United Nations Children's Fund – UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) have called on governments, donors, civil society, and the private sector to step up efforts to prioritize investing in breastfeeding support policies and programmes, especially in fragile and food insecure contexts. “As global crises continue to threaten the health and nutrition of millions of babies and children, the vital importance of breastfeeding as the best possible start in life is more critical than ever,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell and WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a joint statement on the occasion of World Breastfeeding Week. World Breastfeeding Week is an annual celebration which is held every year from August 1 to 7 across the world. This World Breastfeeding Week, under its theme “Step up for breastfeeding: Educate and Support”, UNICEF and WHO are calling on governments to allocate increased resources to protect, promote, and support breastfeeding policies and programmes, especially for the most vulnerable families living in emergency settings. During emergencies, including those in Afghanistan, Yemen, Ukraine, the Horn of Africa, and the Sahel, breastfeeding guarantees a safe, nutritious and accessible food source for babies and young children. It offers a powerful line of defense against disease and all forms of child malnutrition, including wasting, according to the UN agencies. “Breastfeeding also acts as a baby’s first vaccine, protecting them from common childhood illnesses,” reads the joint statement. Read: Bangladesh ranks 'first in the world' for breastfeeding Yet the emotional distress, physical exhaustion, lack of space and privacy, and poor sanitation experienced by mothers in emergency settings mean that many babies are missing out on the benefits of breastfeeding to help them survive. “Fewer than half of all newborn babies are breastfed in the first hour of life, leaving them more vulnerable to disease and death. And only 44 per cent of infants are exclusively breastfed in the first six months of life, short of the World Health Assembly target of 50 per cent by 2025,” according to the joint statement. Protecting, promoting, and supporting breastfeeding is more important than ever, not just for protecting our planet as the ultimate natural, sustainable, first food system, but also for the survival, growth, and development of millions of infants. “That is why UNICEF and WHO are calling on governments, donors, civil society, and the private sector to step up efforts to equip health and nutrition workers in facilities and communities with the skills they need to provide quality counselling and practical support to mothers to successfully breastfeed.” Read: Children want govt investment in education, health, protection: UNICEF UNICEF and WHO called for protecting caregivers and health care workers from the unethical marketing influence of the formula industry by fully adopting and implementing the International Code of Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes, including in humanitarian settings.   They called for implement family-friendly policies that provide mothers with the time, space, and support they need to breastfeed.

Call it a silver lining in the pandemic era. Bangladesh has been ranked first in the world in breastfeeding in a global survey. The World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative (WBTi) has congratulated Bangladesh for having achieved the status of 'green' nation, along with Sri Lanka. Only two countries out of 98 have achieved this status so far. Bangladesh got rank number one by scoring 91.5 out of 100. Read: Risk of Covid-19 infection from breastfeeding negligible: WHO This is based on its performance on 10 indicators of policies and programmes the WBTi uses to colour-code and rank countries. In an ascending order of performance, the colour codes are red, yellow, blue and green. “Bangladesh that scored 91.5/100 earned a green colour code, which implies the best level of performance. This has been the result of persistent efforts since 2005 to pursue improvements.  "Bangladesh demonstrated high-level commitment, led by its Prime Minister, towards health and nutrition of mothers and babies,” said Dr Arun Gupta, WBTi's global coordinator. Read Mexican women protest violence via art, breastfeeding Launched in 2004, WBTi assists countries to assess the status of and benchmark the progress in implementation of the Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) in a standard way. It is based on the WHO's tool for national assessment of policy and programmes on infant and young child feeding. Inadequate breastfeeding costs the global economy almost $1 billion each day. This loss is due to lost productivity and healthcare costs. In addition, it saves 700,000 lives annually. Read HC wants breastfeeding corners at workplaces, elsewhere  Breastfeeding majorly benefits child health, women’s health and prevents non-communicable diseases. This can only be achieved through galvanizing national actions to protect, and support every pregnant and lactating woman. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) is actively supporting the breastfeeding actions on a continuous basis and looks for further development of IYCF in Bangladesh. “In the latest report of 2020, several partners together did this assessment and we scored green code in five out of 10 indicators,” said Dr SK Roy, chairperson of the Bangladesh Breastfeeding Foundation, who led this effort of assessment. Read: UN for supporting breastfeeding for healthier planet WBTi was developed by the Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India in Delhi. So far, 125 countries have been trained to do this assessment and 98 have already completed assessments. Many have done it twice or thrice. First 10 countries include Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Cuba, Gambia, Bolivia, Turkey, El Salvador, Niger, Kenya, and Kuwait. India stands at 79, Nepal at 39 and Maldives at 19. WBTi assists countries to assess and analyse gaps, and then calls for actions to bridge the gaps. Read Pregnant, lactating women to get Covid jab: DGHS The WBTi process includes re-assessment every 3-5 years as an integral part to check the trends in the country. According to the findings of the 'Making A Difference: An Evaluation Report of WBTi in Mobilising National Actions on Breastfeeding', the more countries do reassessment, the better are the improvements in policy and programmes to remove the barriers women face while breastfeeding. Gains included infant feeding during emergencies, BFHI and funding, and the report showed if policy scores improved, it was associated with improved practices. Read 'India likely to have Covid shot for children by September' What WBTi does is to raise awareness about gaps and the need to generate action so that the governments and employers can come forward to bridge the gaps where needed. The WBTi tools generate colour-coded simple graphics, which are easily understandable by the policymakers to identify and prioritise areas for investment. For example, if an indicator is in ‘red’ it needs greater attention. Thus WBTi comes in handy to strengthen a country’s policy implementation and services. Read: Set up breastfeeding corners at all factories within 2 months: HC Some 41% of infants less than six months of age are exclusively breastfed, far short of the 2030 global target of 70%. According to WHO and UNICEF, every pregnant and breastfeeding woman and the baby require an enabling environment in order to begin breastfeeding within an hour of birth, breastfeed exclusively for six months and continue breastfeeding along with adequate food till two years or beyond.

UN has urged communities everywhere to “support breastfeeding for a healthier planet” as the World Breastfeeding Week is underway beginning Saturday.