Despite IBFAN’s November 2017 Call to Action, Meridian Institute (MI) convened the Frankfurt meeting, a step in a process towards the initiative originally called Global Monitoring Mechanism (GMM). In analyzing the information contained in the report from the meeting, IBFAN used a simple discourse analysis:
- What is said
- How it is said
- And what has been left out
Based on this analysis, IBFAN continues to believe that this BMGF- sponsored “multi-stakeholder” initiative represents uncalled-for brokering of undue public-private entanglement at all cost. Were any public-private monitoring mechanism to result from it, it can be predicted to undermine decades of progress in building up legally-binding effective regulation of marketing practices, supported by industry-independent corporate accountability efforts.
The MI website remains silent. The report from the Frankfurt meeting has never been posted. Even its participants have not been revealed or whether any further meetings took place. Meridian only informs that it « is continuing to work with the full range of stakeholder groups involved in this process to determine next steps ».
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