Transcript Document

Infant Feeding in Emergencies
Celebrating the Innocenti 15
Florence, Italy 2005
Lída Lhotská
Geneva Infant Feeding
Association
Global Strategy and IFE
• § 23 points out the vulnerability of infants and
children in natural and human-induced
emergencies
• Emphasizes the need for appropriate infant and
young child feeding
• Highlights the dangers of uncontrolled distribution
of breastmilk substitutes and the need for
protection, promotion and support of breastfeeding
Why is IBFAN involved in IFE?
IBFAN put the protection
of breastfeeding in
emergencies on policy
agenda:
• prevent that any type of
emergency – manmade or
natural - is misused for
commercial purposes by
the infant food industry
• Code, incl. WHA 47.5
(1994) on donations, is
respected
Indonesia, January 2005
IFE Core Group - since 1999
IBFAN part of the Core group since its creation
SCN Working Group for
Nutrition in Emergencies
IFE Thematic Group
IFE Core Group:
ENN, IBFAN,
Terre des Hommes, CARE USA,
UNHCR, UNICEF,
WFP, WHO
Point of departure
Much depends on:
• Perceptions and understanding of
breastfeeding in the emergency setting
• Existing policies and their implementation
by key actors
• Levels of knowledge and practical skills
among those actors
Breastfeeding – the natural way?…OR...
DRC 2003, Kent Oage UNICEF
Discussion with flood
victimes (Venezuela, 2005)
…breastfeeding - the last resort?
• Still weak from the
birth, she was forced
to breastfeed her 21month-old child. "I
had to, I couldn't give
him anything else.“
[Mark Coultan, The Age,
New Orleans, September
6, 2005]
Approach adopted by the Core
Group
• policy development and implementation
• capacity building in programme management
• capacity building in practical knowledge and skills
which translate into implementation of
interventions that support optimal infant feeding
practices
Balkan crises brought to light how poorly and
piecemeal all the levels were addressed
first policy statements developed in 90s
Policy basis – Operational
Guidance
• Set of basic “dos” and “don’ts”
for emergency relief staff and
policy makers to ensure that
breastfeeding is protected,
promoted and supported in
emergencies.
• Key audience: all agencies
working in emergency
programs (30+ endorsements)
• Used as basis for institutional
policy updates (UNHCR, IFRC)
• Update will be available in
early 2006
Building Capacity
• Two training Modules to
date: “living documents”
• Key principles:
- Do no harm
- Do not interfere with
good practices -build on
them
- Provide active support
for breastfeeding
Assess
Look
Act
Do
Analyse
Think
Module 1
1- 2 hour course for all
emergency relief staff :
-policy makers
-managers
-logisticians
-coordinators and
-other non technical relief
workers
Update already once after
initial experience
Module 2 – Version 1.0
3-5 hour course
Recent experiences
• Tsunami (2004): Modules just published, copies
sent to the field, evaluation of the impact yet
unclear
• Pakistan (2005): 60 Module 1 and 300 Module 2
sent to UNICEF, ongoing interaction with the
field, training starting on 22 November, organized
by skilled and experienced staff
• Distribution over past 6 months:
Module 1: 146 copies (overall total over 1000)
Module 2: 713 copies
CD-Rom: 59 copies
Key challenges
• Putting IFE on the global agenda at a policy,
strategic and donor levels, and promotion of
appropriate use in the field
orientation workshop in 2006
• Interactive and timely engagement with the field
with follow up and feedback to identify fieldrelevant issues, learn from experiences and inform
further development of the modules
• Translation into other languages
• Module 3: Complementary Feeding