 months global standard and
to defend their promotion of early complementary feeding.
The next Codex meeting is in June.
| Following
these events WHO has revised its submission to Codex
Alimentarius - the body that sets world food standards,
proposing new wording for the Codex Standard on
cereal-based babyfoods: "by phrasing it positively
- and to call attention to the importance of not
promoting infant foods for use at too early an age:
The label shall clearly state that the product is
recommended for use from the age of about 6 months
and not before 4 months." WHO has also said
that it will submit a report of all the published
literature to the Cochrane Library for endorsement
in November 2000. This will be peer reviewed and
submitted to a small expert committee for final
endorsement. |
Letters of complaint sent to WHO
Technical Consultants statement
on recommended duration of exclusive breastfeeding
Ellen Sokol's letter about
changes to her paper on Implementation of the International
Code
Judith Richter's letter
about changes to her paper on Globalisation and Infant Feeding
|
