Distinguished delegates, representatives from government, civil society, and the United Nations,
Dear colleagues and friends,
Welcome to WHO.
It is exciting to see so many of you here, representing over 100 countries.
Breastfeeding is one of the most effective actions in the public health toolkit to protect the health of infants and young children.
But decades of aggressive marketing of breastmilk substitutes have led to significant reductions in rates of exclusive breastfeeding.
Lower income communities, and people living in war and fragile settings were particularly vulnerable.
That is what led to the introduction of the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes in 1981.
The Code helps to protect health, nutrition, and development in the first years of life, so that parents and caregivers receive sound medical advice, untainted by commercial interests.
It has been identified as a core obligation under the Convention on the Rights of the Child and other relevant UN human rights instruments.
Since the Code was introduced more than forty years ago, there has been clear progress.
Rates of exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months of life are now at the highest level since we started measuring it in the 1980s.
In the past decade, the prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding has increased globally by ten percentage points, reaching 48% of children under 6 months.
This is very close to the target of 50% set by the World Health Assembly by 2025, and is encouraging us to accelerate action to reach the 70% targets by the year 2030.
The impact of the Code is clear.
Rates of exclusive breastfeeding are 20 percentage points higher in countries that have legislation substantially aligned with the Code than in countries without it.
And continuation of breastfeeding in the first two years of life is more than twice as high when the legislation is substantially aligned with the Code.
Today, the Code is just as relevant as it was four decades ago, and probably even more so.
However, little progress has been made in high income countries. The Code has not been made into effective compelling legislation and, as a result, exclusive breastfeeding rates are stagnating.
When the Code was endorsed by the World Health Assembly in 1981, the primary concerns were about preparing infant formula with contaminated water in poor communities and overdiluting it when resources are limited.
But in recent decades, research has significantly expanded our understanding of the importance of breastfeeding for both mothers and children in both low-income and high-income settings.
We now know that inadequate breastfeeding increases the risks of childhood obesity, sudden unexplained infant death, leukemia, and maternal diabetes and cancers.
As our understanding of breastfeeding has evolved, so the nature of marketing has changed.
Traditional marketing techniques like billboards or images of cute babies on formula labels have largely been replaced by digital marketing strategies.
These include targeted ads on pregnant mothers’ mobile phones, clandestine participation in online baby clubs, or coaxing mothers to market formula to one another.
The industry has also expanded its product lines to include more and more specialized formulas and follow-up milks that compete with continued breastfeeding.
Over the past four decades, the World Health Assembly has repeatedly called on Member States to implement the Code, and has clarified or added new provisions.
These include clarifying the definition of breast-milk substitutes and recommending against free supplies to health facilities, against questionable nutrition and health claims, and against conflicts of interest generated by funding health professionals societies.
More than two out of three WHO Member States have enacted legislation that puts in place at least some of the provisions of the Code.
And yet there is still much more that needs to be done.
Legislation in most countries still leaves open many gaps and loopholes that allow for promotion that interferes with breastfeeding.
Only 32 countries have legislation that is considered to be substantially aligned with the Code.
And monitoring and enforcement mechanisms are inadequate in just about every country.
You have all come to this Congress with a commitment to strengthen your work nationally and globally on implementation of the Code.
You will learn from one another about evidence-based and effective actions to take.
You will develop national roadmaps and workplans.
And you will build networks with others in your region and throughout the world so you can share information and support one another through this journey.
Together with UNICEF, we look forward to working with you to strengthen advocacy, legislation, monitoring, and enforcement of the Code.
Let’s put a stop to the commercialization of our children’s health. It’s time to end exploitative marketing.
I wish you a most successful week and hope that you will find it as enjoyable as is it is productive.
I thank you.